Ages 13 and up

A serious down-to-earth approach can be used for students of this age, as they should generally know enough to understand much of this site, and should be able to independently explore the content providied here. Simple projects would be interesting, and can serve as indicators of the students’ understanding.

Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

(Learning through Music: Young Person’s Guide)
Young Person’s Guide is geared more toward older children, or should we say, young adults. It systematically introduces the various instruments of the orchestra, grouped according to the the sections they belong to. Listening to it alone is quite comprehensive!

Possible Activities
Listen to Young Person’s Guide.
Ask your students to do more detailed research project on certain instruments. It would be great to let students choose the instruments they would like to find out about. The result could be a written report or class sharing session.

Other Activities

Have your students browse through the instruments section of this site. You may want to highlight certain instruments, or guide the students through the various sections.
Allow students to browse this site freely. They might particularily want to check out the Learning through Music section. The Orchestra may also generate interest, although the History section could turn out to be quite heavy reading.
Other reading - You could suggest your students read up more about the orchestra and its instruments from various books. We recommend some below.
Projects - You may want to have your students research in greater detail about the history of certain instruments, or about the orchestra. The result could be in the form of a report or a class sharing session.

Book Recommendations

A Young Person's Guide to Music
by Neil Ardley, Poul Ruders (Composer), Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra
DK Publishing, 1995. ISBN: 0789403137
Solid content on the orchestra and instruments, with photographs of the instruments.

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra : Benjamin Britten's Composition on CD
by Anita Ganeri, Ben Kingsley (Contributor)
Harcourt Brace, 1996. ISBN: 0152013040
Follows Britten’s Young Person’s Guide section by section, part by part. The accompanying CD rendition by Kingsley is not the best, but still reasonable.