Music History For Kids Free Music Curriculum
Introduction
Music History for Kids is a free online music history curriculum for music teachers and students to learn about music history. Each topic includes information about the music eras, composers, and instrumentation, along with song samples, activities, and critical thinking questions. This site helps teach music history to kids, who can easily access this as a music history lesson in the classroom. Students can work on their tablets or laptops to independently research or study. Music History for Kids includes free music history worksheets to enhance each lesson. Everything you need to learn about music history is in the same location, making learning music history easy.
How to Use Music History for Kids
Click on the links below to access each lesson. Each music lesson is divided into music eras or popular music genres. Buttons lead to pages about instrumentation and the composers of each period.
Why is Music History Divided Into Eras?
Music history spans thousands of years, so music historians divide it into eras to make it easier to see and discuss musical trends. The eras above apply to “Western Music History” and don’t take into consideration Indigenous American or Eastern music. “Western music” is any music from Europe and America that began with Ancient Greek and Roman culture.
Music eras are organized by time periods according to their musical characteristics. Examples of musical characteristics include melody, rhythm, texture, dynamics, and harmony. When musical characteristics change, usually due to changes in culture brought on by new inventions, tastes, or politics, historians mark a new era. The dates for each era are set, but that doesn’t mean composers stopped making that style of music on those exact dates. This is why we have “transitional” composers. Transitional composers are composers who overlap two music eras. Beethoven is a good example of a transitional composer. He started composing during the classical era and ushered in the Romantic era near the end of his life when he began going deaf. An example of the opposite is Brahms, a Romantic era composer. Brahms was considered a “traditional” composer because he leaned on past musical tastes and forms for his compositions.
How Are the Music Eras Given Names?
Musical eras tend to coincide with similar trends in art, writing, and architecture. Consider the difference between Baroque and Classical architecture. You can see from the pictures below that there is a distinct difference between the two. The music of the time also reflected these same preferences. Classical era music is melodically simple and structured compared to the highly ornamented Baroque era.
What is the difference between the two buildings above?
Sometimes music era names have to do with technological advances. An example of an era named for its many innovations is the Renaissance era. It was during this time that science made many significant discoveries, and the arts also flourished. “Renaissance” is a term that describes a burst of new art, philosophy, and scientific ideas in society. The Industrial Revolution was another significant change for society, and the music of this time, the Modern era, reflects these changes. Now that we have computers, music has changed again. Historians are beginning to label this the Postmodern era. Do you like this new name, or should we call it something else, like the Computer Era?
Critical Thinking
- As a class, brainstorm new names for our current music era. Why did you pick these names? Vote for the name you like.
- What is a transitional composer? Name an example of one.
- Based on the photographs of the two buildings, what characteristics do you think Baroque and Classical music have?
How Did Music Begin?
The Beginning of Music
Our ability to make music is distinctively human. We have found artifacts about music that date back thousands of years ago. The oldest known musical instrument is a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal flute. The flute was discovered in Divje Babe cave near Cerkno, Slovenia, and is made out of the bone of a bear with four pierced holes to make the pitches.
Notation
Notation is a way to communicate musical information visually. Modern-day notation shows the tempo (speed of the song), dynamic (loudness/softness of the song), rhythm (duration of notes), and pitches (the frequency of each sound), and may even have other performance instructions. Basically, notation is a visual map of the music. The earliest known musical notation is written on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet. It gives instructions and tuning for a hymn that honored the ruler Lipit-Ishtar.
You can click on the buttons above to find out more about music history, or download the worksheet below to be a music history detective and discover new and exciting facts about music history on this site.