Guide to Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

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 Composers through the years have taken a child's interest into learning about the instruments of the orchestra. Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf, Britten wrote Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, even more recent composers like John Lithgow and Paul Dooley have created inspiring works to introduce these musical families!

In this post, I'll give an outline of how you can use Britten's guide in your homeschool! 

First, play a piece of music from Henry Purcell (a composer from the 1600s!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVivtti-n-w


This theme inspired Benjamin Britten (a composer from the 1900s!) to compose themes using each instrument and each family of the orchestra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbvhU22uAM

My suggestion is not to listen to the entire piece in one sitting. Use visuals of the orchestra in sections like this:


Then, listen to each family with Britten's guide. The time stamps below coordinate with the video of the symphony orchestra above.

0:06 - 0:27 Full Orchestra 0:27 - 0:50 Woodwinds (flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinet and bassoon) 0:50 - 1:10 Brass (French horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba) 1:10 - 1:27 Strings (violin, viola, cello, double bass and harp) 1:27 - 1:43 Percussion 1:43 - 2:01 Full Orchestra 2:01 - 2:33 Flute and Piccolo 2:33 - 3:35 Oboe 3:35 - 4:19 Clarinet 4:19 - 5:10 Bassoon 5:10 - 5:44 Violin 5:44 - 6:44 Viola 6:44 - 7:55 Cello 7:55 - 8:53 Double Bass 8:53 - 9:41 Harp 9:41 - 10:32 French Horn 10:32 - 11:01 Trumpet 11:01 - 12:14 Trombone and Tuba 12:14 - 14:01 Percussion 14:11 - 16:49 Fugue

Print off photos of each instrument or look up videos explaining each instrument of the family to learn more! I would spend one day focusing on woodwind, one day on brass, one day on strings, and one day on percussion!

After students have explored these families, here are a few additional activities!

Instrument safari - this computer game is based on the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Carnegie Hall unit study on instruments and conducting

and this visual representation of the piece is a lot of fun:



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