Amazing Water, fun, palatable intro to classical music for all ages

Classical music makes you smart. I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s the go-to programming for people once they find out that they’re going to be parents. We got one of those classical music or baby CD’s when our first was born, as you probably did too-or gave one as a baby shower gift. Amazing Water serves that purpose and then some for older kids who genuinely want to learn about classical music, its history and the people who make it.

As with the other release from The Secret Mountain we reviewed it comes with a book. Amazing Water is incredibly thorough in its presentation of 20 pieces of classical music. Each piece has something to do with water, it could be that it’s in the name of the composition or the music gives you the sense of water, springs or the ocean.

The book is much thicker than you expect, features an overview, detailed explanation of each piece, its title or background on the composer. Each of those overviews comes with some nice artwork that would also be at home in a children’s book. Keep reading and you’ll find the listening guide next that tells background information on each piece. It roughly tells you what types of instruments you hear, what makes it unique and uses advanced musical terminology so that any age can legitimately learn things.

Don’t be put off by the big words like ‘pianissimo’, ‘dissonance’, ‘glockenspiel’ or others because there’s a glossary at the back of the book. Not to be outdone there is also a short biography of each composer, many of whom I’ve never heard of. Amazing Water goes far beyond Beethoven to Offenbach, Carisimi and many others, including a couple opera pieces.

Variety is the slice of life and opera for me is hard to listen to, however, Amazing Water makes the subject of classical approachable to any age. The book is best suited to kids that are upper elementary school and up because there is lots of reading that they’ll want to dig into. The music in Amazing Water is great for any age and is a great way to expand their musical mind.