It's All In Your Head

For the last two weeks we have focused a little on audiation - or the ability to hear the music (tonally and rhythmically) in your head.
A person must be able to hear the sounds, or pitches, as well as the rhythm of the song in their head first before they can sing or play it.  This is a very important skill to develop.  To develop the ability to audiate one must be exposed to music.  The more types of music you are exposed to the easier it will be to audiate them, or think them in your head.  This is why we listen to many songs in different meters and tonalities during class.

Two weeks ago we played with music starting and stopping.  When the music would stop you had to keep the beat going in your head.  You may have noticed children playing through those stops.  They were simply keeping the beat with the instrument instead of in their head.  We played along with the theme song from I Dream of Jeannie to work on this skill.



Last week we worked on tonal audiation when we sang "A Ram Sam Sam" and left out some words.  You can play the same game with songs like "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "BINGO."

Old MacDonald

This week we continued talking about putting the rhythm in our feet.  We made it a little more challenging by using the song Bella Boya for this activity, which is a mixed meter song.  There is more information about the importance of putting the rhythm in your feet in last weeks post below.  While mixed meter can feel odd to adults, the more you are exposed to it the more comfortable it will become.  Similarly, by exposing your child to mixed meter songs at a young age they will feel comfortable with it too.

We also discussed the importance of the first (tonic) and fifth (dominant) notes in a scale.  Each time we put instruments away in class we sing ba (on the fifth note of the scale), ba (on the first note of the scale).  These notes are important because they are the first two you will hear a baby/child/person first learning music sing during or right after a song.
At home this week when you sing a song with your child leave a minute of silence after you end the song and listen to see if your little one sings, coos, or cries on pitch back to you.
Also try changing the words to one of the songs in this collection and make the song be about cleaning up.  After the song sing ba (on the fifth note of the scale), ba (on the first note of the scale) like we do in class to signal cleaning up toys and see how your child responds.





Our play along in Music Together this week was Old MacDonald sung by Ella Fitzgerald.  Enjoy listening to this fantastic jazzy version at home!




Below is a fun, ADULT, version of Old MacDonald sung by Frank Sinatra.