5 ‘In-genius’ Ways To Blend History And Music Studies For Teens

As a teenager I hated learning history some of the time and at other times, I really enjoyed it. 

I guess when it came to me it was about the type of history I was learning. 

If I had to learn facts and dates like the rule of each monarch in British history, I simply couldn’t stand it. 

On the other hand however, if I had to learn about historic or political upheaval and how it evolved over the years, I loved it. 

Now, if you have teens in your homeschool who are not very happy with learning history, why not blend in some music appreciation to make things more interesting? 

Don’t know how to do that?

No worries, read on and I will show you exactly how you can do so. 

For the ease of writing this post and to ensure that you don’t feel overwhelmed, I’m going to assume that your teens are learning about the middle ages in European history and relate it to music. 

In music the middle ages or the time before 1350 was considered to be the medieval times. 

So let’s get started. 

Influence Of Political And Economic Events On Music

Throughout history you will see that music has been greatly shaped by political, economic and social events. 

Hence researching monarchs of the medieval era, or wars or political events like the signing of the Magna Carta, and analyzing music from the era will be very interesting. 

Don’t forget to download and use the printables that I have made available with activities like this. 

Role Of Musicians In Society

How about discussing the roles of musicians in society?

Were they part of the clergy? Were they the educated elite?

What was their status in society? Who were their patrons and how did their music become popular and last through those troubled times?

Can you see how interesting research of this nature would be to your teens when compared to simply learning dates about the rule of different monarchs?

Instruments And Composers Of The Era

You can ask your teens to carry out a research study on the different composers who lived during the medieval era in music. 

What about expanding the study to include the musical instruments used during the era, such as the sackbut for instance. 

You can ask your teens to create a playlist of songs played with a specific instrument and have it playing in the background. 

On the other hand you can ask your teens to create an entire playlist of songs by a specific composer and listen to that in the background. 

One word of caution though, most music during the medieval era were worship and religious chants, hence this could get quite tedious. 

Comparisons Of The Era

Another great activity for teens would be to compare and contrast the music from the medieval era in music to music from the baroque era for instance. 

This would enable them to analyze how musical structure, style and pattern have evolved through the ages. 

Learn With An Online Unit Study

Why not take the learning further and enrol them in an online unit study that covers all aspects of music to different historic eras and geographic locations, thus giving you a wide range of opportunities to blend history and geography studies with music appreciation? 

Don’t have such a course, then preview an online unit study of my History of Music courses and click here to get a 50% discount. 

I can’t wait to hear what you think of these ideas. 

So please comment below. 

Don’t forget to download the worksheets I have made available so your teen can take his learning to the next level.