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.) 

 

 

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.  The one exception is that sometimes we also have some special weeks (such as at Christmas or Easter) where we will take a little side trip that coordinates with the season.  

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?
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. I’ll actually be receiving my Sound Bites a couple days before everybody else so I can make sure the links are still live, so everything should be working when you get it. 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 if you don’t get around to watching the video for a long time, it might not be there any more. I don’t plan to update the links this year beyond making sure they are live when you get them, so if you miss a day and circle back to an older email and the video is no longer available, you can just do a search to find another video of that piece.

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

What if a video is no longer available when we receive it?

I’ll be doing my best to avoid that, but if it happens, I’ll be hurrying to send you a replacement as soon as possible.

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 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 your Welcome email after you enroll.

Do Whole Shebang members get Sound Bites for free?

You betcha! Whole Shebang members get ALL of our products NOW and ALWAYS, at no additional cost. Yee-haw! If you are a Whole Shebang-er, just send me an email and tell me the email address you want your Sound Bites to come to. I’ll get you set up.  Erica@EnrichmentStudies.com