In this special Black History Month episode of Busy Kids Love Music, we travel back about 100 years to Harlem, New York—an exciting neighborhood overflowing with creativity, poetry, dancing, painting, and bold new musical sounds.

This remarkable time in American history is known as the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural "rebirth" that took place during the 1920s and 1930s. In this episode, we'll explore how music helped shape the Harlem Renaissance—and how the Harlem Renaissance changed the future of American music forever.

What Was the Harlem Renaissance?

The word renaissance means "rebirth." During this period, Harlem became a gathering place for African American artists, writers, and musicians who were creating fresh ideas and sharing their voices with the world.

Families arriving during the Great Migration brought musical traditions from many parts of the country. When these styles blended together in one vibrant neighborhood, something extraordinary happened.

In this episode, you'll meet some of the influential artists who helped define Harlem's sound, explore some famous Harlem venues and listen to examples of colorful music with jazz, blues and big band sounds!

Listen Along!

Check out the curated Harlem Renaissance playlist here.

As you listen, see if you can spot:

• A steady beat that makes you want to tap your foot
• Instruments taking turns playing solos
• Fast piano patterns
• Bright brass sounds like trumpets and trombones

Coming Up Next…

In the next episode of Busy Kids Love Music, we'll focus on composer Margaret Bonds, who collaborated closely with Harlem Renaissance poets and blended classical music with spirituals and jazz colors—carrying the movement's spirit into concert halls and classrooms.

Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss it!

In this episode of Busy Kids Love Music, we wrap up our three-part series on composer Igor Stravinsky with one of the most famous — and most shocking — pieces in music history: The Rite of Spring.

When this ballet premiered in Paris in 1913, audiences expected graceful dancing and pretty melodies. Instead, they heard pounding rhythms, clashing sounds, and music that felt wild and unpredictable. Some people loved it… and others were so surprised that they began shouting during the performance!

We'll explore why Stravinsky's music sounded so different from anything audiences had heard before and how this bold piece eventually became one of the most important works of the 20th century.

Get ready to listen for thunder-like drums, blasting horns, and rhythms that feel like the earth shaking beneath your feet!

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• What a ballet is and how music and dance work together
• The ancient spring rituals that inspired The Rite of Spring
• Why the music sounded shocking in 1913
• What made the rhythms and harmonies so unusual
• The famous "Rite of Spring riot"
• How this piece changed the future of classical music

Listening Challenge for Kids

When you listen to The Rite of Spring, don't try to hear it as calm or gentle music. Instead, imagine:

• Animals running
• Thunder crashing
• The ground shaking
• People dancing with all their strength

Listen for:

• Loud drums
• Blasting horns
• Fast, exciting rhythms

This is music that feels alive!

Listen to The Rite of Spring

We recommend listening to the full ballet here: 👉 Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" with Gustavo Dudamel & the LA Phil

About Busy Kids Love Music

Busy Kids Love Music is the podcast that helps families explore the music of composers, cultures, and traditions from around the world.

Hosted by piano teacher Carly Seifert, each episode includes kid-friendly storytelling, guided listening tips, and musical discoveries perfect for homeschool lessons, classroom use, or curious music lovers of all ages.

Want More Music Activities?

Check out Carly's online piano and music appreciation programs:

• Busy Kids Do Piano — Piano lessons made simple and fun
• Busy Kids Love Music Podcast Archive — Hundreds of composer adventures
• Music History Courses & Homeschool Resources

Igor Stravinsky became famous almost overnight thanks to one magical ballet — The Firebird. In this episode, I'll take you inside the glowing, mysterious world of this Russian fairy tale, filled with enchanted creatures, an evil sorcerer, brave heroes, and powerful music that tells the story without words.

Based on centuries-old Russian folk tales, The Firebird follows Prince Ivan, who captures a magical Firebird and receives a glowing feather in return for her freedom. That feather later helps him defeat Kashchei the Immortal, an evil sorcerer who has trapped princesses and turned travelers into stone. With the Firebird's help, Ivan breaks Kashchei's spell, frees the princesses, and brings peace back to the enchanted forest.

Stravinsky's music brings every moment of this story to life — from the shimmering Firebird theme to the pounding rhythms of Kashchei's Infernal Dance and the glowing, triumphant Finale.

🎵 What You'll Learn in This Episode

• The fairy-tale story behind The Firebird

• Who the Firebird, Prince Ivan, and Kashchei are

• How Stravinsky uses leitmotifs (musical themes for characters and ideas)

• How this ballet made Stravinsky famous at just 27 years old

• Why The Firebird is still one of the most loved orchestral works today

Kids will also learn how composers use music the same way movies do — giving characters their own musical "voices," just like Darth Vader, Jaws, or Hogwarts!

🎻 Featured Music in This Episode

• Suite from The Firebird (1919) – Toronto Symphony Orchestra

• Infernal Dance of King Kashchei

• Finale from The Firebird – Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel

📺 Listen & Watch

Explore famous recordings and watch scenes from The Firebird ballet here: 👉Playlist for Episode 168

🎼 What's Next?

This is Episode 2 in our 3-part Igor Stravinsky series. In our final episode, we'll dive into his most shocking and controversial work: The Rite of Spring — the piece that caused a riot!

Until next time… Keep listening and keep learning — because Busy Kids Love Music!

Igor Stravinsky, Part 1: The Composer Who Changed Music

In this episode of Busy Kids Love Music, we begin a brand-new three-part series all about one of the most bold and imaginative composers in music history: Igor Stravinsky. From ballet stages to concert halls, Stravinsky's music changed the way people thought about rhythm, sound, and storytelling in music.

In Part 1, we explore Stravinsky's life story—where he grew up, how he was introduced to music, and how he became one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

We also learn how Stravinsky's life was shaped by major world events, including two world wars, which caused his family to move from Russia to Switzerland, then France, and eventually the United States. Despite all these changes, Stravinsky continued to write groundbreaking music, proving that creativity can thrive even in difficult times. In this episode, we also explore what makes Stravinsky's music sound so different from other composers.

What's Next in the Series?

This episode is just the beginning of our Stravinsky adventure! In the next two episodes, we'll explore:

Episode 2: The Firebird – A magical ballet filled with glittering orchestral sounds and fairy-tale characters

Episode 3: The Rite of Spring – The shocking, groundbreaking work that caused one of the most famous moments in music history

🎧 Listen along with our Stravinsky playlist here

Thanks for listening to Busy Kids Love Music! Join us next time as we step into the magical world of The Firebird.

We've reached the final episode of 2025, and we're celebrating the year with something special: The Great Re-Listen Challenge! This fun year-end episode invites your family to revisit some of our favorite musical adventures from the past year — all paired with themes like Road Trip Listen, Dance Party Listen, and Bedtime Listen.

Whether you've listened to Busy Kids Love Music for years or pressed play for the very first time in 2025, thank you for making this podcast part of your musical journey. This episode is all about reflecting, reconnecting, and rediscovering the music we explored together.

🎶 What Is the Great Re-Listen Challenge?

I've selected five favorite episodes from 2025, each perfect for winter break. Families can choose one, two, or try all five! To make it even more fun, download the Re-Listen Challenge Checklist linked below so kids can check off episodes as they listen.

🎧 Your 2025 Re-Listen Challenge Picks 1. Road Trip Listen — Episode 140: New Year's Day Parade Music

Start your travels with music bursting with energy! In this upbeat episode, we explore the marching bands and festive sounds that bring New Year's Day parades to life.

2. Creativity Time — Episode 148: Music Inspired by Planet Earth

Perfect for arts and crafts time. Listen while you draw, paint, or build — this imaginative, Earth-themed music is full of color and inspiration.

3. Bedtime Listen — Episode 161: Imogen Holst's Fall of the Leaf

Soft, peaceful, and calming. This gentle cello piece feels like autumn leaves drifting through the air — a beautiful way to wind down before bed.

4. Dance Party Listen — Episode 154: Folk Music of Colombia

Turn your living room into a dance floor! With joyful rhythms and irresistible beats, this episode will get everyone moving.

5. Story Lovers Listen — Episode 144: The Life of Blind Tom Wiggins

One of my favorite episodes of the year. Blind Tom's story is inspiring, powerful, and unforgettable — a must-hear for kids and grown-ups alike.

📄 Free Download: Re-Listen Challenge Checklist

Make listening interactive! Download your checklist here. Kids can track their progress and choose which listening adventure to do next.

💛 Thank You for an Amazing Year

Thank you for learning, listening, and exploring music with me throughout 2025. Join me for our first public enrollment period of the year for Busy Kids Do Piano and Busy Moms Do Piano beginning January 1st.

Get ready for a festive round of What Was That Sound?—our special holiday edition! In today's episode, we explore four magical instruments that help create the twinkling, sparkling, joyful sound of Christmas music. Kids will listen to short audio clues and try to guess each instrument before the answer is revealed. It's a fun, interactive way to train their ears and learn musical facts!

To make the experience even more hands-on, don't forget to download the free What Was That Sound? printable worksheet linked here. Kids can write down their guesses, take notes and share what they've learned using this fun printable.

🎧 What You'll Hear in This Episode

Today's four mystery instruments all play a special role in holiday music:

• Hear the shimmering, fairy-like instrument made famous in Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Learn how Tchaikovsky fell in love with this brand-new instrument and kept it secret before the premiere of The Nutcracker!
• Discover how a certain instrument's peaceful, angelic sound creates a warm glow underneath Christmas classics like O Holy Night and appears in many holiday film scores.
• Learn how a certain instrument was originally used on real horses (hint: safety!)—and how composers from Mozart to Leroy Anderson added them to music to create a joyful, snowy atmosphere
• From Handel's Hallelujah Chorus to jazzy renditions of Jingle Bells, this instrument brings sparkle, celebration and energy to holiday music across many styles.

📄 Free Printable: What Was That Sound? — Holiday Edition

Make listening interactive! Kids can track their guesses, jot down fun facts, and bring music learning to life by downlading this printable.

🔗 Explore More Music

• Episode 18: The Trumpet | Busy Kids Do Piano
• Episode 52: The Harp | Busy Kids Do Piano
• Episode 111: Sleigh Bells | Busy Kids Do Piano

• A curated playlist of all four festive musical selections here

✨ Merry Christmas from Busy Kids Love Music!

Thank you for joining me for this joyful, interactive musical celebration. From my family to yours—Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I'll see you next time on Busy Kids Love Music.

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In this week's episode of Busy Kids Love Music, we're welcoming the Christmas season with a beautiful and expressive work by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams — a musician who adored both folk tunes and the charming old carols passed down through generations.

🎶 What You'll Hear in This Episode

In Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Vaughan Williams weaves together three traditional English carols into one imaginative and atmospheric piece for baritone, chorus, and orchestra:

• The Truth Sent from Above

• Come All You Worthy Gentlemen

• On Christmas Night All Christians Sing (often known as The Sussex Carol)

You'll learn:

• Why Vaughan Williams was passionate about preserving English folk music

• What a fantasia is and how this piece "daydreams" from one idea to another

• How the composer added "hidden" carol fragments throughout the music

• Why this work was meaningful during World War I

• Details about the piece's 1912 premiere at the Three Choirs Festival

• How Fantasia on Christmas Carols continues to inspire holiday performances today

This episode also explains the unique combination of baritone soloist, full choir, and orchestra, and how the piece begins and ends with a moving cello solo.

🎧 Listen to the Full Piece

Find the complete recording of Fantasia on Christmas Carols here.

🎄 More Christmas Music Fun

Don't miss these seasonal resources from Busy Kids Do Piano!

• Online Nutcracker Camp for Kids

• Musical Advent Calendar

🔔 Up Next

Get ready for a fun musical mystery game in our next episode: "What Was That Sound? – Holiday Edition!" We'll explore instruments of the season with festive sound-guessing challenges your kids will love.

Thanks for listening, and as always — keep listening and keep learning, because Busy Kids Love Music!

In this fun, interactive episode of Busy Kids Love Music, I invite you to step into the orchestra pit of a Broadway theater to solve some musical mysteries!

This month we've been celebrating the release of Wicked: For Good, and today's episode continues that celebration with a special "What Was That Sound?" – Musical Theater Edition! You'll hear short clips from favorite musicals and try to guess which instruments are playing. Each instrument plays a special role in creating the drama, excitement, and emotion of live theater.

This episode helps young listeners train their ears, learn about instrument families in the orchestra, and understand how each sound helps tell a musical story on stage.

🎵 Featured Musicals & Mystery Sounds

1. Wicked – "Defying Gravity"

2. Hamilton – "My Shot"

3. The Lion King – "Circle of Life"

4. The Sound of Music – "Do-Re-Mi"

🧩 Free Printable: Musical Mysteries Worksheet

Can you guess all the instruments correctly? Download the Musical Theater Edition Audio Treasure Hunt Worksheet to write your answers and keep the game going at home!

👉 Download Here

💡 Learning Highlights

• Explore four instrument families in the orchestra.

• Discover how percussion, brass, and strings add character and emotion to theater music.

• Practice active listening and build your child's musical vocabulary through play.

🎧 Keep Listening & Learning

If you enjoyed this episode, check out thh full playlist of songs featured today — perfect for singing, dancing, and listening together as a family! 👉 Playlist Link

Don't forget to listen to Episode 162 about Stephen Schwartz, the brilliant composer and lyricist behind Wicked!

💻 Explore More

• 🎹 Learn piano with Busy Kids Do Piano: busykidsdopiano.com

• 📸 Follow along on social media:

  • Instagram: @busykidsdopiano

  • Facebook: Busy Kids Do Piano

  • YouTube: Busy Kids Do Piano Channel

This month on Busy Kids Love Music, we're celebrating the magic of musical theater — and the brand-new movie Wicked: For Good! In this episode, I introduce young listeners to Stephen Schwartz, the brilliant composer and lyricist behind some of Broadway and Disney's most beloved songs.

From his early studies at Juilliard and Carnegie Mellon to writing timeless shows like Godspell, Pippin, and Children of Eden, Stephen Schwartz has spent his career creating music that inspires and uplifts. Of course, his most famous work — Wicked — reimagines the story of Oz through unforgettable songs like "Defying Gravity," "Popular," and "For Good."

As you listen, you'll learn what it means to be both a composer and a lyricist, explore Schwartz's journey to Broadway, and discover how his music brings characters' emotions to life.

🎵 Featured Music in This Episode

• "For Good" – Wicked

• "Popular" – Wicked

• "Corner of the Sky" – Pippin

• "Defying Gravity" – Wicked

• "No Good Deed" – Wicked

🧩 Free Printable: Audio Treasure Hunt

Turn this episode into an interactive listening activity! Download the Audio Treasure Hunt Worksheet from the show notes to answer fun questions about Stephen Schwartz and test your listening skills as you go. 👉 Download Here

💡 Fun Facts

• Stephen Schwartz wrote music and lyrics for Wicked, Pippin, and Godspell. Listen to a full playlist of Stephen Schwartz favorites here!

• He also penned lyrics for Disney favorites like Pocahontas ("Colors of the Wind"), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Enchanted.

• You can even spot Stephen Schwartz himself in a cameo appearance in Wicked: Part 1!

🪄 Keep Listening

This episode kicks off a month-long celebration of musical theater at Busy Kids Love Music! Stay tuned for more Wicked-themed fun and behind-the-scenes stories about Broadway composers.

🎧 Subscribe to Busy Kids Love Music wherever you get your podcasts, and don't miss a single musical adventure.

💻 Explore More

• 🎹 Learn piano with Busy Kids Do Piano: busykidsdopiano.com

• 📸 Follow along on social media:

  • Instagram: @busykidsdopiano

  • Facebook: Busy Kids Do Piano

  • YouTube: Busy Kids Do Piano Channel

In Part 2 of our Imogen Holst series, we step into the crisp, colorful world of autumn through one of her most beautiful works — The Fall of the Leaf.

Written in the 1960s and based on a 17th-century English melody of the same name, this short cello concerto paints a gentle, moody, and slightly mysterious musical picture of a single leaf drifting to the ground. We'll explore how Holst uses dissonance, movement, and mood to capture the quiet magic of an October afternoon.

This episode also includes another Audio Treasure Hunt! Download the free printable below and use it as you listen to uncover hidden clues about the music.

🎧 What you'll learn in this episode:

• How Imogen Holst adapted an ancient English tune into her own reflective composition.

• What dissonance is — and how Holst uses it to create mystery.

• How musical movement can mimic the slow, twisting drift of a falling leaf.

• Why this piece feels both peaceful and bittersweet at the same time.

💡 Listening Challenge: As you listen to The Fall of the Leaf, close your eyes and imagine:

• A single leaf falling from a tall tree.

• The wind gently blowing.

• The quiet of an October afternoon. What colors, shapes, or stories come to mind?

📍 Links & Resources:

• Download the Audio Treasure Hunt

• Listen to The Fall of the Leaf performance

• Learn more about Imogen Holst in Episode 160