This is a book that opens children to playful ways of thinking about music and instruments.
Sounds Good! – Discover 50 Instruments
An interactive introduction to musical instruments, light-hearted, engaging and with 50 original compositions to listen to—from the kazoo to the bassoon.
What does a double bass or a sitar sound like? What’s the difference between bongos and congas? Which instrument has only one note? Which one takes just 30 seconds to learn? What do these instruments really sound like?
This book engagingly presents 50 common and uncommon musical instruments with practical and curious facts that will spark interest in music of all kinds. Each instrument features a piece of music composed by an award-winning musician, accessed via QR code.
With instruments presented outside conventional categories, the book is open to all ways of listening and learning. Aspects of history, music theory and culture are lightly mixed with information about how instruments are made and played. Instruments of all sorts include the voice and computer, unusual instruments such as the theremin and vuvuzela, alongside those that are well known.
QR codes on each page link to 52 individual instruments and a code on the cover takes you to a full band joyously bringing all the instruments in the book together.
Downloadable classroom resource
COMING MARCH 2024
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Book Details
Country of Origin Germany Reader Age 5-7 year, 6-8 year Book Size ISBN
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Reviews
Available worldwide from your local bookstore or online.
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English 4-11 –
This is a hugely enjoyable introduction to actually 52 instruments arranged outside conventional
categories. Each instrument has a double page spread with a wonderful illustration of a different
cartoon style animal playing it, along with a light touch explanation of its origin, how it is made
and played and perhaps its cultural significance. Then there is a QR code which when scanned by
a mobile phone, takes you to a YouTube recording of it playing one of Hans Könnecke’s special
compositions. These are just long enough to give a sense of the tone and mood of the instrument
and I loved the jazzy organ after the playful, “No-one would ever dream of playing secular…music
on it. NEVER do you hear?’”. Whimsically they often include elements from the illustration, so that
you can hear the buzzing bee with the cello, the croaking frogs with the clarinet and the watery
environs of the saxophonist. I learnt about new instruments such as the Lur, the Theremin and the Kalimba as well as why
the English Horn is called the Cor Anglais. It was great that the human voice was celebrated in its four pitches and the nonword
pieces they sang conveyed the true beauty of each one. This is an exciting introduction to the wealth of possibilities
in the world of music for 5-10 year olds and I thoroughly recommend it.
SB
Book Riot –
This really fun 100+ page picture book describes 50 instruments. On each page, there’s a silly picture of animals playing the instruments as well as a QR code that kids can scan with a phone to listen to the instrument. Kids can easily spend hours with this book; my daughter does! I appreciate the wide range of instruments featured in the book, from more common instruments like saxophones and violins to ones not often shown in children’s books, like theremins and kalimbas.