Famous Composers and Musicians Teacher Resources

VH1 Music Studio has put out another great lesson that incorporates analysis, compare/contrast, and musical terminology. Kids will listen to the song "Habanera" considering the use of specific instruments in evoking a sense of location....

Take a quick tour through the last 350 years of music composition with an interactive timeline tool. As learners scroll through the years, they see which composers were born and working during the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern...

Tune your ears and eyes into this video of guitarist Ricky Rios. The daily life of a musician is more chaotic than you may think! Watch this video to learn why.

Students research a musician or composer of their choice and present their research through a written paper and free choice activity. This lesson can be done over the course of five to six classes with some homework. The paper...

How many of the world's greatest composers were born in Austria? Or Germany? Or the United States? An interactive map provides young musicians with information about prominent composers in the last few centuries, as well as the periods...

Ten informative videos make up a series hosted by Wynton Marsalis designed to share the musical triumphs of jazz musicians Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and more! 

The introduction to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and the finale of his Symphony No. 4 provide young musicians with an opportunity to investigate the music elements composers employ to develop the themes they want to create. They compare the...

What song is playing? A music activity focuses on composers throughout history, their famous works, and the instruments in each piece. As pupils complete the learning exercise they play a short game to review music theory terms.

What do Johann Sebastian Bach and Miles Davis have in common? Much more than class members might imagine. The comparison of these two famous composers is just one lesson in a unit that investigates many facets of the music industry...

An outstanding lesson on music awaits your young composers! They learn about patterns found in music, the different sections of an orchestra, and see the differences between musicians and a composer. Excellent streamed videos and good...

Love the sounds of music? Want to be part of making those beautiful sounds? Willing to practice, practice, practice? The narrator of a short video talks about what it's like to be part of one of the "Big Five" orchestras.

Young scholars identify and interpret what legendary traditional musicians of Louisiana that allows them to hear new genres of traditional music. They also identify what it means to be a legendary artist and read, write, and create a...

Students search the World Wide Web to locate an artistic image that inspires an aural composition. They compose a musical piece using loop-based composition software and use file management and storage techniques to archive project work....

Take a listen to "The Town Musicians of Bremen" by the Brothers Grimm with a nine minute audiobook. The story details four elderly animals that join together to make a band and travel their way to find an unlikely home thanks to their...

Scholars work collaboratively to compose a found poem from one of their favorite stories. With a finished product in hand, class members form a circle and perform their work for an audience by taking turns reciting one line till the poem...

Learners add-on to determine which set of blocks make each of the four given numbers. There are five sets of blocks, they count the two block sets that compose the indicated number when added together.

The phrase, "You sold out" has been thrown around among musicians that have lent their talents to the corporate world. Here, the class engages in an interesting discussion on how musicians make a living and the influence of commercialism...

This activity about Stravinsky's ballet, The Firebird, provides information about the composer, the ballet, and the "Infernal Dance." It also includes questions about the music, as well as extension activities such as a puppet show.

Students design attractive posters to promote the work of Leroy Anderson, an American composer with an unusual style.

Elementary schoolers are given an overview of the baroque, classical, romantic, and modern periods of music. They focus on the lives of Beethoven and Mozart; two of the greatest composers of all time. After listening to samples their...

Practice composing and decomposing numbers in base-ten using three word problems. Each problem presents a different scenario requiring learners to explain their thinking, find the number of ones, and find out different ways to make a...

In this composers word search puzzle, learners identify the names of famous composers of classical music. Examples include Mozart and Bach. A list of 60 names is provided to assist students in their search.

In this music worksheet, high schoolers look for the words found in the word search that name composers and parts of music. The answers are found at the bottom of the page.

In this music worksheet, students find the words that are naming the major composers and the answers are found at the bottom of the page.