Here are a few ideas for a music lesson all about the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. This is just an excerpt of the materials found in our Great composers series of printable music lesson plans.

Design a Facebook profile for J.S. Bach. You’ll want to include some basic information like when his birthday is, his relationship status and Relgious Views, More “personal information” like work and education backround, “Friends” (any significant people who lived at the same time as Bach) and finally you’ll want to add some “groups” that Bach may have belonged in. Finish it off with a photo found on the internet. Students not familiar with Facebook could design a passport.

Have a class discussion about what you would say if you could invite J.S. Bach to your house for a cup of tea. Have the students write down a few questions that they would like to ask him about his music, his era or anything else. Have a class discussion on what the answers would be or choose a student to be Bach and ask them some of the questions. The class could even bring in some traditional german food such as gingerbread to share to complete this activity.

Have the class do some research to find a art work on the internet that was painted in J.S. Bach’s era. You could discuss as a class the ways that the painting shows the Baroque styling of Bach’s music.