Teaching Mozart in music class can easily fall flat, especially when students feel completely disconnected from the music or the composer. (Mozart did live over 200 years ago after all.) That’s why this lesson, built around Mozart’s 12 Variations on “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman” is so special. The theme, better known as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, is instantly familiar to students. The variations, however, are full of surprises that invite real musical thinking and conversation. 

In this lesson, students will listen closely, discuss Mozart’s 12 Variations, and compose one of their own! It’s a great way to get your students’ creative juices flowing. They’ll be thinking, learning, and creating, just like Mozart did, centuries ago

Teaching Theme and Variations through Mozart’s 12 Variations

Here’s one way to grab your students’ interest almost instantly. Imitation. You and I know that some of the best musical ideas are born out of imitation, however, most students probably do not.

Students may frequently encounter instances of imitation in modern music, and never realize it. Consider how the song Anxiety by Doechii uses the same instrumental as Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye, or how Pachelbel’s Canon in D inspired Memories by Maroon 5. You can use real-world examples like these to highlight how Mozart used a simple childhood tune to create new ideas.

This exercise helps students recognize that borrowing and building from musical ideas is nothing new. Students will discover how a single musical idea can inspire endless creativity, often leading to some interesting and productive class discussions!

Those discussions can naturally lead to a brief lesson and explanation of theme and variations, which students will observe throughout the listening lesson.

Active Listening while Teaching Mozart

I’ll be honest, my students don’t always have the best attention spans when it comes to listening activities. So, it was a bit daunting when I presented the idea of listening to a thirteen-minute piece of classical music.

A Looooong Listening Excerpt

Most of the time, we listen to excerpts with a length of 30 seconds to a minute at most. Even though I was skeptical about the length of Mozart’s 12 variations, I continued with creating this lesson because I thought it was really important for my students to hear each variation, regardless of the length.

During the lesson, I was able to pique the interest of my music class through the familiarity of the tune “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. I would usually preface the listening activity by saying something like, “We are going to listen to a classical music piece that is a bit longer than usual.”

This is usually followed by at least one kid saying, “Well, how long is it?” Frequently, students are surprised when I tell them a song is thirteen minutes long. Most of them haven’t heard songs longer than four minutes. Some didn’t know music could be that long.

What’s That Tune? in Music Class

Just about every kid knows the tune, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They’ve grown up with it. For them, it’s a familiar musical friend. As it was for Mozart! So, I always like to explain, “Mozart was so inspired by Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, that he actually came up with 12 variations all based on this one tune!”

 Another trick I like to use while teaching Mozart’s 12 variations is to have students raise their hands each time they hear the start of a new variation. And yet another is to have them silently “count the variations.” These are quick and simple ways to tune your students into active listening.

After Listening to Mozart’s 12 Variations

After the excerpt finishes, you can ask questions like:

• How many variations did you notice?
• Did the variations remind you of the main theme? Why or why not?
• What do you think Mozart wanted listeners to feel when he changed the theme the way he did?
• How does listening to different variations change the way you hear the original melody?

This helps guide a meaningful class discussion and leads to analysis and evaluation. Now let’s talk about how you can guide students to compose their own variation inspired by Mozart’s work!

Composing Inspired by Mozart’s 12 Variations: Some Options

We’ve reached the exciting part of the lesson! In this portion, you’ll have your students compose their own variation based on the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”—just like Mozart did!

Option 1

Use the Chrome Music Lab song maker. It’s relatively simple to write the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” out and then save and share as a template with students. It also works well because students have a lot of freedom to explore and experiment with different sounds, instruments, and tempos. And finally, it is really easy for students to undo mistakes while composing their variation.

You can get the Chrome Music Lab template for “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” from my interactive Nearpod lesson, which guides students through each step of this Mozart 12 variation lesson and retains the student responses and data for you to review later.

If you prefer to put together your own version, you can easily create the “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” melody using Chrome Music Lab’s Song Maker feature,no purchase needed!

Just assign it in Google Classroom and teach it live or as a self-paced lesson, depending on your preference.

Option 2

Teach “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to students, then have them compose their variation on the Orff xylophone. This option works best when each child has access to their own instrument, but, if that’s not possible, students can take turns in stations.

Guiding Student Composition

Here are some ways to guide the creative process without overstepping:

• Encourage students to be creative and different, but not too different
• Remind students that rests are okay! Silence is musical too, and Mozart said this himself!
• Indicate that the original theme should be recognizable when others listen—if it isn’t, perhaps it’s a little too creative and different!

Make sure you give your students enough time to experiment and compose (I suggest at least 15–25 minutes) In some situations, students will be inspired to compose more than one variation. I always allow students to do so as time allows.

Coda

Once your music class has finished composing their variations, it’s time to share! How exciting it is to hear what the students were inspired to create! 

Now let’s discuss grading, and how to approach it if you’re going to use this as a graded activity.

Grading Mozart’s 12 Variations

I’m not the biggest fan of grading composition assignments. Most of the time I prefer a pass/fair system, however, sometimes district curriculums require graded composition assignments. You’ll need a fair system to do that.

For this lesson, I created a simple rubric with three categories for grading:

• Following Directions
• Variation Quality
• Creativity

I put the most weight on following directions on this assignment. Did the student create a unique variation based on the criteria provided? If so, that would result in a more favorable grade than an assignment that goes off the rails and seems absent from the original theme. 

I also like to acknowledge students who show creative thinking, maybe by making interesting changes to the rhythm, or composing an interesting counter melody or harmony.

On each rubric, I would write some simple comments about what you heard and observed while listening to the variation. If you deducted points for following directions or something else, explain why, and provide guidance so the student might improve the idea.

Encouraging Creativity While Teaching Mozart

“They probably think because I am so small and young, nothing of greatness and class can come out of me; but they shall soon find out.” – WA Mozart

This is one of my favorite quotes to share with students while teaching Mozart. Mozart knew he was special when he was a child, and I think it’s important for our students to recognize that anyone can be spectacular if they work hard and believe in themselves. This lesson is a great starting point for teaching Mozart, theme and variations, listening, and composition skills.

If you’d like to purchase the complete lesson for use with Nearpod, you can do so here. Please remember that a Nearpod Gold, Platinum, or district-level subscription is required for Nearpod and Google Slides integration (check before purchasing!) If you’d like more information about using Nearpod, please start here.

What questions do you have about teaching Mozart’s 12 variations in music class? I’m answering all questions in the comments and would be happy to help! Don’t forget you can access free music education resources by joining the Chamber of Freebies! Click the link below to sign up!