Composer study for homeschool: how to plan a year in ten minutes a week

Composer study means getting to know one composer at a time by listening to their music over several weeks. It takes about ten minutes a week. A family picks a composer, learns a little about the person, and plays a few pieces again and again until the children know them. No music training is needed, and the same plan works for a five-year-old and a twelve-year-old at the same table.

This guide shows how to set up a year, what to do each week, and which pages to print.

What you need

You need three things: a way to play music, a short list of pieces, and a place to keep the pages your children fill in. A streaming service or a library card covers the music. A binder covers the pages.

Books help but are not required. Many libraries have picture-book lives of the famous composers. Ask a librarian.

Choose a pace

How long to stay with one composer is the main choice. There is no right answer. Pick the pace your family will keep.

Pace	Composers in a 36-week year	Good for
2 weeks each	18	A quick tour for older children
4 weeks each	9	Most families
6 weeks each	6	Young children, and families who like to go slowly
12 weeks each	3	One composer for each term

Many families who follow the Charlotte Mason approach to home education study one composer for a whole term. A term gives a child time to know a handful of pieces well.

A month for each composer is a good middle path. It gives time to hear three or four pieces more than once, and the year still covers every era.

What to do each week

Here is a four-week plan for one composer. Each week has one small job.

Week 1: meet the composer. Read a short life story. Find the birthplace on a map. Play the first piece and say one thing to listen for.

Week 2: a second piece. Play it once with no talk. Play it again and ask what the children noticed. Find the composer on a timeline.

Week 3: a third piece. Play it, then play the first piece again. Ask which one they like more, and why.

Week 4: put it together. Play all three pieces across the week. Each child picks a favorite and fills in a notebook page. Ask them to tell three facts to someone who was not there.

That is the whole method. Play the pieces at other times too, in the car or at dinner. Children enjoy music more once they know it.

A sample year

This plan covers nine composers in 36 weeks, in the order they lived. Each one has a fact sheet with a short story and three pieces.

Weeks	Composer	Era	First piece
1 to 4	Vivaldi	Baroque	Spring, from The Four Seasons
5 to 8	Bach	Baroque	Prelude, from Cello Suite No. 1
9 to 12	Handel	Baroque	Hallelujah, from Messiah
13 to 16	Haydn	Classical	Surprise Symphony, second movement
17 to 20	Mozart	Classical	Variations on the Twinkle tune
21 to 24	Beethoven	Classical	Symphony No. 5, first movement
25 to 28	Tchaikovsky	Romantic	Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
29 to 32	Saint-Saëns	Romantic	The Swan
33 to 36	Prokofiev	Modern	Peter and the Wolf

To build your own year, use the composer study planner. Tick the composers you want, choose the number of weeks, and print the schedule.

Going in time order, or not

Going from oldest to newest lets children hear how music changed. The Baroque composers sound busy and steady. The Romantic ones sound bigger and more dramatic. After a few composers, play a new piece and ask the children to guess the era.

Mixing the eras keeps things fresh, and it suits young children who do not yet think in centuries. Start with whichever composer has a story your children will like. Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals are safe first choices.

Either way, keep a timeline in the binder. Each time you start a composer, find the bar and color it in.

Teaching several ages at once

Everyone listens to the same piece. Then each child answers at their own level.

A child of four to six draws while the music plays and circles words on a listening page.

A child of seven to nine fills in a fact sheet, names an instrument they heard, and tells one fact back.

A child of ten and up writes a notebook page, compares two recordings of the same piece, and finds the composer’s country and era without help.

How to listen

Keep the first listen short. Three to five minutes is enough for a young child. With a long piece, play the opening and stop.

Give one thing to listen for. “Wait for the loud chord” works better than “listen carefully.”

Let hands be busy. Drawing, building blocks, and play dough all help a child stay with the music.

Play it again. The second and third listens are where the learning happens.

Pages to print

Composer fact sheets. One page for each of 24 composers, with a story, three pieces, and room to write and draw.

Composer study notebook page. A blank page that works for any composer.

Listening journal page. For one piece at a time. Young children can circle and draw.

Composer timeline to print. One page, 24 composers, four eras.

Composer cards. For sorting and matching games at the end of a term.

Guides to the composers

Each of these guides has the life story, what the music sounds like, and five pieces to play: Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. For all 24 composers by era, read classical composers for kids.