Introducing Music Appreciation

It is never too early (or too late) to learn music appreciation.  Music appreciation is one of the things you might want to learn as well as teach your kids during these times of community quarantine. There are countless resources online.

For starters, there is The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, which familiarizes listeners with the different instruments of the orchestra:

Then there are two works that demonstrate the capacity of music to tell a story, paint a picture, and stir up imagination and feeling.

One is Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.  There are many recordings of it on Youtube. I am deliberately posting one with no accompanying animated  visuals to highlight how effective the music alone is in telling the story. (Warning, though: some younger children might be frightened at the menacing theme representing the wolf.)

Another is Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, often combined with a reading of humorous verses by Odgen Nash. Younger children may not get the humor of the verses, but both children and adult listeners will be amused by how appropriate the melodies are for the animals they are intended to represent.

It is best to listen to these pieces together with your children so you can enjoy them together and talk about them afterwards.  It will be the start of an intense lifelong enjoyment of music of all genres.