Help me make a classroom mix for my 3rd graders!
September 6, 2011 7:49 AM   Subscribe

I need music to focus, yet stimulate young minds.

I've got a few mixes with various world music/jazz/classical tunes that have gone over well for more active hands-on lessons, but I'd like to put together a few new mixes for the beginning of the school year. I mostly need music for homework/study time, but I'm open to livelier suggestions as well. Thank you!

also, I've got the they might be giants stuff, which is awesome, but it kind of takes over the class when it's on.
posted by shrimpsmalls to Education (8 answers total)
 
Whenever I needed to study, I used to put on either the Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations (1955), or Ravel's String Quartet.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:57 AM on September 6, 2011


Mozart probably goes without saying, but his Divertimento in D Major is my favorite music to read by.

For jazz, you can't lose when Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis play together. For kids though, Sketches of Spain might be more accessible.
posted by jwhite1979 at 8:06 AM on September 6, 2011


My ADD'd son liked Chet Atkins for studying.
posted by Ideefixe at 8:48 AM on September 6, 2011


I always play Beethoven's 6th when I'm writing. (Or, back when I was writing, in college and high school.) It's pleasant and sort of fades into the background most of the time, but has the big five-minute-or-so climax (I'm sure there's a technical word for this in music, but I don't know it) about a half-hour in. It creates a perfect "oh hey, listen to the pretty music!" break from working, then gets right back to being nice, calm background sound.
posted by phunniemee at 8:50 AM on September 6, 2011


This is music to play during study time?

Please consider that some of the kids will be like me - simply unable to study well when any sort of music is playing, because we're so into music it demands our full attention - even if it's music we don't especially like. Please think about giving such kids the opportunity to study undisturbed, or at least that only music featuring extremely unobtrusive sounds will be tolerable as background noise.
posted by Decani at 10:16 AM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


John Cage's 4'33" on a loop.

Unless you're into teaching bad study habits.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:43 AM on September 6, 2011


Maybe some soft ambient music intentionally written to provide background sounds might be less intrusive for the students Decani describes. Brian Eno's Music for Airports would be great for this.
posted by tully_monster at 1:13 PM on September 6, 2011


Do you want music with lyrics, sans lyrics or both?
posted by dgeiser13 at 1:14 PM on September 6, 2011


« Older Asian slideshow background music needed   |   Save my shoes! Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.