Ludwig Van Beethoven has to be one of the most unusual and interesting characters to ever compose music. Here are a few ideas to help introduce him into the music classroom:

Write a short children’s story about the life of Beethoven. You can describe all the parts of Beethoven’s life that children may be interested in. Alternatively, you could write a story about one event in Beethoven’s life or a story based on one of his pieces of music. Research and Download some pictures from the internet.

Hold a class discussion on deafness and share insights on it, after looking at some of the activities below, which you may want to include in your lesson plan.

Some ideas to get you started:

Touch and feel the vibrations of various musical instruments while you play them (what happens when you play a higher or lower note?). Have you ever been to a rock concert and felt the ground vibrating with sound of the bass guitar or drum kit?

Listen to some of the music which was written when Beethoven was deaf, including the Moonlight Sonata and the String Quartet No. 13 This piece was included on Voyager’s “Golden Record” it was considered so brilliant.

Can you “hear” a tune in your head without singing it out loud? Have a class discussion.