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Discovering Music? Anyone used it? Is it as great as it looks?


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Abbeyej, how do you find these things? My high schoolers are doing Art History right now and this looks like a wonderful complement for the summer of next fall.

 

Lisa

 

Happenstance! Someone posted a link to a blog because of a review of MCT materials, and as I was scrolling through the bog I saw "Discovering Music" mentioned and I thought, "What's that?", so I clicked...

 

And then I thought, "Why have I never heard of this before?!? Why hasn't anyone on WTM mentioned this?" ... And then I figured they probably had and I was just oblivious. ;)

 

Anyway, I can't say "it's fabulous" -- I haven't used it, and at $179, it's a rather painful purchase to make -- but ds and I sat through a couple of the sample videos and really enjoyed it. I don't know where we'll fit it in for next year, but my thought right now is that perhaps we'll watch it now (perhaps starting over the summer and into next school year), then go through it again doing all of the written work and additional material in a couple of years as a for-credit elective.

 

My (younger) daughter was not impressed. She thought the instructor was "weird". Sigh.

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Gosh, I wish you hadn't posted this. ;)

 

I will ask around to see if any of my professional musician peeps know these folks, but wow. It really looks great. I couldn't find information about how she funded this. I'm curious about the videos and the publishing of the text.

 

Also, I agree that the fine arts are typically not considered an integral part of home education, and that is a terrible shame. Because of my work, my children have had enormous exposure to classical music, but not the kind of structured music history education that this program would provide.

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I'm glad you started this thread. I came across this a couple of years ago. I've held off thinking maybe it was too much. However, I never stop thinking about it. It would be great for my ds16 who will be a senior next year.

 

Would love to hear other's experiences with it. Anxiously awaiting responses. :bigear:

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Gosh, I wish you hadn't posted this. ;)

 

I will ask around to see if any of my professional musician peeps know these folks, but wow. It really looks great. I couldn't find information about how she funded this. I'm curious about the videos and the publishing of the text.

 

Also, I agree that the fine arts are typically not considered an integral part of home education, and that is a terrible shame. Because of my work, my children have had enormous exposure to classical music, but not the kind of structured music history education that this program would provide.

 

I am anxious to hear what you find out. This looks amazing.

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We are using this and have really enjoyed. My 18 yo son, who wants to be a composer, just got accepted to Berklee College of Music and is passionate about music theory and music history. He is enjoying the course very much. I posted a little review about it a couple months ago on my blog.

 

That said we stopped watching it before Christmas and haven't gotten back to it yet after break (we are on lesson 12). I was just saying we should watch it today and then sat down and saw this thread!

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...I posted a little review ...

 

(I read the review...) If you had it to do over, would you start off doing the text? I ask because my first thought had been to watch the videos through over the next year, then return and do it "for credit" with the text in a couple of years. And that seems to be the approach you'll be taking with your younger son -- but I wondered if, now that you've done a fair chunk of it, that's still the route you would choose, or if you would do the complete program from the beginning?

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Well the only thing I've done that was extra out of the workbook was that we listened to and did a little informal study/comparison of the the Erlkonig by Goethe and that I did with my 11 and 9 yo (the 9 yo sometimes watches with us.) The course is really rich. You could spend a couple months on each unit with all the resources listed in the workbook. The workbook answers often take some extrapolation on the part of the student so it is a bit beyond my 11 yo. I think it really is a high school course. We are enjoying it and learning a lot, but the workbook is too much for my 6th grader. So I'm sticking with my original plan.

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Guest NancyinTexas

I'm new here, but my dd, just completed the course and loved it. The way the material covered the history of the era in which the music was created and/or thrived added so much more depth and interest for us. It is a great springboard for more in depth conversations about all kinds of things -- politics, humanity, faith, practicality, inspiration, etc.

 

Nancy

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FYI - Dr. Carol Reynolds, the author of Discovering Music, will be speaking at the Midwest Homeschool Convention again this year. And she will have a booth in the vendor hall, listed under "Professor Carol". That's where I first heard about "Discovering Music".

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Faith,

 

Does you son have a recommendation for an at-home music theory course? Dd will be taking piano next year and those lessons will include theory, but until then we want to do theory at home. We need something with text and answer keys.

 

Thank you.

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Faith,

 

Does you son have a recommendation for an at-home music theory course? Dd will be taking piano next year and those lessons will include theory, but until then we want to do theory at home. We need something with text and answer keys.

 

Thank you.

Not Faith, or course, but someone put this link on a different thread. http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Essentials-Music-Theory-Assessment/dp/073906861X/ref=sr_1_cc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295227617&sr=1-1-catcorr I haven't used this, but the book I used is out of print.

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Not Faith, or course, but someone put this link on a different thread. http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Essentials-Music-Theory-Assessment/dp/073906861X/ref=sr_1_cc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295227617&sr=1-1-catcorr I haven't used this, but the book I used is out of print.

 

We used this one, not out of print, and it was excellent:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Essentials-Music-Theory-Self-Study/dp/0739036351/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

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  • 5 weeks later...

Good morning,

 

Thanks again for sharing what works. My son is now 14 and we have a group of homeschooled high-schoolers we gather with twice per week. We have been having a blast with literature -- oh my goodness!! how fun this looks :001_smile:

 

Over the years I have grown to trust the opinions and collective abilities of this group when finding homeschool materials for my son. I also remember how supportive you all were with information when my son was a late reader -- at 8 suddenly the light lit and now he reads very well, much above "grade level" and very fluently. I just recall reading thread after thread which reassured me to just be patient and keep on keepin' on.

 

Okay... now back to my coffee!

 

Aloha,

 

Kristin in Hawaii

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Well, at least you are not a greedy gus like me and are asking for an art course just like it. :tongue_smilie:

 

I agree! I just ended up ordering the Sister Wendy videos for art history. I SO wish there were something like this though!!

 

I am SO excited about this!!! I logged on to do research on a music study for ds for next year! This looks AWESOME! I'm going to spread it out over 2 or 3 years - to coincide with our history studies.

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This does look interesting, although I'm inclined to save the $175 an use the free course from Yale University: Listening to Music

http://oyc.yale.edu/music/listening-to-music/content/class-sessions

 

The professor wrote a college level textbook, which he, of course, uses for the class. The videos can stand on their own. I have a degree in music and I find Craig Wright very interesting, even though the course is a music appreciation course. I found an older edition of the textbook used for $5.

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