Eras of Music History Kit

The Eras of Music History Kit has been designed to make it easier to incorporate more music history into our students’ musical education.  This kit contains a series of PDFs designed to help students gain a better understanding of the music from the main four eras of Western music history: the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras.

The four “era booklets” are the core component of this resource.  Each booklet discusses the stylistic characteristics of the music, the evolution of the piano, and the popular forms composers used.  The back of the booklet features a list of major composers and a list of important works from the era.  The information has been carefully researched and written in a concise, clear way intended for students age 7+. This kit also contains a PDF for creating a timeline with composers’ pictures.

Here is a full list of what this kit includes:

  • Four PDFs of the era booklets (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern).
  • Four PDFs of the worksheets that correspond to the booklets.
  • A single-page PDF containing a handout with a brief overview of the four eras.
  • A single-page PDF of the historical context timeline.
  • A multi-page PDF for assembling a composer timeline to hang on the wall.
  • The license to be able to print from the PDFs as much as desired throughout your teaching career, as long as you are using the printed materials with your own students.

The resources within this kit are suitable for all kinds of settings:

  • Monthly group classes for your private students.
  • Music appreciation courses for homeschooling students.
  • Music history camps (see this blog post for more information).
  • At-home assignments for private piano students.

Stay tuned — in the future I plan to make available an additional set of booklets including the Renaissance Era and the Impressionistic Era.

Instructions:  After purchase, you will receive an email with links to download the “.zip” file.  Your computer will likely put the file into a folder called “Downloads,” but you will want to save the file to another location on your computer’s hard drive where you can easily find it again — so you can print from it for years to come.  When you double-click the “.zip” file, your computer will uncompress the file into a folder containing a series of pdfs.  The folder contains everything you need, beginning with the pdf of teacher tips, followed by the era booklets/worksheets, and then finally the history timeline pdf.

P.S. — As you might have guessed, this kit works great alongside a Great Composer & Their Music composer lapbook study.  🙂

Ages:7 through adult
Pages:26 pages total
Format:ZIP file containing multiple PDFs (email delivery)
Terms of Use:Studio License

STUDIO LICENSE
Permission is granted for the purchasing teacher to make unlimited printouts and use the digital files for the purpose of teaching their own students. Sharing printouts or the digital files beyond that purpose is not permitted. The purchaser is not permitted to resell the item(s), or alter, modify, or create derivative works.

“My favourite purchase from you is your Eras of Music History kit. It is a great resource!”

–Sara

Please note: This is a digital product, to be emailed after purchase.

Camp: “So, You Want To Be A Composer?”

“So, You Want To Be A Composer?” is a fun, creative camp designed to inspire and equip your students to compose their own pieces of music!  Students will leave camp knowing how to make a piece of music reflect its title, use motives, organize a piece using a form, and much more.  This camp is full of music listening, music making, and music composing.   Read more about when I held this camp in the summer of 2012 and view a peek at a student composition.

When you purchase, “So, You Want To Be A Composer?,” here is what you will receive:

  1. The complete Lesson Plans (21 pages), clearly outlining (with accompanying photos) what to do each day.  The appendices at the end include a list of alternative classical repertoire to study, instructions for making a musical instrument each day, and instructions for setting up a water xylophone.
  2. The “Elements of a Great Composition” workbook (16 pages) to print for each student, covering topics like motives/themes, form, accompaniment styles, and proper notation.
  3. An editable “Folder Cover” file (Microsoft Word docx), so you can insert the year and your studio’s name.  This sheet is for students to cut out and glue to the front of their camp folder (which will holds the workbook mentioned above).
  4. “Quick Composition” activities.
  5. Over 15 varieties of staff paper.
  6. …and more!

Here are some specifics about how the camp is designed:

  • Meets for 4 days, for 3 hours each day.
  • Intended for 1st or 2nd year students (including complete beginners); however, the lessons plans are easily adjustable for more advanced students.
  • A group of 3-4 students would not be too small.  A maximum of 8 students is recommended, due to the fact that you will need to borrow enough keyboards for the majority of your students to be able to be use them simultaneously during the free composition time.
  • At the end of the week, parents are invited for a Composer Showcase, where we let everyone browse the compositions and then enjoy a mini-recital of some of our favorite compositions from the week!

The various worksheets and composition activities included in this camp have an added benefit:  Many of the activities included in this lesson plan could be used during studio group classes, or even with some of your private students who are interested in composition.

Have you always wanted encourage and help your students to compose their own music, but have been unsure where to start?  The “So, You Want To Be A Composer?” camp just might be the solution for you!

Instructions:

  • After purchase, follow the instructions to download and save the file onto your computer’s hard drive. The file will download as an archived folder.  Unarchive the folder (your computer should do this automatically) and then you will be able open the folder to browse all the files inside.
  • The first file is the lesson plans.  The other files are various worksheets, composition activities, sample compositions, and staff paper — all mentioned in the lesson plans.

Questions?  Read the Terms of Use here.

Level:Beginner to intermediate
Pages:90+ pages
Format:ZIP file containing a folder of PDFs (email delivery)
Terms of Use:Studio License

STUDIO LICENSE
Permission is granted for the purchasing teacher to make unlimited printouts and use the digital files for the purpose of teaching their own students. Sharing printouts or the digital files beyond that purpose is not permitted. The purchaser is not permitted to resell the item(s), or alter, modify, or create derivative works.