One of the things that I have really been enjoying is teaching my daughter Music appreciation. She absolutely has a passion to learn the history of music. If you are looking for something that teaches music appreciation, I highly suggest checking out Music Appreciation I by Memoria Press. This is geared for children in grades 3 – 5, but can be used with older children. We received the Music Appreciation Book 1 and a Music Appreciation Audio CD Companion (2 Discs) for this review.

Music Appreciation I takes a look at western classical music over the course of time. It makes you look at many different aspects, such as: different pieces, historical context, introducing foundational music concepts, rhythm, pitch, form and melody. It really gives you a full understanding behind the music in general. There are 26 chapters in this book. Each chapter has you listen to different tracks on the CD. Now they tracks aren’t the full pieces as your getting a glimpse and listening for certain things. This is set up to be in chronological order. You can also find review tests included in this book.

How We Used This: 

At first my intentions were to do a chapter a day four days a week for music, but as we got into this more we slowed down just a little bit more to actually get something more out of it. We averaged about a lesson a week maybe two depending on what we were working on.

On the first day we took the time to read the chapter. We went over what the chapter focused on. We listened to the tracks that went to that listen. We also found many of the full pieces on youtube and listened to them. We took extra time to go over the tracks to really listen to what the point of what they were trying to teach. Let me tell you when you do this, you really learn to appreciate music a whole lot more. You actually can get a feel and emotion from listening to this music.

So let me use an example of one of my daughters favorites: Bagatelle No. 25 in A Minor (Fur Elise). This was a piece that was written by Ludwig van Beethoven. The chapter starts out with a little history. You learn that Beethoven was considered one of the greatest pianists who ever lived. It tells a little bit about him and then you move on to musical concept. In this particular chapter you learn about the 12 musical notes that are commonly used in music. It talks about pitch and letter names for the notes. Then you listen to the different notes. It talks about scale so you listen to it going up and down. Then you learn a little more about the music piece. What’s interesting is that no one knows who Elise was or why her name became a title. It wasn’t known during Beethovens life, it was not found until 40 years after his death. This is one piece that has been the most popular and most recognized. This is one that is very easy to play, and while playing with the left hand you are using arpeggios. So as you go on  your listen to bits and pieces of it. The piece itself is rondo. The pattern is A B A C A…..you learn about patterns earlier in the book, so if you have read the book you would understand what I meant by pattern. Once your finished with the chapter  it gives you facts to remember. It highlights the most important topics from this chapter. You also have a listen again section, where you try to recognized different things. For example we were to recognize when a pattern was played, listen for arpeggios, and more.

By giving you a glimpse as to how the chapters are set up, gives you a picture of what we are learning. So how we extended this some was we read the chapter and went over the tracks. Another day we spent time on youtube listening to the whole piece. We used another day to go back over the listen again section. We listened to the tracks again to make sure we were listening for the patterns and whatever it was that we were learning…once we had that down pat, we listened to the whole piece to see when we could identify what we have learned.

Roughly after every four chapters you have a review test. It goes over the stuff you have learned. We did the first one so we could have it for our review. We decided that we would go over the review tests when we were finished with the book. To be honest, we have been so fascinated with what we are learning that because they are at the back of the book and not following the chapters I actually forgot they were there. I know my daughter is getting the information because I sit and study this with her. We do it together.

Another one of my daughters new favorite pieces the Toy Symphony. It was actually played with the middle of 18th century toys: ratchet, toy cuckoo, nightingale, small drum, toy trumpet, a whistle and more….We found a 30 minute performance on YouTube…now they may not have had the exact same toys from that time period but there were things that sounded exactly like them. It was really neat listening to the orchestra play and at times you hear the toys. My daughter thought that was the coolest.

My Overall Thought: 

I am so very impressed with Music Appreciation I. I didn’t really know at first if this would be a good fit for my daughter, she loves all types of music. Once we got started the curiosity got going for her. She wasn’t satisfied listening to just pieces of the music that was talked about. She wanted to her the full pieces. It gives me such joy in watching her want to learn as much as she can. The chapters are not long at all. You could take as much time as you need with them, to listen again and again until you understood. The only thing I wish was different was that you could hear longer clips of it together…especially when you are listening for patterns. It would have been nice to listen to them in one piece. I had just as much fun finding them and listening to the full pieces as well. This really gives you a whole new appreciation for music.

Another program I would like to check out by Memoria Press is Latina Christiana Complete set. It is a set that teaches younger, beginning students Latin grammar. You don’t have to have a background in teaching to use this!

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