My First Classical Music App

A few weeks ago I was thinking back to the way I learned about my composers as a child. Do any of you recall the Walt Disney record called Great Composers? I loved listening to the narrator tell stories of the composers along with musical excerpts.

Just last week I asked one of my young students if she had ever heard of Beethoven. Nope. Every year a little voice in my head reminds me that I should try to do a better job exposing my students to the music and lives of classical composers.

I was delighted this morning to discover a brand new app for iPad called My First Classical Music. You can purchase it from the app store for $2.99, oh you are going to want to buy this one!

Highly interactive, you can tap words to hear the narrator or tap images to listen to music excerpts. Children can learn about eight famous composers including Handel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and more. The content is presented with a playful sense of humor. For example, "Mozart is so famous, you can even find his head on the top of chocolates."

Another section within the app features 15 interactive pages of musical instruments. Click on the oboe to hear the duck theme from Peter and the Wolf or watch the giraffe play Saint-Saens on the cello. The recorded excerpts are high quality and children will enjoy the friendly narrations and entertaining animations.

Here is a short promotional video for a sneak peek. Scoot off to the app store, your students will LOVE this.