A piano is needed for these workshops.
(A digital keyboard can be provided for a small additional fee)
30 students maximum per workshop


Students will develop life-long listening skills that will be carried over into the classroom using classical music, games and poems.  During one segment, students have to be “sound detectives” to figure out what familiar song is hidden in what sounds like a classical piece of music.  Students who are auditory, kinesthetic and musical learners will benefit greatly from Beth’s approach. (recommended for grades K-3)


Students will learn the concept of comparing and contrasting using music and Venn Diagrams as well as movement. They will learn contrasting musical terms such as forte (loud) piano (soft) legato (smooth) and staccato (rough) as well as be able to recognize high and low pitches. The students are shown movements to go along with these concepts which the students perform as Beth plays classical music for them. They will also use descriptive words on a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two pieces by the same composer. Spatial/visual learners as well kinesthetic, auditory & musical learners will gain tremendously from this workshop. (recommended for grades 1-2)


Students learn how to keep a steady beat (helpful for reading - entering a text - and math skills) as they clap and march to classical music. They also “perform” a book that has a steady beat using call and response, and dance to music so they can feel that beat using their entire bodies. This can really connect with students who are kinesthetic, musical and auditory learners. (recommended for grades K-2)


Students will learn the concepts of both main idea and recycling as Beth plays Daniel Gregory Mason’s “Variations on Yankee Doodle” as well Beethoven’s Variations on “God Save the King – also known to us as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”. Students will be able to describe the different mood of each variation played using some basic musical vocabulary that Beth will teach them. They will also have the opportunity to do movement to some of the music. Beth can especially reach auditory, musical and kinesthetic learners in this workshop. (recommended for grades 1-3)


Students will learn how musical scores are made of symbols and how music is like a map. Beth will teach them musical symbols and they will use movement to internalize the symbols. We will perform a silly sentence together several different ways depending on the musical symbol used. They will also listen to a piece by Brahms and hold up index cards (each child gets a set of 5 with different symbols) when they hear me play forte or piano, etc. Together we will write a piece of music called “Journey in Sound” in which we use symbols to notate what the students compose and then perform the piece. We will also look at some of Keith Haring’s art (which is full of symbols, but open to interpretation) Great for auditory, visual, spatial/visual, musical and kinetic learners. (Recommended for Grades 2 and 3.)


Students will learn the concept of main idea through music. The students will learn to listen for the main idea in music by learning and hearing a Rondo (which is a piece that has a main theme that alternates with other themes – ABACA) and doing movements to represent each section. They will also learn about Theme and Variations and how the composers (Mozart’s Twinkle Twinkle Variations and Beethoven’s Variations on God Save the King – known to us as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”) disguise the main theme (main idea) with each variation, but we can still recognize the tune. This is also illustrated by dressing up some kids in costumes – the students see they can still recognize their classmates just like they can still recognize the theme even though it may be fancier, slower, sadder, etc. The students will use both musical and non-musical descriptive vocabulary. Books “The Tin Forest” and “The True Story of the Big Bad Wolf” (a retelling of the Three Little Pigs from the Wolf’s point of view) will be read to further illustrate the concept. This workshop reaches auditory, visual, kinetic, and musical learners.(recommended for Grades 1-3)