If your piano students are anything like my piano students then they must be chomping at the bit to add a second Composer Trading Card to the collection they started last month!
Trevor and I kicked off our Composer Trading Cards activities last month with the release of the J.S. Bach trading card.
If you missed last month’s post, the idea behind the Composer Trading Cards is to provide teachers with an easy-to-implement tool for adding music history fun into your lessons.
These cards are meant to serve as a jumping-off-point into music history exploration. Simply send one card home with your students and have them do a little research to complete the statistics information on the back. Note: we suggest you give your students plastic trading protector pages to hold their growing trading card collection (you can find them at any office supply store, Walmart, etc.)
Composer Trading Card #2… The Big “B”
Almost every student I have come across knows a little something about Beethoven… but their knowledge can sometimes be… skewed. Knowing that we’d be releasing this particular card next, I took a moment last week to ask my piano students what they already knew about Beethoven. Their answers were pretty funny and included gems such as:
- He was blind… right?
- He yelled at people all the time… even dogs… or no.. he had a big dog?
- He wrote “Joy To the World”
- He wrote the song my cousin plays all the time that drives my Auntie crazy.
Clearly my students need a little brushing up on their Beethoven facts 😉 And if your students do as well, and if you want to have some music history fun, you can find our composer trading cards in the Growing With WunderKeys Toolkit.
Because one of the sections on the back of the Beethoven Trading Card includes a place for an “interesting fact”, we thought we’d share a few quirky tidbits we found that you can use to amuse and educate your piano students once they have done their own research.
- Beethoven’s family had three people named “Ludwig van Beethoven” – including his Grandfather and older brother
- Beethoven was well known for his ability to improvise
- Beethoven once took lessons from Haydn… but they didn’t get along very well
- Beethoven was a piano teacher
- Beethoven was often quite disheveled and grouchy
- Beethoven started to go deaf when he was just 25 years old
- Beethoven never learned how to multiply or divide… he left school at age 11
Stay tuned for more Composer Trading Cards to come! We’d love to know… which composers you would like to see as future trading cards? Comment below to help us decide!
Erica says
Thanks Andrea – my students are going to be so excited for a new trading card, and Beethoven is always a fan favorite! Any chance you have some female composers in the works for the future? My little girls would love a Fanny Mendelssohn or Clara Schumann… they are always asking me why composers are always boys! Thanks for all that you do and share!
Bonnie says
I second Erica’s comment! I’d love to see Clara or Amy Beach or…. so many other not-quite-so-famous-because-they-were-female composers!
D. Lorine says
Good call Bonnie! This would definitely be a great influence on our young, female students.
Zoé Iglesias says
Definitely Vivaldi with spring coming soon! Thanks for these cards, they are great 🙂
Cindy says
Yay! My students have been begging me for the next composer! The cards have really sparked a interest in learning the composers! Thank you so much!
Andrea says
Glad to hear it Cindy! They’ve been a huge hit in my studio too and the parents have been really impressed with the idea 🙂
Zelna van Zyl says
Definitely Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, Ravel
Josephine says
Could we have a few 20th century composers like Gershwin and Scott Joplin? These cards would be perfect for learning about the instruments of the orchestra or about other music styles from around the world, so many possibilities! Thanks for yet another a great idea, my piano studio incorporates so many of your games, repertoire and teaching ideas!
Andrea says
Hi Josephine – yes, absolutely! We’ll make sure to have a good mix of this and also non-European composers too 🙂
Melinda says
It would be REALLY cool to do Eric Whitacre as a LIVING composer too!
Shelley says
Thank you! The class that I gave the Bach ones too were very excited. Looking forward to seeing their answers next week. I also bought some trading card sheets for them to collect in. They are putting the sheets in their music dual tang.
Andrea says
Hi Shelley – that’s so lovely to hear! I have the trading card sheets too and my students are SO motivated to fill them up! Yippee for excitement for Music History!
Barbara says
This is so on time with my Spring Recital Repetoire! Thank you so much! You guys are AWESOME!!
Andrea says
Wonderful Barbara! 🙂 So glad you’re enjoying them!
Melinda says
Hehehe, “My cousin plays that one song that drive my Auntie crazy.” Hmmm, could the piece in question be….. Fur Elise??
Melody says
Steven Foster. I have several students in Accelerated Piano Adventures for the older beginner and it is difficult to help young students grasp the time frame and country /cultural background of many of the great songs introduced in these books. They need something they can identify with to connect to the music. Keep up the good work!
Ana says
First, thank you, thank you, for inventing these cards. I’m going to use them!
More composers? Cecile Chaminade could be a great option, and Saint-Saëns too.
Julie says
All the suggestions sound great to me, too– maybe a female composer next? We can’t wait for the next one. Thanks so much for doing this– my students LOVE them!
Rebecca says
How about one with Brahms (one of my personal favorites)! My students are loving these cards! When will the next one be coming out please? They ask me all the time when the next one is and who it will be! Thanks so much!
Jodie says
I’d love to have more composers to put in my students’ card collection. They love them! I could just cross out the name on the Beethoven or Bach card, but it would be so great to have real ones. Thanks!
Julie says
My kids love the trading cards– are there any more in the future? They keep asking me about the next one. I’d be willing to pay for a pack of them! They are a big hit!
Marilyn says
I would love to see some current Canadian composers – Linda Niamath, Christine Donkin, Anne Crosby Gaudet, Teresa Richert, even Andrea Dow 😉
Jenny says
Incredible! Can’t wait for more!
Andrea says
More coming this week Jenny! Make sure you have all of our sets so far (linked to in this post plus a free game to play with all your cards! https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2016/10/13/snap-the-composer-a-printable-game-for-music-history-fun/)