I was first introduced to classical music in high school. I knew absolutely nothing about music. I had played soccer instead of learning an instrument. I never sang in the choir. I had no idea what the little dots and lines meant on a page of music.
In my junior year, I took a music appreciation course from the band teacher. He was not terribly exciting, but he loved classical music. I still remember him putting on a recording of one of Mozart’s symphonies.
I was mesmerized.
Over the course of that year I was introduced to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and many more. I met people and music I didn’t even know existed. It was revelatory.
I created The Story of Great Music to open these worlds to students. I hope it’s one of the most rewarding classes they ever take.
Table of Contents
- What your student actually gets from this course
- The problem with how music appreciation is usually taught
- Why classical music, specifically?
- What makes The Story of Great Music different
- What The Story of Great Music looks like in practice
- No musical training required
- Comparing to other options
- Music on your homeschool transcript
- About Thomas Purifoy Jr.
- Frequently Asked Questions
Here’s a taste of what’s waiting. This is Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony No. 94. The second movement earned its name for an obvious reason, which you’ll hear about thirty seconds in. It’s been delighting audiences since 1792.
1. What your student actually gets from this course
By the end of The Story of Great Music, your student will be able to sit down in a concert hall, hear a piece he has never encountered before, and understand what he is listening to. He’ll know what era it’s from, what the composer was responding to, and why the musicians on stage are doing what they’re doing.
He’ll also, very likely, love it.
That’s not a common outcome from a fine arts credit. Most students finish a music appreciation course knowing a few names and dates. Almost none of them go home and put on Brahms because they want to hear his Second Symphony.
This course is designed to produce that last kind of student: one who has companions in music that will be with him for the rest of his life.
“I have been very impressed with the foundational knowledge he acquired throughout the course! He has been able to draw parallels between modern music elements and the period where they originated. As a trained music educator, I am very pleased with his musical awareness that resulted!”
Bekah A.
Try a free lesson and see for yourself.
Here is one of Brahms’ Intermezzos played by young pianist Arthur Jussen. It is the picture of Brahms’ synthesis of the classical and romantic traditions in music. It’s also one of my favorite pieces he wrote.
2. The problem with how music appreciation is usually taught
There are two ways music usually gets taught to students, and both fall short.
The first approach is reading. Books about music are wonderful (I have dozens of them). But there’s a fundamental problem: you can’t hear them. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony opens with one of the most famous motifs in all of Western music, but until you’ve actually heard it, you have no idea what that means. The information floats without an anchor.
The second approach is listening without context. Put on a recording, listen, done. The music goes in one ear and out the other. Why does this symphony have four movements? What was Beethoven responding to when he wrote this? Why does this conductor’s performance sound different from that one’s? Without the story, the music is beautiful noise.
What works is combining story, explanation, and performance in the same moment. Read about Vivaldi, then immediately watch a live performance of the Four Seasons. Learn who Bach was and why he mattered, then hear the Goldberg Variations played by Glenn Gould. Understand what a string quartet is, then watch four musicians perform one together.
That’s what I tried to build: a single narrative of Western music from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century, with the best available live performances woven in.
Here is George Szell (one of the most famous conductors of the 20th century) rehearsing the start of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Notice how he stops, explains what he’s looking for from the orchestra, then gets it. Students who see this stop thinking of classical music as background noise. They start hearing it as a conversation.
3. Why classical music, specifically?
With so many subjects competing for space on a homeschool transcript, why should classical music earn a place?
Classical music represents five centuries of people trying to make something beautiful: an act of worship, an act of craft, a way of expressing the full range of human experience. Bach signed his compositions Soli Deo Gloria, meaning “to the glory of God alone.” Handel wrote Messiah in twenty-two days and reportedly wept while writing the “Hallelujah” chorus. These weren’t entertainers chasing an audience. They were artists making something meant to endure.
There’s also a simple practical case. A student who grows up knowing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky has a richer inner life. She has companions (and that is exactly the word I would use) that will be with her for the rest of her life.
My hope is that by the time your student is finished with this course, she’ll consider these composers new friends. That’s what happened to me, forty years ago, in a band room with a mild-mannered teacher who happened to love extraordinary music.
This is the Choir of King’s College Cambridge performing the Hallelujah Chorus. King’s College is one of the great choral institutions in the world, founded in 1441. When you hear this, you’re hearing something that connects directly to the world Handel was composing for. Students who reach the Handel unit almost always come back and watch this a second time on their own.
4. What makes The Story of Great Music different
At the heart of this course is a narrative: a single continuous story running from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. Students don’t study Mozart in isolation; they understand why Mozart came after Haydn and before Beethoven, what he was responding to, what he invented, and what he left behind. Music isn’t a collection of disconnected masterpieces. It’s a conversation across centuries, and every great composer is responding to the ones who came before.
Alongside the narrative are live performances. I spent a long time finding the best recordings of great music performed by gifted musicians, then wove them into the story. When students read about Vivaldi’s L’Estro armonico, they watch soloists perform it with a period orchestra. When they reach Bach, they hear “Sheep May Safely Graze” — one of those pieces that stays with you. The course includes hundreds of performances from some of the greatest musicians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The course also provides curated listening playlists for each composer and guidance on building a home listening library. If your student falls in love with Brahms (which happens), she’ll know which recordings to look for.
Here is Lang Lang and his wife Gina Alice performing Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” It’s one of those pieces that overwhelms you with its beauty the first time you hear it.
5. What The Story of Great Music looks like in practice
The course follows the story of Western music across 16 lessons:
- Renaissance: Early church music, minstrels, madrigals; Palestrina and Monteverdi; English Renaissance music
- Early Baroque: The Italian Baroque; Vivaldi; Purcell; the German Baroque
- Handel: His life; vocal music; instrumental music; Messiah
- Bach: His life; chamber and orchestral music; large choral works
- Haydn: His life; the sonata form; his music
- Mozart: Early and later life; his music in full
- Beethoven: Early, middle, and late periods; the revolution he made
- Early German Romantics: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann
- French Romantics: Berlioz, Saint-Saëns
- Masters of the Piano: Chopin and Liszt
- Romantic Opera: Weber, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner
- Brahms: Early and later years; his great works
- Romantic Nationalism: Dvořák, Grieg
- Russian Romantics: Tchaikovsky and the Russian Five
- French Impressionism: Debussy and Ravel
- Finland, England, and America: Sibelius, Elgar, Gershwin
Each lesson includes readings, live performance video, listening playlists, and optional research projects. There’s also a Listening Journal, where students record their impressions of specific pieces over time — a record of a musical education as it happens.
This is organist Leo van Doeselaar performing the Toccata and Fugue in D minor with the Netherlands Bach Society. Although many students have heard snippets of classical music (like this one), hearing the complete piece is completely transformative experience. Bach was the greatest organist of his age, and probably the greatest composer of all time. At least, that’s what Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn thought. (Along with Schumann, Chopin, Wagner, Brahms, Ravel…)
6. No musical training required
You don’t need any musical background to take this course. Your student doesn’t need to play an instrument, read music, or have any prior exposure to classical music.
I didn’t. When I sat in that band room and heard Mozart for the first time, I was the definition of non-musical.
The course is designed for students who are like I was in high school: students who have grown up with pop music or contemporary worship and have never heard the kind of music that Handel spent his whole life making. The goal isn’t to produce musicologists. The goal is to produce students who love great music and know why they love it.
Cathy Duffy reviewed the class and noted that it is “much more in-depth than most other courses on the history of music” she has reviewed, and that no prior familiarity with music is required. That matches my intention exactly. You can try free lessons here.
Here is American pianist Murray Perahia playing Chopin’s Nocturne No. 1 in F major. I love the Nocturnes. Chopin wrote these as pieces of pure feeling. Take a moment and enjoy the beauty.
7. Comparing to other options
Most alternatives fall into one of two categories: programs designed for younger students, or pieced-together approaches that lack a unifying narrative.
Music in Our Homeschool (Nicole Inversma)
A popular subscription-based program covering music history, theory, and appreciation across multiple age groups. Well-organized and accessible, with a gentle entry point for families new to structured music study.
It covers broad ground and is a solid choice for a lighter introduction or a range of ages. The pacing is gentler and the depth is shorter. It doesn’t attempt the sustained narrative arc that The Story of Great Music builds across 16 lessons.
Choose Music in Our Homeschool if you have younger students, want a subscription format with multiple courses, or want something lighter as a supplement rather than a standalone high school elective.
Choose The Story of Great Music if your student is 13 or older, you want a full fine arts credit, and the goal is musical love and literacy, not just exposure.
The History of Classical Music (Hillsdale College)
A free online lecture series covering Western classical music at the college level.
Hillsdale’s course is excellent and free: a solid college-level survey. The tradeoff is that it’s lectures only — no live performances, no playlists, no Listening Journal, no structured assignments. It’s best suited for a motivated, self-directed student or as a parent supplement.
Choose the Hillsdale course if your student is ready for a college lecture format or you want a free parent supplement alongside this course.
Choose The Story of Great Music if you want a structured homeschool course with assignments, quizzes, curated performances, and a full credit built for high school students.
Standard listening-and-worksheet approaches
Many families piece together a music appreciation course from library books and YouTube recordings. The limitation is coherence. Without a narrative connecting the composers, the listening feels like disconnected facts. There’s no one to tell you why Beethoven mattered, or what he broke, or what he handed to the composers who came after him.
Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is a piece almost every student has heard. When they encounter it in the course, I want them to notice something new: how tightly constructed it is, how every phrase answers the one before it, how nothing is wasted. That’s the difference between hearing music and understanding it.
8. Music on your homeschool transcript
Credit: ½ or 1 HS Fine Arts Elective. May be listed as Music History and Appreciation, Fine Arts, or Music Appreciation.
Age: 13+. Motivated middle school students can benefit as well.
Price: $180
Format: Streaming, 18 months of access from purchase date.
Self-pacing: Entirely self-paced. Complete in one semester or spread across a full year.
What’s included: Reading assignments, performance videos, listening playlists, quizzes, Listening Journal, optional research projects.
Families who complete all optional research projects and Listening Journal entries typically list the course as a full credit. Those completing only the core assignments list it as a half credit.
A note on equipment: a decent pair of headphones makes a real difference. Good performances deserve good listening.
Schubert’s Erlkönig is a poem by Goethe set to music: a father riding through a storm at night, his son seeing visions of the Erlking. Philippe Sly sings all four characters (narrator, father, son, and the Erlking) by himself, accompanied by a single pianist. It is shockingly powerful… and chilling.
→ Try Free Lessons | Visit the Product Page
9. About Thomas Purifoy Jr.
I’m the producer and director of Is Genesis History?, and I oversee Compass Classroom and Compass Cinema. I taught philosophy, Old Testament, film, and history at the American School of Lyon, France. I’m a former officer in the US Navy and a graduate of Vanderbilt University.
I’m not a professional musician. I’m someone who has loved classical music for forty years, owned hundreds of cassette tapes, thousands of CDs, and more than a thousand LPs, attended concerts across the United States and Europe, and wanted for a long time to find a way to share this love with students.
The course I built isn’t a musicologist’s course. It’s a lover’s course — my attempt to give your student what that band teacher gave me: an introduction to music that is also an invitation to a lifelong friendship.
Glenn Gould’s 1964 CBC television performance of the Goldberg Variations is one of the great filmed performances of the twentieth century. Gould is hunched over the piano, humming audibly, conducting with his free hand. It looks strange until you realize you’re watching someone who can’t contain his love for the music. By the time students reach this clip in the Bach unit, they understand what they’re seeing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my student need musical training to take this course?
No. No ability to read music, play an instrument, or identify time signatures is required.
What age is this course for?
13 and up. Younger students who are avid readers can sometimes benefit from it earlier.
Is this a full credit or half credit?
Both options are available. Families who complete all optional research projects and journal entries typically list it as a full credit; those completing only the core assignments list it as a half credit.
How is this different from a music theory course?
Music theory teaches how music is constructed: scales, chords, rhythm, notation. This course teaches the history, story, and meaning of Western music. You don’t need music theory to take this course, and it doesn’t teach music theory.
Does the course include listening playlists?
Yes. Curated playlists are provided for each composer and period, with recommendations for the best available recordings.
Can this be done independently?
Yes. The readings, videos, and playlists are designed for self-directed study. Parents who listen alongside their students often find themselves enjoying the course just as much.
What if my student already plays an instrument? Is this still useful?
Yes, often more so. Students with musical training frequently find the course clarifying; they’ve heard certain composers but never understood the historical thread connecting them.
How does the Listening Journal work?
Students record their impressions of specific pieces at assigned points in the course. Over time, it becomes a record of a musical education in progress: early impressions of Bach compared to later ones, first reactions to Beethoven alongside more developed ones. Many families keep these journals long after the course ends.
Introduce your student to music that will be with him for the rest of his life
A person who knows Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms has companions that will never fail him. These composers may not mean much to your student right now. My hope is that by the time he’s finished with this course, he’ll consider them new friends.
There’s a reason the greatest composers wrote what they wrote. Let your student find out why.
→ Try Free Lessons — The Story of Great Music
Filmmaking from the First Directors makes a natural companion for a student who wants a full Fine Arts sequence, exploring visual storytelling in the same era that produced Ravel and Gershwin.
