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Let's Listen to Mozart! -composer playlist
Thursday, September 1, 2022 by Marcie Monaco | Uncategorized
Hello Pianists and Parents!
We've been focusing on wrist motion a lot in lessons because your wrists control your sound! I created several playlists on Youtube with a good mix of students and professionals who play with beautiful wrist movement. Sometimes I can explain things 100 different ways, but a picture (or a video) is worth 1000 words.
I would really encourage you to find time in your busy lives to watch one or two of these videos a day. Maybe you can play them while you're eating breakfast in the morning? Maybe you can watch a few videos right before bed? The music is beautiful and would be lovely to listen to at the end of the day. Maybe you can play them at the beginning or end of your practice session? Some are longer than 10 minutes and some are shorter than 1 minute, so you can pick and choose as your schedule allows
When my oldest children were in middle school we studied and listened to the works of one composer each month. I would just put 10 of the more famous pieces of each composer on loop and say several times a day, "This is Stravinsky! We're listening to Stravinsky! What do you like about Stravinsky?" After several months, they could identify the composer of music they were listening to, even if they had never heard the piece before, because they had internalized the style of each composer. They learned so much about music theory, history, musicality, and performance this way. I realized recently that, as the case usually goes, I've been neglecting to teach my younger children with the same diligence as my older children, so when I created playlists for my students to study piano technique and wrist movement, I organized the playlists according to composer so that the lists could serve double-duty: observing technique and and learning about composers
You are welcome to use these lists however you like, but I think it would be useful to focus on one playlist a month, carefully watch 1-3 videos every day, then a play the list on loop for a few hours every day while eating, sleeping, and driving, etc. If you're not crazy about streaming Youtube all day, you could use these playlists just for watching, then use Spotify or Apple Music to stream any composer-specific list while you go about your day. The lists I created here will at least get you started, though.
September-Mozart: https://youtube.com/playlist?
October-Beethoven: https://youtube.com/playlist?
November-Chopin: https://youtube.com/playlist?
December-Bach: https://youtube.com/playlist?
January-Grieg: https://youtube.com/playlist?
February-Brahms: https://youtube.com/playlist?
March-Debussy: https://youtube.com/playlist?
April-Schubert: https://youtube.com/playlist?
May-R Schumann: https://youtube.com/playlist?
June-Haydn: https://youtube.com/playlist?
July-Lizst: https://youtube.com/playlist?
August-Rachmaninov: https://youtube.com/playlist?
Please let me know if you have any questions, and happy listening!
Mrs. Marcie
