Music Appreciation that comes straight to your inbox!

Easily introduce your kids to the magnificent music of the classical music eras with Sound Bites, our daily music appreciation program that comes straight to your inbox!

How it works:

You’ll receive a simple email each weekday that features the music of the day. One click from that email will hop you right over to youtube so you can watch & listen to a video of the featured piece. Easily accessed on your phones, tablets, and computers, you will finally be able to include a consistent music appreciation component to your days, without any planning required.

You can listen during breakfast or lunch, during chores, or perhaps during some quiet drawing time. However you want to implement it, your daily Sound Bites will be ready when you are.

Carefully curated videos offer a close-up view of instruments, singers, art, nature, and places where the arts happen all over the world!
Students will naturally see that music is for everyone, thanks to the inclusion of videos depicting musical performances by men and women from all over the world, with different skin tones and nationalities.
Students will effortlessly become familiar with the best-known musical pieces from each era (We’ve done all the research for you!)
Sound Bites will be delivered straight to your inbox, making it easy for you to watch and listen on your phone, tablet, or computer!

Better than a collection of CDs, Sound Bites takes full advantage of the interconnectedness that music offers by bringing video into the mix. In this collection your children will get to see instruments being played by skilled musicians, get to observe different sized groupings of players, and various types of singers. The variety of settings in these videos are stunning, and include some of the most gorgeous opera houses and concert halls around the world. Many of the videos include beautiful art, or scenes from nature. In some cases the videos show authentic instruments from the musical era in a way that we rarely get to see today. Some of the music is presented as part of an opera, or in period costume, or includes other historical details or creative items. The video element allows this program to create a much fuller form of music appreciation than simply listening. Instead, you get to see, experience, and become aware of musical performance and presentation in a wide variety of beautiful and inspiring ways!

Many of the selections in Sound Bites are also arranged to coordinate with seasons and holidays, so you’ll get to enjoy music that fits with the rest of your life. This is why I am only accepting enrollment in Sound Bites for a small window of time. (Northern hemisphere seasons are followed.)

Sound Bites: Meet the Orchestra $36
Start when you want

Introduce your children to the many instruments of the orchestra in this fun and engaging program. Videos include history, how instruments are made, and getting to enjoy the instrument within many different genres of music, including video games, movie soundtracks, pop music, and more! You and your kids will be delighted and surprised week after week by this eclectic journey.

This 36 week program will familiarize your family with Brass, Woodwind, Percussion, and String Instruments.

Start anytime you like within a year of purchase.

Want to take it slow?

You can also choose to learn about the instruments one section at a time. This is the same content as is in the full year program, just split up.

Brass: 6 weeks, start when you want $10

Woodwinds: 9 weeks, start when you want $10

Percussion: 12 weeks, start when you want $15

Strings: 6 weeks, start when you want $10

“Thank you! We started with the saxophone videos this morning and soon had an orchestra of straws (I have 4 kids)”

~Julisa

“Thank you! We started with the saxophone videos this morning and soon had an orchestra of straws (I have 4 kids)”

~Julisa

FAQs

Can I see a sample?

Sure! Click here to see one of the Sound Bites emails. As you’ll see, they are a very simple format. In some emails I add some information about the composer or piece, or just share something I thought about it. In other emails I simply introduce the piece and that’s all. In cases where there is sung music, I’ve tried to provide English translations/lyrics. For religious pieces (such as The Messiah) I have included the Bible verses/lyrics for that piece.

How long does Sound Bites take each day?

We have pieces are short as a couple minutes, on up to some longer than a half hour. That being said, you do what works for you. Obviously the shorter ones are pretty easy to find time for, but for the longer ones, you can choose to play it in the background while doing other things, or only listen to part of the piece.

The main things I want to encourage you about are:

* Keep it enjoyable for the children. Find a way that works for your ages and stages. Let music be a gift and a joy in your home!

* Some is better than None.

* It doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful.

* Just begin.

I don’t know if I have time to use this.

Sound Bites is ready when you are. The emails should be delivered Monday-Friday around 6am eastern time, but you can watch & listen when it works for you. Weekends, car rides, while eating or doing chores–whatever works for you will work for Sound Bites.

How is this arranged? Is the music presented in chronological order, or by composer?

Yes! Baroque & Classical, Romantic & Modern, and Jazz Sound Bites all follow a chronological order where we learn about one composer at a time.

Sound Bites: Baroque & Classical does two semester cycles of the greatest composers and works of these time periods. So, you’ll see works by Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, and others both for a series during first semester, then again for another series during second semester.

Sound Bites: Romantic Era generally spends about a week per composer, going in chronological order, with extra weeks spent on ballets or other special performances that need extra time.

Sound Bites: Jazz follows chronological order where we get to know 15 major jazz composers. First semester we will spend a week on each, and then revisit each one again for a week during second semester.

What time period does Sound Bites cover?

Sound Bites: Baroque & Classical includes the Baroque era (1600-1750) and the Classical era (1750-1820.)

Sound Bites: Romantic & Modern Era covers approximately 1800-early 1900s.

Sound Bites: Jazz covers the American jazz era in the 1900s.

Do the links expire? Will the videos always be available?
What if I want to re-use the emails next year?

The links in the emails are to YouTube videos, so they are available when you are, and won’t expire, per se. For the most part, I selected videos with lots of views that have been around for awhile, which made me think they had an excellent chance of staying right where they are. That being said, I don’t have control over whether or not the owner of the video takes it down, so there is a chance that it might not be there any more. If you find that a video is no longer available, please let me know so I can update it.

Certainly you can save and re-use your emails and enjoy the same music over and over again.

Do I have to have youtube? Is this music downloadable? Do I have to have wifi or a data plan?

What you need to make this work: Email and access to youtube.

The videos are meant to be enjoyed on youtube. I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies….wait….yes I do….ahem. What I MEANT is, I have no idea if you can download youtube videos or not, but that isn’t the design of this program.

Wifi/data: You’ll need to use whatever mechanism you normally use for accessing email and youtube.

I have kids with their own email addresses. Do I have to pay to sign each child up for Sound Bites?

No way! One enrollment in a section of Sound Bites covers your whole immediate family. If you have kids with email addresses that you want to receive Sound Bites directly, check the instructions in the Sound Bites portion of your membership area.

What’s your return/refund policy? If after the first week you are dissatisfied with Sound Bites, contact me for a refund. Erica@EnrichmentStudies.com

Hi Erica,

We had so much fun with day one of sound bites! I have to tell you that Vivaldi Four Seasons has always been one of my favorites compositions and when you sent that as day one I was thrilled. Then, I watched the amazing youtube clip with the kids while we were eating breakfast…and I have to tell you that while I have listened to this piece of music at least a hundred times…I never took the time to watch it being played live at the same time.

It was So. Much. Fun to watch and so incredibly beautifully done it literally brought tears to my eyes. My daughter asked if we could watch Autumn next! And of course we did.

Today I had to play [Sound Bites] in the background while we were doing math and it was also so lovely and relaxing that math went much better than usual.
Thank you….thank you.

And God Bless,
~ Regina

Dear Erica,

I know I mentioned how much we are enjoying Sound Bites, but I forgot to mention that we not only enjoy the music, but the imagery for most of the selections has been MAGNIFICENT. Not only has Sound Bites been an auditory joy, but visually as well. What more could a home school classroom ask for??? So once again, thank you for making art, music and history SO easy to enjoy and incorporate into our daily routine.

Sincerely,

Claudia

We are so appreciative of the daily Sound Bites! We miss them some days but its been a fantastic way for me to introduce regular doses of such intoxicating music to our days. And it calms (or enthralls) my 4 kids during those crazy (or dull) moments in life :). You are truly enriching our lives with all of your resources….

~Bonny

“Sound Bites is our breakfast activity each morning and my 2 and 3 year olds are LOVING it! Some days they want to see the videos, some days they ask to see it played on the TV (I usually just set my phone on an easel to play), and some days they ask for it to play through our diffuser’s speaker. They’ve asked me to pause it until they’ve finished eating so they can dance, they’ve wiggled in their seats, they’ve compared it to other versions they’ve heard (especially if it was featured on Little Einsteins). I signed up, originally, not expecting a lot of interaction from them. Mostly just wanted to get an idea of the program before implementing more structure in our homeschooling in the coming years. However, regularly they tell me what instruments they see, discuss how pieces make them feel, discuss different features of the piece (even using technical terms-crescendo, allegro, etc). They even tell their father about pieces that really speak to them at night during supper, so much so that he has me forward him the videos at work so he can watch before he gets home so he can join the discussions!

To sum this novella up, thank you for this program! It has added such richness and depth to our homeschool and has taught me to never underestimate my children!

~Tracy”

“We LOVE our Sound Bites, and after 25 years of buying various homeschool stuff and wasting (regretfully) more money than I should have, this…. is one option I feel has been worth every single penny and I don’t want to miss a single day.”

~Regina

“I printed off some pages to use for my high schooler so we can start counting this time for credit, and your check box chart makes it easy to see how much we’re getting done. I have been using the sound bites in the morning when he writes in his journal. Thanks so much for making incorporating classical music into our homeschool day so easy!”

~Annette

“It is so perfect for high school, I just play it in the morning as we are getting ready. Sometimes I talk about the piece, sometimes not.”

~Audra

Join Sound bites! Here’s what’s currently available:

Baroque & Classical (30 weeks, start when you want) $30

Romantic & Modern (33 weeks, start when you want) $33

Jazz (30 weeks, start when you want) $30

Meet the Orchestra (36 weeks, start when you want)

100 Women Composers (20 weeks, start when you want) $20

Classical Meets Cartoons (4 weeks, start when you want) $10

Sing a Song of America (4 weeks, start when you want) $10 with coupon code SING

After registering for Sound Bites, go join Daily Art, too. Get the best of both worlds!

“Sound bites is perfect! I turned it on while everyone was doing math. We immediately agreed that “Summer” did not sound like summer to us, which led to a need to listen to every other season and see if we found them, in our opinion, to be a better representation of the actual season. We listened to 40 minutes of music, all while doing math, with interesting discussion/evaluation happening while we listened. We are in love!

Thank you for making something that is so easy and that works!”

-Andrea

“I wanted to thank you for the classical music Sound Bites. It’s so nice, my 9 year old daughter Autumn asks to listen to them on her own. It’s so exciting to see her get interested in music. It is some thing she looks forward too. Thank you again for this!”

~Roxann

“As a musician who does not have the time to figure this out for my own kids/family, THANK YOU! This is soul-filling for me. I am thankful for you, that you have created these resources, and that you made them affordable!”

~Erin

“I am REALLY enjoying this opportunity for ‘a change of pace’ in our day. It is enriching my life as well as the kiddos! Thank you so much!”

~Dorothy

“I LOVE that we can just ‘listen to school’ purposely or as background. We are already having some great discussions about the music and the emotions and images it evokes. Thank you for making it all the easier to do this.”
~Claudia

“This is awesome! You are amazing! You literally are taking all of the work out of this for us. I can’t wait to use Sounds Bites.

Thank you so much!”

~Becky

“This is such a rich, thoughtful, and creative use of technology!”

~Diana

“Yes, please enroll us!

I start the school year with a plan to listen to classical music at lunch everyday… and we do for the first couple of weeks. But then, as other subjects require a little more attention here and there, I put music off because it’s “less important” than math or science. And I stop planning for it. This seems like something I can actually do each day with no effort on my part 🙂 Thank you!”

Jeanna

“Thank you so much for all your work to provide useful, flexible resources!”

~Wendy

“When I told my 14-year-old boy that people in Beethoven’s time didn’t
appreciate it, he said, “Why not?!? It’s cool.”

Thank you for this again. It has been a blessing to our family.”

-Heather

“I must tell you that I love your diversity of performers that you use for your sound bites. Truly love seeing so many different ethnicities enjoying and participating in classical music.”

~Robin

My son is three and is autistic- he loves anything with music, the cartoon/classical mashups have been really entertaining for him! Thank you for putting this together and sharing it with us!

~Skye

“I thought you’d like to hear this… we listened to the cartoon sound bite for today–barber of seville.

My daughter (12) asked about seeing the real thing (they LOVE the cartoon) but she got curious about the real opera. So I found a version on Youtube….. and about 45 minutes into it, I moved it onto the tv for larger viewing, because all 6 of the kids were watching it!!!

Thank you!! Watching an Opera! All in Italian!!! and they were figuring out the plot and trying to get it!!!

We took a break to go outside but will finish watching it!!! Thanks for spurring us on!”

~Sarah