I will never forget the part in the animated film Fantasia where Mickey Mouse commanded the brooms to do all the cleaning for him. I saw this movie back when I was in grade school and it left a big impression. It was not the visuals that got me. It was the tempo, and highs and lows of the music. I remember how the tension grew as the magic went out of control.

Turn on the volume, click the You Tube link below, and listen with with us.

How magical and nostalgic it was to hear it again with my children for Music Appreciation/Composer Study. We’ve been listening to it the last two weeks while  our hands got busy with the current handicraft project, during paper sloyd/origami sessions, and whenever we drew or painted. I’m not particularly musical but I’m one to appreciate beautiful music when I hear it. Same goes for the children. They might not understand at first, but sooner or later they will feel and recognize beauty when they hear it. 

{my 3 year old with his busy little hands}

We follow Ambleside Online’s Composer Study. We don’t analyze it nor say anything about it, we simply listen. In listening, we’ve become sensitive to the background music in the elevator 🙂 and the film score that add emotion to a scene in a movie. One time, the children recognized a particular score of an animation we were watching (I think it was Monster’s University). All of a sudden, they hummed to it like they knew the rhythm by heart. 

No need to study it or break it down, one must simply appreciate. It all starts from there.

Meanwhile, we are busy with a new handicraft project 🙂