Can You Hear It?

Our 4-year-old is the artist and biologist, but our 3-year-old is more physical and loves music. I was looking for something specifically for him and his love of music, and I came across "Can You Hear It?" on Amazon. I'm so glad I bought it! Each piece of music is short, but focused, and a little child can easily find the things he's listening for. Plus, my boys love to play and dance along with the music, bouncing like kangaroos for "The Carnival of the Animals: Finale" by Camille Saint-Saens, buzzing like bees during Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", or ice skating during Vivaldi's "Winter (Allegro)". Their favorite by far, though, is the "Comic Duet for Two Cats," attributed to Rossini (who also composed "La Cenerentola", which I love to watch/listen to). Now my boys are MEE-OWWWing to opera and loving it!The artwork is also wonderfully chosen, and visually arresting. Plenty for the boys to look at, and they do. I take the CD and book out at bedtime, but first thing when they wake up, they have the set and are dancing and meowing and reading the book. Furthermore, they've begun listening to other classical CDs I have, which means they are benefiting from the introduction as I'd hoped they would. But nothing could match the delight we take as parents watching our boys laugh and play and romp - in some startlingly funny ways - to classical music.Note: One of the selections is "Billy the Kid: Gun Battle," by Aaron Copland, which replicates the sound of a pitched gun battle. If you have objections to gun play, then you will like to know about this before you purchase. However, the rest of the book (I think) certainly outweighs that in terms of value and enjoyment. Of course, my boys pretend to shoot marshmallows at each other (as well as zucchini, rutabagas, carrots, cookies, and pigeon feathers), so... yeah.

This book is a great idea, but in practice I didn't find it to be very good. My daughter and I do a lot of listening to classical music and imagining what we think is happening, etc., so I was excited about the concept, but in the end I prefer doing just that with our imaginations rather than trying to juggle a book of art and a cd player. I found it "awkward" to change the song for each page, and my daughter, three, listened for a few seconds, declared "yes I hear the bees" and then, ok let's move onto the next song. (I recommend getting a basic kids classical cd that organizes songs by themes like animals, some even have introductory poems to help the kids imagine the composer's intent-- then they can dance and pretend away!) Integrating artwork was a great idea but in practice it seems "forced"-- Maybe for those who like a more "flashcard" approach just for exposing their child to art wouldn't mind it. I didn't care for some of the selections of "scarier" scenes, such as the art featuring skeletons paired with the fossil composition, or another with sort of odd looking knights going into battle (I'm no pacifist, just sensitive to my three year old daughter's sensibilities- my daughter didn't say she was scared, but I saw the facial expression and read between the lines when she said she liked it but liked to listen to this one "with YOU"). I gave it three stars because it might work for some, and because I did like having a sort of guide to interpreting the music. There is a much more detailed introduction than I expected, with descriptions of various instruments. You might try it-- other people seemed to indicate that their children liked it...I just found it a bit awkward.

This short book begins with a quick overview of a few orchestral instruments, and then proceeds to present 13 paintings covering a broad range of genres. The book is accompanied by a CD which includes a classical music selection for each of the 13 paintings.The reader is asked to imagine that certain elements in the music correspond to certain elements in each painting. We felt that this correspondence was usually pretty good, but some cases seemed to be a stretch, so we were sometimes a bit disappointed and felt that we could have come up with better and more correspondences.But the concept behind this book is certainly good and innovative, and makes this book a unique resource, so I recommend it to parents interested in introducing their kids to both paintings and classical music.Another good resource to consider is  Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!  by Robert Levine, which provides a much more comprehensive introduction to orchestral instruments.

We just got this and I pulled it out while the kids (7, 6, 4.5, 2) were working on a craft. I just pushed play and showed them the first picture and asked them to see if they could hear the bumblebee. They wanted to do every picture and song in the book! They have pulled it out themselves a few times since (it hasn't been a week yet) and asked to listen to the music. I wasn't sure how they'd like this but they all gather around and especially love the "Meow" song. We also like to dance and pretend to be the dancing skeletons, bumblebees, ice skaters, etc. I would definitely recommend this book! Great for learning, fun, and bonding!

Last week, we purchased "Can You Hear It?" -- well, our 6 year old daughter opened the book, popped the CD into her player, and was instantly smitten! She LOVES this book (and the music) and says it is now her very favorite book! She loves the music, and reading the informative text (and tells me what she has learned). When playing the CD, she also dances around the room to imitate the sounds and images that the music and artwork inspire in her. This is a wonderful way to build music and art appreciation in children - and in my daughter's case, creative movement and dance, too! We would love it if Mr. William Lach (Sr. Editor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) were to make a sequel (and, yes, more sequels) to this book. We would be instant buyers, if so!

This book is for artistically inclined students, I loved the quality. I wish it did even more to explain the artwork, but the basics of music and the intro to different artistic styles is well worth it. Would recommend.

I teach music and am married to a visual artist so this book is an excellent match!! Beautiful works of art paired with timeless pieces of music. The book offers not only guiding questions about the art/music, but also includes some explanation about each.

Book was brand new and exactly what I was looking for.

Great to foster music appreciation!

Super book. I can recommend for class no home