Beethoven Who? Family Fun with Music E-book

Beethoven Who?

By: Melanie Fergus

“Marcia Washburn's curriculum is very basic and simple and definitely written for a non-musical person such as myself. It is very family-friendly and engaging for all ages. Whether a person is a novice or knows a great deal, this curriculum has something for everyone. Mrs. Washburn does a great job of keeping the terminology as simple as possible and doesn't assume the reader knows or understands the musical vernacular. I rejoiced and thanked God time and again as I went through Beethoven Who? Family Fun with Music.”

Beethoven Who?

By: Nancy Cable

As a piano teacher I will use Beethoven Who on my iPad regularly to "show, play, and tell" students about so many aspects of music. No matter how many times I have read the book already, I always learn something new when I go back and cruise through the pages again. Thank you, Marcia, for all of the research you have done to open up the sometimes mysterious and complicated world of music. May we all be so much more appreciative of God's creation of music and give Him glory and thanks

By: Don Price

Superb organization and presentation--this is a legacy that will live many years into the future

By: WC Homeschool mom

I love that you included so many traditional songs; as I was looking through, I remembered my mother singing many of them to me--such great memories! I'm thoroughly impressed with the format--I can easily see us spending two or three years or more enjoying it!

Beethoven Who?

By: Hope Jackson

[A]. . . comprehensive, open-and- go, music appreciation curriculum. You can plan ahead . . . or just open and decide on the spot what you'd like to learn. It is extremely flexible. I believe this curriculum could take at least two years to thoroughly complete! I love the way Ms. Washburn writes. She is down to earth and explains everything in simple, easy to understand terms for the average, non-musical parent like me.

Beethoven Who?

By: Diana Gardenhour

. . . Contains a wealth of music- related information for children and adults alike. The links are loaded right onto the pages of the ebook. It's sooooo convenient to use!! The games and activities are fun for kids. It's really a neat concept and something that my kids loved. Since this is an ebook, it's available to readers worldwide.

Beethoven Who?

By: Vivienne McNeny

The links are excellent, I had so much fun clicking, listening . . . every instruction you gave worked. I particularly liked the fact that most of the pieces were familiar so even if a family had no musical background they had a strong chance of recognising old favourites. Hearing different instruments play the same piece was a brilliant ploy. This book is truly for the whole family. This book has no boundaries! I have never seen a book like this and was totally captivated by it. Thank you so much for letting me discover what a treasure you have created. I can't say enough good things about it. I was thoroughly enchanted. I wish I had had it when I was homeschooling my children.

CathyDuffyReviews.com

By: Cathy Duffy

Cathy Duffy of CathyDuffyReviews,com, writes: Beethoven Who? Family Fun with Music presents a great introductory music education for all ages, and it’s not just about Beethoven. It comes as a PDF book on either CD-ROM or a digital download. You need to read the file on a device with an internet connection since the book is totally interactive. It has loads of YouTube video links and other internet sites as well as links to other locations within the book itself. Be sure to read the Introduction before starting the course, especially the section of the introduction titled “How to Use This Book.” Once you’ve got a sense of what is included within the course, you should feel free to work through it however works best for you. Chapters three through seven introduce students to classical music in a huge variety of formats, many of which will delight even reluctant listeners. The presentation works chronologically through musical periods from the Baroque period through the twentieth century. In these chapters covering musical periods, brief biographical information leads directly into discussion of each of the composer’s works. These discussions link to examples to view as various techniques or musical pieces are highlighted. The text sometimes refers to specific time markers on videos to watch for particular movements or events in a performance. This helps focus students’ attention much more than just listening. The integration of the information with the experience of listening and viewing musical performances makes this a very effective way to teach music appreciation. Both parents and children will likely appreciate seeing and hearing examples immediately when they are discussed. And parents should appreciate not having to search out musical works on their own. Beethoven Who? Family Fun with Music presents a great introductory music education for all ages, and it’s not just about Beethoven. It comes as a PDF book on either CD-ROM or a digital download. You need to read the file on a device with an internet connection since the book is totally interactive. It has loads of YouTube video links and other internet sites as well as links to other locations within the book itself. [Note: To read the rest of Cathy Duffy's detailed review, click the link by her name above.]

By: WC Homeschool mom

I love that you included so many traditional songs; as I was looking through, I remembered my mother singing many of them to me--such great memories! I'm thoroughly impressed with the format--I can easily see us spending two or three years or more enjoying it!

By: Janice from Rainbow Resou

At least three music courses (for beginners either in age or experience) in one user-friendly, family-oriented package: music appreciation/history, reading music, and making/enjoying music. We all have this nagging idea that we really ought to be doing something about music but don't know exactly what. Or perhaps you're one of those moms who recognize that there are tremendous advantages for your children (spiritually, emotionally and mentally) when enjoying music is part of your daily lives but you can't imagine how you'll fit one more thing into your busy lives and homes. Marcia Washburn makes it easy for us by leading us step-by-step and providing a wealth of online resources to broaden that experience. You don't need to be able to read music or recognize one composer from another or spend a lot of money or time gathering resources. The author even assures us that this product has been "field-tested to ensure that musically illiterate adults can confidently use it with their children." The first section Listening to Music provides an overview of the elements of music (terms and basic info) followed by a period-by-period examination of major composers, musical instruments, historical setting, and notable pieces. In this section are briefly annotated (the author tells what to expect and look for) links to orchestras performing various pieces as well as video re-enactments such as costumed musicians playing period instruments while floating on the Thames River in England and even flash mob versions. The links are designed to build in you and your children appreciation for the music involved and to just plain enjoy a huge variety of musical experiences. The second section Reading Music covers all the basics providing a wealth of reinforcing activities. Reproducible masters are often included Section 3 Making Music transported me back to my grade school days and had me agreeing with the author that American folk and traditional songs once learned in elementary school music classes like mine are disappearing from our culture. You'll appreciate her determination not to let that happen as you listen through her list of not-to-be-missed songs. You can probably tell that I'm excited about the potential of this product to open the lives of our children to musical experiences, some noble, some mundane. There's over 300 pages of musical information, countless links, reproducibles, and, most importantly, the sense that "I can do this!" [Note: To read the complete review, click the Rainbow Resource link above.]

By: Natalie Wickham, Piano te

Natalie Wickham, Piano teacher & blogger at MusicMattersblog.com, writes: From the colorful, eye-catching artwork on the cover to the extensive index at the back, Marcia Washburn has put together a fun and practical resource that is great for parents and teachers alike – Beethoven Who?! This 334 page e-book covers everything from why children should learn music, to an overview of different styles of music, to handy hyperlinks that take you directly to the corresponding terms in the glossary, and lots more. Coming from a Christian perspective, Marcia includes a multitude of Scripture verses, inspirational quotes, listening suggestions, and full-color pictures. The book would be a great resource for music teachers wanting to plan a music camp, gather ideas for group classes, or just build their own knowledge of the history and elements of music to incorporate it more into their teaching. It is also ideal for a homeschool family looking for a fun, easy-to-use music appreciation curriculum.

By: Ashley Moore, blogger at

What comes to mind when you think about classical music? For many adults, classical music brings up feelings of boredom or dread or simply thoughts of of "that is too complex for ME to teach!" I am not extremely musical. I play cello (or should say played throughout school and rarely since), but have little musical knowledge otherwise. But music appreciation is something I really want my kids to learn! The Beethoven Who program has an incredible amount of information! Not only does it discuss musical terms and things to consider while listening to classical music, but it also goes through a selection of composers and music from the baroque period up to the twentieth century as well as teaching how to read music. Not only does it mention particular pieces, but it includes links to videos of the music. This way you able to listen to each piece without having to purchase the music. I have to say that this curriculum has definitely made me more confident in teaching my kids about music, as well as giving me a new appreciation for classical pieces.

By: Margie Brill, Homeschool

Many people want their children to be exposed to all types of music, especially those who may be talented in that field. However some parents may not know where to begin teaching their children those other genres. Beethoven Who? is the perfect Christmas gift to help introduce your child to everything music. Beethoven Who? is the product of Marcia Washburn. She saw that people were paying outrageous amounts of money for CD's and courses when the same music is available for free online. Not only that but with todays technology you can even watch the songs being played, being able to not only hear, but see what instruments do what and when and how they're played in a song. Marcia saw this as an opportunity to share with people the fun of music and the way music can be pursued and learned without spending a fortune.

By: Joelle Moser, Homeschool

I just want to say how Marcia's heart of service and love of children's music education has been a tremendous blessing to my family! We began using her music program last year and my children love it! We now have another homeschooling family that joins us for music each week, and they look forward to it. Marcia helped me work out all of the bugs in the system including some of my own errors and has corresponded with nothing but love for our homeschooling family. We are so grateful for such a wonderful proponent of Christian homeschooling.

By: Jennifer, Homeschool mom

I just wanted to write to you and thank you for your wonderful resource Beethoven Who? I purchased it through the Build Your Bundle 2015 sale, and I used it this year with my 6th and 10th graders. We used the “Listening to Music” section of the book and studied the Baroque through Impressionistic periods for our music appreciation this year. Your resource was such a wonderful jumping-off point for our music appreciation studies. We loved the links you included so we could listen to the music and watch videos on YouTube. For my older girls, I also used some online resources to learn more about the composers, and we used NotebookingPages.com to find notebooking pages for the various composers we studied. We did a music appreciation lesson together one day a week, and then we listened to music by the composers we studied throughout the week, usually as we traveled in the car. We just had a really great year using Beethoven Who? Thank you so much for creating this wonderful resource! I so appreciated that you had done the research and pulled together the YouTube links so that I didn't have to. It saved me so much time and resulted in a very enjoyable music appreciation experience for us.

By: Kimberly M., Homeschool m

Got this a few years ago and it is such a high quality learning tool! We read it every year as we implement our music lessons. Very high quality and highly recommended.

By: Cindy Puhek in Home Schoo

Music, we’re told in Scripture, is one aspect of earth that continues in heaven. Since music is eternal, can there be a more important subject to teach our children? Understandably, many homeschool moms throw their hands up in despair at the thought of adding one more subject to the academic calendar. This despair is worse for the mom to whom music is a cryptic, foreign language she never learned herself. Marcia Washburn comes to the rescue with her new homeschool- and mom-friendly music curriculum, Beethoven Who? Beethoven Who? is really like three separate music programs combined into one. It’s a history-of-music program, a music theory program, and a music appreciation program. I can foresee a family taking several semesters to work through all the rich material in this book. Most of the music programs available to homeschoolers were written for a classroom setting, which makes using them in our “one room schoolhouses” difficult. Classroom-oriented programs also tend to be very expensive. Marcia has produced an invaluable resource which is both reasonably priced and designed for use by the whole family in order to enable homeschool parents to introduce their children, and perhaps themselves, to the glorious and eternal world of music.

Beethoven Who? Family Fun with Music E-book

By: Tara Pilecki

I had made several starts and stops at teaching music to my boys before I found Beethoven. This is the music curriculum I wish I had found at the very beginning of our homeschool journey! Mrs. Washburn has clearly put her heart into the book, as well as countless hours of research. As a result, I can sit down with my boys and have music class with very little preparation beforehand. It is a delight to learn and explore musical terms, periods of classical music, and composers and their most famous works. We especially enjoy checking out the links to various versions of each classical work highlighted in the book. Mrs. Washburn has found some gems that help us better appreciate the complexity and beauty of classical music. I am truly grateful to have this resource.