120: Harry Potter-Inspired Music Appreciation Lessons for Homeschool Families

Have your children fallen in love with the world of Harry Potter? What if you could use that excitement to teach meaningful music appreciation concepts in your homeschool?

In this episode of the Music in Our Homeschool Podcast, Gena Mayo explores how the beloved Harry Potter stories can become a springboard for learning about music appreciation, orchestral instruments, storytelling through music, composition, and movie soundtracks. You'll discover how composers use music to create emotion, build suspense, and help audiences connect with characters and stories.

Learn about the famous composer John Williams and his unforgettable music for the Harry Potter films. Gena explains the concept of leitmotifs, introduces the magical-sounding celesta featured in Hedwig's Theme, and shares simple listening activities you can use with your homeschool students. You'll also learn about the fascinating history of the flute and explore how different types of flutes have been used around the world for thousands of years.

Be sure to visit the accompanying blog post to access videos, musical examples, and a Spotify playlist that bring these lessons to life. 

Whether your children are devoted Harry Potter fans or simply enjoy fantasy stories, this episode will help them become musical detectives while developing a deeper appreciation for the power of music in storytelling.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/a-harry-potter-music-lesson/

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Transcript

Harry Potter-inspired Music Lessons for Homeschool

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. I'm Gena Mayo, homeschooling mom of eight, music teacher, and creator of Music in Our Homeschool, where I help busy homeschooling families easily include a quality fine arts and music education without stress, overwhelm, or the feeling that they have to become an expert themselves.

Today, we're stepping into a world of castles, courage, mysterious creatures, friendship, ancient traditions, magical objects, and of course, music. We're talking about using Harry Potter-inspired music lessons in your homeschool. But before we get started, I want to mention that this epi sode goes along with See the full lesson over at MusicinOur Homeschool.com HarryPotter Since this is a podcast, I can't play all of the musical examples for you here, but I'll describe what to listen for, and visit that accompanying [00:01:00] blog post to hear the music, see the suggested videos, and use everything else included. All right, let's get started. 

If you've listened to me for any length of time, you probably know that one of my favorite homeschool philosophies is this: learning becomes much more memorable when subjects connect. History becomes more meaningful with art. Literature becomes more engaging with music. Geography becomes more memorable with folk songs. Bible study becomes richer through hymns.

 Connections help ideas stick, and that's one reason why themed lessons have worked so well in my own homeschool, and I think they can work well in yours, too. When children become excited about a subject or topic they already enjoy, they naturally become willing learners.

And for many families, Harry Potter has become one of those topics. Whether your kids have read the books, [00:02:00] watched the movies, or simply enjoy fantasy there are surprising opportunities to study music appreciation through that world. 

Today, we'll explore storytelling in music, instruments, leitmotifs, orchestration, composition, and even why music can feel magical. 

Long before movies existed, people paired stories with music. Think about ancient bards singing stories, operas, folk songs passed down from generation to generation, ballet. For centuries, music has helped people tell stories before most people could read books. Music communicated emotions such as joy, fear, mystery, triumph, sadness, heroism, suspense.

Even today, imagine watching a dramatic movie scene with no soundtrack at all. Looking at a flying scene [00:03:00] without hearing soaring strings, or a scary scene without tense music, or a triumphal ending without any powerful chords. It just wouldn't feel the same. Music teaches us how to feel what we're seeing, and that's one reason why movie composers are so important.

They became storytellers without words. When many people think of Harry Potter music, they immediately think of John Williams. John Williams composed the music for the first three Harry Potter films, and of course, much of that music continued through the rest of the films, too. But he also wrote movie music for Star Wars, Jurassic Park, E.T.,Indiana Jones, Home Alone, and so many more. Children often realize they already know his music without knowing who he is, and that's a fun discussion. You could say, "How many movie themes can you recognize?" John Williams is a [00:04:00] wonderful gateway into orchestra music, too, because his compositions are memorable and emotional.

One of the most important music concepts your children can learn from movie scores is the idea of a leitmotif. A leitmotif is a short musical idea connected to a character or an object, a place, an emotion, or an idea. Every time you hear that theme, your brain remembers the connection. Composers have used leitmotifs for hundreds of years.

Richard Wagner famously used them in his operas. That's why the word leitmotif is German. You might also hear it being called a motif, a motive, or a theme. 

Movie composers continue using them today. Ask your children these questions: Do heroes usually have major or minor-sounding themes? What would bravery sound like? What would [00:05:00] danger sound like? What would friendship sound like?

So let's think about one of the most recognizable themes connected with Harry Potter. Even people who've never watched the movies often recognize it. Why? Because composers intentionally use musical tools, and children can become musical detectives through this activity. 

So listen to Hedwig's Theme, and the first instrument you will hear is called a celesta. It's an instrument often associated with magical sounds. It looks like a small piano. It has a regular keyboard just like a piano, but the sounds are bell-like. It's soft and sparkling, and it's mysterious. You could ask your children, "What does this instrument make you think of?" They might say something like stars or fairies or dreams or magic.

The [00:06:00] instrument the celesta is also the instrument you'll hear in The Sugarplum Fairy from The Nutcracker.

Another technique that a composer uses in deciding what movie music to play for a particular character or idea is whether they're doing it in a minor key or a major key. Minor keys often sound mysterious or serious. You can compare a Happy Birthday-type feeling, which is major, to a minor piece like Hedwig's Theme, which portrays mystery or uncertainty Children can learn to hear this difference over time. 

Another thing you hear in Hedwig's Theme are sudden leaps in the melody. Try to sing the tune, and you'll find it's not as easy as some other tunes to sing. The leaps create surprise, and the surprise makes it feel magical. 

[00:07:00] Orchestration is another technique composers use, and that's when they intentionally choose what instruments to play. So as we said, this piece Hedwig's Theme starts with just the celesta, but then you'll hear the strings start soaring up and down and up and down, and then you hear the brass, the French horns playing the same melody, but now it sounds bolder and stronger. Composers choose those instrument combinations very carefully.

So here is another easy homeschooling activity you can do. Pick a piece of soundtrack music. It could be from Harry Potter or any other movie that your children like to watch, and listen together. What instruments stand out? Is it in a major or a minor key? Is it fast or slow? Is it loud or soft? If they had never heard this music before, ask them what character they think it might [00:08:00] represent.

Now let's move on to something else that you might hear from Harry Potter. In the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry is given a flute from Hagrid, and he uses that flute to do something important in the book, which I won't say because I don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't already read the book.

But let's talk about the flute a bit. For thousands of years, humans have used simple wind instruments like a flute. The ancient shepherds played them. Many cultures created bone flutes that have survived to this day, thousands of years old. Wooden flutes have been created worldwide. Flutes can be made from so many different materials: bone, wood, bamboo, reed, and now plastic and metal.

The basic description of a flute is that it's cylindrical, and it [00:09:00] has holes in it, and when you put your fingers over the holes, you're changing the length of the tubing to create a different pitch. You can either blow into it, as you would if you were playing a recorder, or you blow across the top, like you do with a metal flute that's in an orchestra, or the pan flutes.

And the pan flutes, which are Andean instruments from countries such as Peru, are different wooden tubes connected all together, and you blow in different ones of them to create the pitches. So I've included several videos of different flutes playing so you can compare the different tones of the different types of flutes.

Now, ask your children when they listen to these, which one do you think that Harry's flute most sounded like? They don't use the flute in the movie, so this is something you just have to picture from the book.

 I hope you've [00:10:00] enjoyed talking about a couple of different things related to the Harry Potter books and movies and music. And maybe you're thinking that you want to continue with some of these types of music lessons. I have so much over at Music in Our Homeschool that I think you'll enjoy. So head over there today and find some lessons to try out at MusicinOurHomeschool.com/harrypotter, and I will see you next time on the Music in Our Homeschool podcast.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/a-harry-potter-music-lesson/