Music Together - Beginning of the Winter Session

I was excited to see both familiar faces and new families this week in my Music Together classes.  I am blessed to have involved and loving adults in all of my classes.  There are times when it can takes weeks to convince adults in a class to participate.  It can be especially hard to participate when you have a toddler who just wants to enjoy toddling, or a baby who is too little to stand and dance on their own.  Thank you to everyone for singing, playing, and dancing no matter what stage your child is in!  Children reap the benefits of class when they see the adults they love enjoying the activities themselves.  

Music Together has nine collections of music.  This nine week session we are using the Bells collection of songs.  The nine collections of music are designed to take you and your child through three full years of Music Together classes.  I can see a lot of musical growth in children who take multiple sessions in a row.  They know the routine of class, clap to the beat with the Hello and Goodbye song (which is important because just in those two songs they now can feel both duple and triple meters), and interact quicker with other songs.  Being in a class with families who have taken classes before helps new parents and children feel the routine of class and participate.  If you are new this session this is something you can look forward to blessing other new families with in the future!

The bells collection is the first collection of song I ever taught.  I have taught it several times now and my children still love to sing the songs from this collection with me.  Now that my children are school aged we can improvise by changing parts of speech in a song (change the verb trotting to jumping, change the noun kitty cats to bugs)!  

I can't believe I started this blog 5 years ago.  It really feels like I just started it last year!  But since it is five years old I have blog entries from each of the Music Together collections hidden on here.  In 2012, the last time I taught this collection, I had just started teaching again after having our son.  If you venture back that in the blog that far you can get a small glimpse of some of the fun musical concepts we will be working on this session.  

We tiptoed and glided along with the song Hopping and Sliding and worked on feeling contrast between staccato and legato.  We will use this song to feel other musical contrasts this session!
"Children learn by noticing differences - they are especially alert to contrast.  By juxtaposing duple and triple meter as well as staccato and legato within one activity, we're giving children the opportunity to hear and experience these qualities.  For children, putting these meters and articulations into their bodies is a powerful and direct way to learn about them."

Play around with musical contrasts this week.  

Fast/Slow

High voice/Low voice

Staccato (bouncy, detached, separated)/Legato (smooth, connected)

We also explored mixed meter by enjoying the rhythmic piece Snowflakes.  It has a 5/8 time signature.  If you didn't fully embrace your inner Elsa with this piece yet hopefully you will soon!  The temperature outside this week was perfect to go along with snow, now all we need is the snow!