Music Appreciation for Homeschoolers
I want to share with you something I’m really excited about using! It is a brand new music appreciation curriculum for homeschoolers: 21 Lessons in 20th Century American Music Appreciation. I just recently learned about it and I can’t wait to use it in our homeschool! I just had to share this with you all now because it is on sale at 50% off until the end of August with coupon code: August50. Don’t miss out!!! Here is some more info on this awesome looking music curriculum. (Contains affiliate links)
About the Author: Gena Mayo
Gena Mayo is a homeschooling mom of 8 children. She has been married to her best friend Michael for 17 years. She has always homeschooled her kids, and her oldest in now in high school, but still homeschooled!
Gena studied music in college, earning a Bachelor of Music Education (choral emphasis) from Baylor University and a Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy from Texas Women’s University. She taught for 5 years in the public school system (junior high choir and elementary general music) and has taught early childhood music and movement classes for babies through 7 years old since 1998. In recent years she has also taught private voice lessons, musical theater classes, and a high school voice class.
Gena has extensive performing experience: in musicals, choirs, show choir, opera, and as a contemporary Christian soloist, pianist, and worship team member at church. She has a passion for teaching music for all ages and truly enjoyed writing this 20th Century American Music Curriculum and teaching it last year at her kids’ homeschool co-op.
Gena is also a blogger and has been blogging at I Choose Joy! (http://ichoosejoy.org) since 2005. You can find lots of homeschool helps, reviews, and giveaways there.
She plans to continue this Music Appreciation series by writing Lessons in 20th Century European and South American Music Appreciation, Lessons in 20th Century Popular Music Appreciation, Lessons in Baroque Music Appreciation, Lessons in Classical Music Appreciation, and Lessons in Romantic Music Appreciation.
The 36-page ebook is delivered in digital format to make it easier to follow the links to hear and watch the music. You will find 21 lessons, which can be taught to students in grades K-12 in only minutes a day. Also included are 2 notebooking sheets so the students can record what they are learning.
Endorsements for 21 Lessons in 20th Century American Music Appreciation by homeschool moms:
Many of us find music units to be difficult to incorporate into our already packed homeschool days, but this is one you’ll want to include! Gena is a homeschooling mom who understands, and she’s created a curriculum that is creative, informative, and designed for you to be able to accomplish in just a few minutes each day. If you have a group teaching time in your homeschool day, 21 Lessons in 20th Century American Music Appreciation is a perfect fit!
~Kendra Fletcher
I wasn’t planning on teaching music appreciation this year, but when I saw the lesson plan for 21 Lessons in 20th Century American Music Appreciation, I changed my mind. Truth is, I’m teaching it because I want to learn it! The lessons explain the emergence of various music genres and include YouTube video links to bring the story of contemporary music to life. This is a perfect unit study for a family or co-op including all ages or a high school elective that your kids will LOVE completing. I would write more, but I’m off to start learning now!
~Melanie Wilson, homeschooling mother & blogger
As a music educator and home school mom, I am so thankful for this thorough study through 20th century music. Gena has made it so simple and fun for me to walk my children through many genres of wonderful, rich music. I highly recommend this curriculum for all ages!
~Happi Lynn Berger
This is a fantastic overview of American music in the 20th Century! Gena makes it easy to add just a little music to your study, or go deeper with plenty of resources and ideas for more interested or older students.
~Michelle Habrych
It probably should have only taken me an hour or two to proofread this curriculum. It ended up taking me much longer, simply because I kept getting caught up in the music as I double-checked the links! Some of the music brought back memories, some was just downright fun, and some music was even new to me. Gena Mayo has done a fantastic job of pulling together the music, the artists, and the educational aspects.~Sheri Blome
This eBook is a must for any parent wishing to grow their child’s understanding of music (or their own) The best thing about this eBook is all the links! You get to hear the very music that you are learning about. It was fun to connect songs to composers, too. I’ve grown up with so many of these great songs and never realized who the composers were. Excellent book! Thanks for writing it and sharing it with us all, Gena!
~Kristi Clover
Thank you, Gena Mayo, for this amazing resource! She has combined her love of music with her education background to provide non-musical homeschool moms like me an easy, fun, and effective way to teach Music Appreciation. 21 Lessons in 20th Century American Music Appreciation introduces students of all ages to popular musicians, various styles of music, and music history. As a busy homeschooling mother, my favorite aspect of this curriculum is the fact that Gena has done all of the work for me! No need to buy special equipment or spend hours looking for supplemental resources. All I need is this wonderful curriculum and YouTube and I can give my children a thorough introduction to music appreciation.
~Heather Bowen, homeschooling mother of two and blogger
Gena has created a wonderful tool to introduce 20th century American composers to young people. I love how she links websites and online videos throughout her syllabus, making it simple to access some of the composers’ greatest works. This curriculum is easy to teach and easy to follow. My boys participated in a prototype class as Gena developed the syllabus and they thoroughly enjoyed it.
~Lena Marsh
There are many ways you can utilize this curriculum. It can easily be used by a homeschooling family (and not just when you are studying America or the 20th Century!). As I mentioned above, it was specifically written for and I used it with kids in Kindergarten through 12th grade. I would recommend using one lesson per week. On Monday you can read about the composer/style and listen to one piece. On the other days of the week, listen to other pieces. All of that information is included in the curriculum. Depending on your students’ ages, have them fill out the included notebooking pages as well.
If you like to homeschool with the Charlotte Mason method, you can take this curriculum and spread it out even longer. Just pick one composer and listen to his music all month! There are some incredibly amazing pieces of music in the 20th Century; they are worth listening to over and over!
And, of course, this curriculum works great for use at a homeschool co-op. If you would like to do that, please contact Gena for a license. The purchase of the ebook provides use and copies for only one family or classroom.
To get a half credit for high school, I recommend using 21 Lessons in 20th Century American Music Appreciation (plus additional reading from the included bibliography) for five hours a week for one semester.
Table of Contents:
Introduction to 20th Century Music
Lesson 1……………………………………………………………….John Phillip Sousa (Marches)
Lesson 2……………………………………Scott Joplin (Ragtime) and Fats Waller (Stride Piano)
Lesson 3………………………………………………………………………………..……..Blues
Lesson 4…………………………………..….Jazz (Dixieland, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington)
Lesson 5…………………………………… ……George Gershwin (Folk Opera: Porgy and Bess)
Lesson 6…………………………..…………..Gian Carlo Menotti (Amahl and the Night Visitors)
Lesson 7…………………………………..….….George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue and songs)
Lesson 8…………………………………………..……………………………….Big Band Music
Lesson 9…………………………………………..……………………………….…..Charles Ives
Lesson 10…………………………………………………..……………………….Aaron Copland
Lesson 11………………………………………………………..…………………….Ferde Grofe
Lesson 12…………………………………………………..….…….Musical Theater Before 1965
Lesson 13……………………………………………………………….Rock and Roll Beginnings
Lesson 14………………………………………………………..…..Irving Berlin and Cole Porter
Lesson 15………………………………………………………..……….…Jazz (Bebop and Cool)
Lesson 16…………………………………………………Folk Music (Woody Guthrie and others)
Lesson 17…………………………………………….…………………………..Leonard Bernstein
Lesson 18………………………………………………………..…………………..John Williams
Lesson 19……………………………………………………………….……….………John Cage
Lesson 20…………………………………………………………………………….…Philip Glass
Lesson 21…………………….Musical Theater after 1965 (Stephen Sondheim and Stephen Schwartz)
Appendix……………………………………………………Further Study and Notebooking pages
