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[Today’s guest post “6 Ways to Teach Music in Your Homeschool Without Private Music Lessons” is by contributor Misty Leask.]

I love music. I believe that music is the voice of the soul. My love for music greatly comes from my parents who ensured that my brothers and I were surrounded by music in our everyday life. We sang in our Sunday School classes and with the Patch the Pirate Club in our church. As a teen, I joined our church’s choir and was the pianist on Wednesday nights. I also had the opportunity to sing as part of a group in a homeschool convention. At home, we sang together as a family daily.

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

Private Music Lessons

My parents bought me a piano when I was a little girl that I still have today. I couldn’t even begin to play it yet, but they bought it desiring that one day I would. However, neither of them could play the piano, so as part of my homeschooling journey early on I began taking private music lessons.

As a mom, I always imagined that my children would grow up loving music as much as I did. When I began homeschooling, I figured that they would take private music lessons as part of our homeschooling journey. At times that has been the case, but for the majority of our homeschooling journey, they have not.

In the past, the fact that neither of my children has wanted to take private music classes made me sad. I felt like I had let my parents down because I had failed to teach my children to love music. This was a heartbreaking thought to me.

We’ve entered the teen years now and as they’ve begun to grow into their own people, I’ve made a discovery. Both of my children do in fact love music. It didn’t happen like I thought or planned for, but they love music. Their preferred music genres aren’t mine, but still, they love music. At times they even listen to my “old” music and enjoy it as well.

You may be struggling to find a way to cover music without using private music lessons. It may be for financial reasons or your children just may be uninterested like mine. Whatever the case is, do not be discouraged or push music class to the side for your homeschool. There are several different ways to teach music in your homeschool without private music lessons – and have fun doing so!

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

6 Ways to Teach Music in Your Homeschool Without Private Music Lessons

Online Courses

My son is taking this 20^th Century Music Appreciation online course for his sophomore year of high school and he is loving it. It is taking him out of his preferred music genre and exposing him to different styles of music and composers. Which I love! What I love most about his music class this year is that he wanted to complete this course…he picked it out!

Get 25 FREE online music lessons here:

Sampler Music Appreciation Mini-Course

Composer Studies

One of the first online resources we used when my children were little was composer studies. As a pianist and violinist I love classical music, so I knew that I wanted them introduced to it at a young age. Once they were able to start writing on their own we began using a notebooking style for our composer studies.

Literature

One of my plans for our high school music classes is to have my children read biographies of famous composers. In order to truly understand the music of a particular composer, we need to take time to look through their eyes. By learning about a composer’s life it allows us to understand the emotions of their music because music truly is the voice of the soul.

Writing

For my children covering writing in our music class goes hand in hand with literature. However, I know that not all children love to read or write, so I’m separating them for that reason here. After my children read biographies they are required to write a paper or essay, (depending on their age/ability), about the person. If your children do not like to read, you could have them write what they’ve learned about the composer through online courses or other music studies they’ve completed.

Hymn Studies

I love completing hymn studies with my children because hymns are such a beautiful part of the history of music. In many lyrics today you won’t find the depth of spirituality that you do in the hymns of yesteryear. When we complete hymn studies we study new vocabulary words, learn about the author, sing the hymns, practice penmanship by writing out the lyrics and I either play the hymn on the piano or we listen to it on YouTube. These free hymn study worksheets are helpful for teaching your children how to do a hymn study on their own.

Music Theory

One of the most important steps of music class is learning theory. Without learning music theory you can’t play, read or sing from sheet music. Music theory is a great way to teach music without using private music lessons or prior to them. You can get started easily with these free music notes and symbols printables or through Music Theory online or their apps.

Looking for Beginning Music Theory video lessons?

Gena Mayo and her daughter teach them here:

Conclusion

How you cover music in your homeschool isn’t important. Take time to share your love of music with your children. Expose them to different genres of music. Ensure that you discuss lyrics or genres that you don’t like/agree with. Your children will be making their own decisions sooner than you think and they need to know the how, where, when and whys behind your beliefs, not just ‘because I said so’.

Music in your homeschool should be a class that is both fun and engaging, as well as inspiring! Private music lessons do have their place, but there is so much more to music than can be found in a 30-minute time slot.

How do you teach music in your homeschool without private music lessons?

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Misty is a Daughter of THE King, Texas girl, Navy brat at heart, loving Fisherman’s wife, blessed homeschooling mother of 2, founder of Year Round Homeschooling and author of Beautiful Ashes. She is passionate about being real through every stage of life and encouraging homeschool moms throughout their homeschool journey. Her heart is full of ideas and passions, but the hours in her day never multiply to get it all done. Misty enjoys reading, music and photography in her spare time. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.