Composer Parties

 

When I finished writing Composer Study Companion in 2019 I had no idea what a blessing it would be for our own family during the pandemic. I had been doing some fun activities with composers for over 10 years in the public schools and when we started homeschooling I was blessed to continue sharing my love and passion for music.

During the past 6 years of home educating I have found many parents unsure about how to implement composer study in their home. Simply playing and listening to music isn't enough in my opinion. A student needs to develop a relationship with the life of the composer. (Read more!) Biographies are the key to this step - enter the Thomas Tapper biographies!

https://amzn.to/3AOjXzm

After finding these biographies I realized the missing component for many parents was knowing WHAT music to use during the study. I have my own favorites by each composer and pulled some of those as well as the popular pieces by each composer. I compiled these listening pieces with activities in the book Composer Study Companion! 

https://amzn.to/3BQlwhz

As a Charlotte Mason educator, I love that there are curriculum options out there where people study the same artists and composers at the same time. I wanted to do this as well with my local homeschool friends so I offered to throw a free "Composer Party" at the end of each term to celebrate the lessons we complete at home!

In our party, we do a music learning activity (something theory based like rhythm.) This month was an introduction into sixteenth notes! We made a beat chart on paper and then created a "menu" with food names that match the rhythm!

You can see the beat sections that we created on the paper by folding it 4 times. It creates a sheet of 16 even squares!

 

Here is Christian's example!

We also have an "active listening" activity where movement is involved! This month we studied Verdi and used our rhythm sticks as hammers during the Anvil Chorus! (This is the Glen Miller Orchestra version!)

Past active listening activities in our parties have been bouncing tennis balls to the steady beat, playing a rhythm band instrument to the music, and finding sticks in the park to use as our pretend violin just like Haydn did as a boy! (We also hit them together to keep the steady beat to the recording!)

I have all these activity suggestions and directions in my Composer Study Companion group on Facebook! I would love if you would consider purchasing the guide and participating with us in our online format! You can even join in live classes in The Charlotte Mason Co-Op! I love sharing extra information in our lessons online. If you have any trouble joining the group on Facebook let me know!

During our party I also like to end with a folk dance! There is so much joy in community dancing! We had lots of laughter after playing Sasha!

Thank you for reading! I also wanted to share a link with you in case you are wondering what the online classes are like for our composer study at The Charlotte Mason Co-op! I've created an unlisted link of our most recent class where we did the rhythm activity and anvil chorus listening at the party! Have your children pull up a chair and participate with the other families in the co-op! Please reach out to me at homeschoolraeannagoss@gmail.com if you have any questions or if I can help you implement more composer study into your homeschool!