How to Use Picture Books to Teach Music in Your Homeschool

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Today, I’m thrilled to tell you how to use picture books to teach music in your homeschool!

Years ago in the late ’90s I got a job as a music teacher at a new elementary school in Texas. That year the district had two brand new elementary schools, and I got to be friends with the music teacher at the other school. One thing our administration encouraged us to do was write a grant to receive a bigger purchase for our classroom. I wrote one to receive some computers, but the other elementary music teacher wrote a grant to receive picture books. I was so intrigued! Use picture books to teach music? So, I asked her to explain what she did, and my mind was open to a new way of teaching!

Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through affiliate links in this post.

Living Books

It was actually the first time I was introduced to what I later heard to be called “living books.” These are books that are engaging and draw the readers in to learn the topic. Dry textbooks are NOT living books, and dry textbooks were the only type of book I used in my elementary music classroom up until that point.

And, of course, throughout my 16 years of homeschooling, I have used picture books to teach a number of other subjects as well: history and science, Bible and biographies, and even math and grammar!

But, today let’s focus on teaching music with picture books.

Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through affiliate links in this post.

Here are the 5 categories of picture books to teach music:

Composers
Styles (or genres)
Instruments
Songs
Specific Musical Pieces

Books to Teach about Composers

It’s a thrill for a child to read about amazing people, and composers were amazing! Many of these books talk about the composer’s childhood, making them even more fun!

Tip: Read the book and then have the child act out a scene from the composer’s life!

J.S. Bach:

Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia by Opal Wheeler
Johann Sebastian Bach: Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers by Mike Venezia
Becoming Bach by Tom Leonard
Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Once Upon a Masterpiece) by Anna Harwell Celenza

Ludwig van Beethoven:

Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells by Opal Wheeler
Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony (Once Upon a Masterpiece) by Anna Harwell Celenza
Ludwig Beethoven (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia
The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven by Jonah Winter

Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard’s Gift by Megan Hoyt
Hildegard of Bingen: Scientist, Composer, Healer, and Saint by Demi

Johannes Brahms:

Johannes Brahms (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia
The Young Brahms by Sybil Deucher

Frederic Chopin:

Frederic Chopin (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia
Frederic Chopin, Son of Poland, Early Years by Opal Wheeler
Frederic Chopin, Son of Poland, Later Years by Opal Wheeler

John Coltrane:

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane by Carol Boston Weatherford

Paul Dukas:

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Stephen Simon

Antonín Dvořák:

Two Scarlet Songbirds: A Story of Anton Dvorak by Carole Lexa Schaefer

Duke Ellington:

Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite (Once Upon a Masterpiece) by Anna Harwell Celenza
Duke Ellington (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia
This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince & His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney

George Gershwin:

George Gershwin (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia
Summertime by Dubose Heyward

Edvard Grieg:

In the Hall of the Mountain King by Allison Miller Flannery

George Frederick Handel:

Handel at the Court of Kings by Opal Wheeler
My Name is Handel: The Story of Handel’s Water Music by Stephen Simon
George Handel (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia
Hallelujah Handel by Douglas Cowling

Franz Joseph Haydn:

Joseph Haydn the Merry Little Peasant by Opal Wheeler
The Boy Who Loved Music by David Lasker

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

Mozart, The Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia

Mussorgsky:

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (Once Upon a Masterpiece) by Anna Harwell Celenza

Sergei Prokofiev:

Peter and the Wolf illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak
Peter and The Wolf by Stephen Simon

Camille Saint-Saëns:

Carnival of the Animals by Stephen Simon
Carnival of the Animals by Jack Prelutsky
Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre by Anna Harwell Celenza

Franz Schubert:

Franz Schubert and His Merry Friends by Opal Wheeler

Robert Schumann:

Robert Schumann and Mascot Ziff by Opal Wheeler

Richard Strauss:

Merry Pranks of Master Till by Stephen Simon

Igor Stravinsky:

The Soldier’s Tale by Stephen Simon
Igor Stravinsky (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia

Peter Tchaikovsky:

Famous Children: Tchaikovsky by Rachlin and Hellard
The Story of Peter Tchaikovsky by Opal Wheeler
Peter Tchaikovsky (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers) by Mike Venezia
The Story of Swan Lake by Stephen Simon
The Nutcracker by Stephen Simon
Tchaikovsky Discovers America by Esther Kalman

Antonio Vivaldi:

I, Vivaldi by Janice Shefelman

Hymn Writers:

Gutsy Girls: Strong Christian Women Who Impacted the World: Book Three: Fanny Crosby by Amy L. Sullivan
Ten Boys Who Changed the World (Lightkeepers) by Irene Howat (about hymn-writer John Newton)
The Runaway’s Revenge: Introducing John Newton by Dave Jackson

Various Composers:

Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull

Picture Books of Musical Styles or Genres

Tip: After reading the book, listen to different types of music and identify them by style or genre. Play a “name that music style” game!

My First Classical Music Book by Genevieve Helsby
Allegro by David W. Barghigiani
Can You Hear It? by William Lach
Music Is. . . by Johnston

Picture Books About Opera:

Sing Me a Story: The Metropolitan Opera’s Book of Opera Stories for Children by Jane Rosenberg
Bravo! Brava! A Night at the Opera by Anne Siberell
The Barefoot Book of Stories from the Opera by Shahrukh Husain
Opera Cat and Encore, Opera Cat! by Tess Weaver
The Great Poochini by Gary Clement
Pet of the Met by Don Freeman
The Magic Flute: An Opera by Mozart by Kyra Teis
Madame Butterfly: The Story of the Opera by Giacomo Puccini by J. Alison James

Picture Books to Teach about Instruments

Tip: After reading a book, watch a musical concert! Go hear a band or orchestra play in the park, at a local college, or even just on YouTube!

The Remarkable Farkle McBride by John Lithgow
Welcome to the Symphony: A Musical Exploration of the Orchestra Using Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 by Carolyn Sloan
Ben’s Trumpet by Rachel Isadora
The Story Orchestra: Four Seasons in One Day by Jessica Courtney-Tickle
Zin Zin a Violin by Lloyd Moss
The Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music! by Robert Levine
Meet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes
Music Over Manhattan by Mark Karlins
88 Instruments by Chris Barton

Books of Songs

Tip: There are so many fun books that use songs as the lyrics. Don’t just read these books, sing them! If you don’t know the tune, look it up on YouTube, or get my A Folk Song a Week online course or the 10 Songs All Preschoolers Should Know online course.