Peter, a Wolf, and Thomas the Tank Engine

I loved Prokoviev's "Peter and the Wolf" as a child, but didn't expect my 2-year-old to be interested in it for a few years. However, we heard it on the radio one time and he loved it, so I bought the CD for him. He still listens to it with fascination a year later. Here it is, with Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Carnival of the Animals (we don't have this CD, but it is now on my list of CD's to get). "Peter and the Wolf" helps kids learn the instruments in the orchestra, and it also helps them pay attention to melodies, as each character has its own melody played by a different instrument. After my son had been listening to "Peter and the Wolf" for a while, he began to notice on his own that the characters in the "Thomas and Friends" episodes each have their own theme tunes. "Hey, that's Edward's song," he pointed out one day, and upon listening I realized that that tune did play every time Edward was puffing along the track. EmilytheCutiePie has most of the themes on YouTube with videos of the engines. Show these videos to your Thomas-obsessesed child so he knows how the themes go, and then have him notice whenever one of them plays during the episodes.

Getting kids excited about classical music

I started playing violin when I was 3 years old, so classical music has always been a part of my life. My parents fostered my interest in classical music by playing it frequently in our house. I enjoyed that, but some of my more memorable experiences involving classical music were when we did more than just listen to it. My mom would play "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Grieg for us, and called it "The Sneaky Song". She would chase us around the house as it played, starting slow and quiet and ending in a frenzy of shrieks from us kids as she caught up with us. Here's a video of Grieg's piece.



Another piece we liked was "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" by Benjamin Britten. We made up a whole story to it, involving orphans, fairies, and princesses, which we would act out as the music played. The video to this is in two parts on Youtube:





If you have never heard Britten's piece, I would recommend it to everyone, not just young people. It is a set of variations on a theme by Purcell, each one played by a different instrument or section in the orchestra.

Of course, classical music is full of pieces which can encourage a child to use his imagination. So many of them tell stories or create scenes. I am still on the lookout for a CD which puts some of these pieces together for children.

The Beginning of a blog by a violin teacher in Alexandria, Louisiana

Hello to all. I'm new to this blogging thing. I thought that I'd get my feet wet by showing a video of someone playing a popular soundtrack piece and explain how to play it. In the future, I'll do the explanations via video. For the time being, I'll find some pieces I want to learn and teach you.

Without further ado, here's a guy playing a violin rendition of Steve Jablonsky's "Arrival to Earth" from the movie Transformers.