It can feel overwhelming to “check all the boxes” during a piano lesson. There is so much for our students to learn and so little time to allow the learning to happen.
Music history was the one thing that I (guiltily) pushed aside in my piano lessons. While I would have loved my kiddos to know about composers and their life and works… I simply could not scrape together enough time to for an adequate experience.
But as I started to use composing as a teaching tool, I realized that not having knowledge of composers was a missing link in my piano teaching chain. How could inspire my students to become composers, if they didn’t anything about the composers who came before them?
When Trevor and I came up with the idea of Composer Trading Cards a while back, I literally ran into Staples to have them printed that afternoon; I was so eager to get my student started on this exciting lesson addition… and I was absolutely thrilled that it wasn’t going to use up my valuable lesson time.
If you’ve been collecting our free Composer Trading Cards from day one then you know how much fun piano students have building a collection, how excited they get when learning “fun facts” about these fascinating people… and you know the satisfaction you feel as a teacher in knowing that this very important “box” is being checked in your lesson offerings.
Today we’re sharing another set of two Composer Trading Cards. If you’ve missed our previous posts, check out the download instructions below to get other card sets.
Composer Trading Cards: Tchaikovsky and Boulanger
One of the added bonuses of using Composer Trading Cards in your lessons is that they often spark great conversations that would not otherwise arise.
Recently my young piano student said to me “I used to think ‘Why is it always boys who write music?’… But now I know it wasn’t!” After which we launched into a great discussion of why this perception existed and then revisited her Fanny Mendelsson, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach and Cecil Chaminade trading cards… reviewing their most famous works and talking about the life they would have experienced during their time. My student left her lesson happily clutching her new Nadia Boulanger card (which we’re sharing today!)
Today’s set includes a Tchaikovsky trading card and a Boulanger trading card (in a spiffy new design!) to add to your piano students’ growing collections. See the download instructions below.
How To Collect Composer Trading Cards
The best way to collect these cards is to provide your students with a plastic trading card protector page to clip into their piano binder. The cards then slide nicely into the individual slots and are an inspiring way to begin learning about music history.
To use the cards, simply send home a Composer Trading Card (or two) with parent instructions that help your students research the composer and fill out the questions on the back of the card. When your students return the following week with the completed card, discuss what they discovered.
The Composer Trading Cards we’re sharing today (and other sets of the cards) can be found in the Growing With WunderKeys Toolkit (where we now keep most of our newly released printables).
While you’re there, be sure to download our other free lesson offerings and check out our newly re-vamped WunderKeys Piano for Preschoolers method books!
Betsy says
Thank you for such a tremendous enhancement to my studio! I’ve been doing a “composer of the month” this year, introducing the composer at our theory Crunch! Club the first Friday of every month. Then I have a play list of music by that composer running while they do their theory work. And a huge thank you for the female composers! I love Clara Schumann, especially, and Amy Beach.
Andrea says
Hi Betsy – glad you can use them 🙂 Kudos to you for including music history in your lesson offerings!
Lisa B. says
Thank you so much for these! I’ve been awarding them every time a student achieves a practice goal. The kids love them! I’ll need new ones for next year so this is perfect timing. Thank you, thank you!
PS My twins have made it their goal to collect all nine cards this year so they have a full trading card sleeve. Their practice goal is to complete 10 pieces and then they earn a card. So, if they collect nine cards, they will have learned 90 pieces this school year! 🙂 Wow! (They are working for number 8 right now).
Andrea says
What a great idea to use *learning* as a reward! Love it Lisa 🙂
Melinda says
Perfect timing! (As usual!) I’m putting together my “parting gifts” for students for when I leave and this will be a perfect inclusion. I especially love Nadia Boulanger. In my 20th Century Music Lit course final I had to write an essay on who I thought was the most influential composer of the 20th century and I chose Boulanger because she taught MANY composers and influenced their music in addition to her own! (I got an A 🙂 ).
I think it would be REALLY cool if your next set included composers who are alive today! Eric Whitacre (love everything that man does from composing to teaching to advocating for music education), John Williams (or other prominent film score composers), Dobrinka Tabakova, Anna Clyne, Joan Tower, etc.
Andrea says
Hi Melinda – thanks for the suggestions!
Elaine says
…and Andrea Dow possibly?
Andrea says
🙂
Leigh Stringfield says
I like the idea of you creating living composers cards too! I have students who are fans of John Williams Music, too.
Linnea says
These are the nicest composer education resources I have seen in my travels. I really appreciate the attention to women composers, too. Still – do you think you will have Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Handel, Vivaldi next fall..? I will do a composer of the month at school.
Andrea says
Hi Linnea – we have Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, Chopin and Liszt cards already (we just want to update them to the new design so they will all match). Keep your eye on the WunderKeys resource page as we’ll be putting them up there!
Jolene says
I just got the 2 newest cards, but they say WunderKeys across the top? Are there versions that do not say WunderKeys – or is this the way they will be going forward? Just curious! Thank you for this amazing resource! 🙂
Andrea says
Hi Jolene – we’ve re-vamped the entire sets to be a more modern design. They do have WunderKeys on them as they are a WunderKeys resources now. You can find them all (in the new design) on http://www.wunderkeys.com.
Beth says
I found this page and love the resources (and appreciate so much that the printables are free! thank you!) but I could not find the trading cards for Tchaikovsky and Boulanger…am I blind? I found the 6 sets, but did not see these 🙁
Andrea says
Hi Beth – we switched all of these over to our WunderKeys resource page – you’ll find all of the updated and complete sets there at http://www.wunderkeys.com. Click on Printables and then “Music History”. Each cover page contains a set of several composers.