Welcome to everyone who is participating in Summer Music Together classes.
Last week we briefly discussed that everyone is born musical. Almost everyone is born doing two things, kicking and screaming. Very quickly in life those sounds and movements begin to entrain, or match, the sounds and movements the adults and siblings the baby is closest to. Small babies will coo around pitches that match the inflection in an adults voice. Their bodily movements go from being sporadic to matching what others are doing. The more parents, caregivers, siblings, teachers, and other people a child is close to interact with that child musically their more musical the child will become.
In short, by simply modeling musical behaviors you want your child to do, such as singing and dancing, you are helping him/her become a musical person. It's that easy!
For our first week of classes we did some simple improvisation, making up lyrics on the spot, by having you sing what your child was wearing with the song "Mary Wore Her Red Dress." We sang and recognized animals in Spanish with "Vengan A Ver." When we played sticks along with the song "Stick Tune" we audiated (kept the beat going in our brain while no music was present) and played sticks in different ways and to different beats (microbeat, macrobeat and on the steady beat).
The free dance we did was by a Celtic/Irish group from Anderson, SC called Emerald Road. They have two CD's out that you can check out on iTunes, Emerald Road and It's About Time. While I don't have a link to the song we danced to you can go to the website below to play some of their music at home.
http://www.reverbnation.com/emeraldroadband
I'm proud to add that the fiddle player is a close friend and was my college roommate :o)
Our play along song, Playin' In The Kitchen, is from the Summer collection. Did you listen at home this week and see if you could find the part we added words to in class?
"Eat, eat my peas and carrots. I like to eat, eat my peas and carrots."
Lastly, here are some pages you can print out at home to go along with the chant "Down Under."
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Singing With Daddy
Getting ready for Father's Day?
Here are some videos of Dad's enjoying music with their kids! Find a way to enjoy music with daddy this Father's Day. Play along, sing, and dance to the music that dad likes.
Bohemian Rhapsody On The Way To School
Best Father Daughter Dance Ever - Comedian Mike Hanley and his daughter Jessica
Edelweiss from The Sound of Music
Dad and Daughter Sing Together on Ellen
Singing Along With The Trumpet
Here are some videos of Dad's enjoying music with their kids! Find a way to enjoy music with daddy this Father's Day. Play along, sing, and dance to the music that dad likes.
Bohemian Rhapsody On The Way To School
Best Father Daughter Dance Ever - Comedian Mike Hanley and his daughter Jessica
Edelweiss from The Sound of Music
Dad and Daughter Sing Together on Ellen
Singing Along With The Trumpet
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
A Few Good Resources
http://www.musictogether.com/ForEnrolledFamilies
Click the link above to go to the Music Together page for enrolled families. You'll find some great information there like..
How to play guitar with songs from the current session
Coloring pages
Music activities to try at home
and other great music resources!
http://www.ecementor.org/articles-on-teaching/Early_Brain_Development_Research_Review.pdf
This is a link to an interesting article about early childhood brain development. It discusses current research on brain development, and how you can apply that research to every day activities with your child.
Click the link above to go to the Music Together page for enrolled families. You'll find some great information there like..
How to play guitar with songs from the current session
Coloring pages
Music activities to try at home
and other great music resources!
http://www.ecementor.org/articles-on-teaching/Early_Brain_Development_Research_Review.pdf
This is a link to an interesting article about early childhood brain development. It discusses current research on brain development, and how you can apply that research to every day activities with your child.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Put The Rhythm In Your Feet!
This week in Music Together we talked about how rhythm develops. We are all born with ability to move and, nurtured in a proper developmental environment, that movement will change from our own rhythm to one that matches the music we hear and we are making. We can first express rhythms with our voice, then we learn to put that rhythm in the top half our bodies, and lastly we learn to express it in the lower half of our bodies. This is called the cephalocaudal trend.
"The cephalocaudal trend is the prenatal growth from conception to 5 months when the head grows more than the body. It is also the trend of infants learning to use their upper limbs before their lower limbs."
Some people never develop the ability to keep the beat in their feet. Whether you can keep a beat in your feet or not you will help your child develop this ability simply by moving your feet to the music. Even if your dance ins't "correct" you are still showing your child that it is OK and good to dance and move. So turn up the music and dance this week at home!
When we played drums this week I asked you to try lightly patting the beat on your child's back to help them find the beat on the drum. This is a great activity to try at home when you are playing along with music! I encourage you to give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Our dances this week were from the current Music Together collection, Triangles. They were "Allee Galloo" and "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home."
Our play along song was "Sabre Dance" by Aram Kachaturian
"The cephalocaudal trend is the prenatal growth from conception to 5 months when the head grows more than the body. It is also the trend of infants learning to use their upper limbs before their lower limbs."
Some people never develop the ability to keep the beat in their feet. Whether you can keep a beat in your feet or not you will help your child develop this ability simply by moving your feet to the music. Even if your dance ins't "correct" you are still showing your child that it is OK and good to dance and move. So turn up the music and dance this week at home!
When we played drums this week I asked you to try lightly patting the beat on your child's back to help them find the beat on the drum. This is a great activity to try at home when you are playing along with music! I encourage you to give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Our dances this week were from the current Music Together collection, Triangles. They were "Allee Galloo" and "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home."
Our play along song was "Sabre Dance" by Aram Kachaturian
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Everyone Has Musical Ability
In an article I was reading by Ken Guilmartin, founder of Music Together, he discusses how most American children are developmentally delayed in music by anywhere from 2 to 5 years! I think the following quote from the article is a good example of why most children in our country are delayed in music.
"How is it that parents rush to call in a speech therapist or a learning consultant if their 5- or 6-year old has a little trouble speaking or reading, but if the same child does not sing well they are content to conclude she is "not musical" or "tone deaf"? These descriptions are no less objectionable than "word deaf" or "reading blind," Even though language may be deemed more necessary in our culture, there is still an underlying double standard at work here which says that language skills can be achieved by anyone - given suitable and sufficient education, including remedial work if necessary. Musical skills, however, must first be present as obvious "talent" to merit our cultures' investment in music education. Parents and educators alike may require this - even though music skills are not sufficiently modeled in early childhood and thus do not receive the same appropriate informal education from birth that language received."
Not only having your child involved in music programs in school, but also involving yourself as a parent in musical experiences with your child, will aid greatly in their musical development and help prevent your child from falling into the above statistic. It is important for young children to be immersed in fun musical experiences daily with the people who are closest to them.
This week in Music Together we danced the Bunny Hop! Play the link below and see how many different ways you can hop to the beat at home.
This week at Journey Montessori we did a drum circle, discussed the percussion family, and finished Peter and the Wolf.
To enjoy the new drums we made we did a drum circle for a large portion of the class this week. We played to the beat, watched for conducting cues (when to play, stop, and what beat to play), effectively moved to the right to switch drums (a huge task when you are between the ages of 3-5), and made a rain storm.
We discussed that any instrument that you hit/strike to produce a sound fits into the percussion family.
Our last characters for Peter and the Wolf were the hunters who are played by the timpani and bass drums. If you have not had a chance to watch Peter and the Wolf with your child I encourage you to scroll down and click the link to watch it. See how many instruments and characters they can identify!
"How is it that parents rush to call in a speech therapist or a learning consultant if their 5- or 6-year old has a little trouble speaking or reading, but if the same child does not sing well they are content to conclude she is "not musical" or "tone deaf"? These descriptions are no less objectionable than "word deaf" or "reading blind," Even though language may be deemed more necessary in our culture, there is still an underlying double standard at work here which says that language skills can be achieved by anyone - given suitable and sufficient education, including remedial work if necessary. Musical skills, however, must first be present as obvious "talent" to merit our cultures' investment in music education. Parents and educators alike may require this - even though music skills are not sufficiently modeled in early childhood and thus do not receive the same appropriate informal education from birth that language received."
Not only having your child involved in music programs in school, but also involving yourself as a parent in musical experiences with your child, will aid greatly in their musical development and help prevent your child from falling into the above statistic. It is important for young children to be immersed in fun musical experiences daily with the people who are closest to them.
This week in Music Together we danced the Bunny Hop! Play the link below and see how many different ways you can hop to the beat at home.
This week at Journey Montessori we did a drum circle, discussed the percussion family, and finished Peter and the Wolf.
To enjoy the new drums we made we did a drum circle for a large portion of the class this week. We played to the beat, watched for conducting cues (when to play, stop, and what beat to play), effectively moved to the right to switch drums (a huge task when you are between the ages of 3-5), and made a rain storm.
We discussed that any instrument that you hit/strike to produce a sound fits into the percussion family.
Our last characters for Peter and the Wolf were the hunters who are played by the timpani and bass drums. If you have not had a chance to watch Peter and the Wolf with your child I encourage you to scroll down and click the link to watch it. See how many instruments and characters they can identify!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Suzuki
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Music Together
Next week is the last week for Winter classes! I hope to see everyone again in the Spring session.
Click here to register.
Great job singing parts on Bells of Westminster in class. Singing in parts for your children is a great for their developing musical ears! Playing the bells helps the children's tonal development by reinforcing the tonic and dominant pitches. It helps rhythmic development when we play on the microbeat, steady beat and macrobeat on the bells. Accurately hitting the bell with the mallet helps your child's hand eye coordination. And the mallets are great to teeth on!
We played with audiation (the ability to hear the music in your head) with the song "Rhythm's and Rhyme's." Now that the chant is more familiar it is easier to audiate.
Does your child echo you if you sing like we did in class with Lukey's Boat and Me, You, We? If you haven't tried it at home I encourage you to give it a try this week. I have a great time singing back and forth with my kids in the car that way!
This week in class our play along was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Click the link below to enjoy it at home. Mary Poppins is a fantastic Disney movie full of fabulous songs.
Click here to register.
Great job singing parts on Bells of Westminster in class. Singing in parts for your children is a great for their developing musical ears! Playing the bells helps the children's tonal development by reinforcing the tonic and dominant pitches. It helps rhythmic development when we play on the microbeat, steady beat and macrobeat on the bells. Accurately hitting the bell with the mallet helps your child's hand eye coordination. And the mallets are great to teeth on!
We played with audiation (the ability to hear the music in your head) with the song "Rhythm's and Rhyme's." Now that the chant is more familiar it is easier to audiate.
Does your child echo you if you sing like we did in class with Lukey's Boat and Me, You, We? If you haven't tried it at home I encourage you to give it a try this week. I have a great time singing back and forth with my kids in the car that way!
This week in class our play along was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Click the link below to enjoy it at home. Mary Poppins is a fantastic Disney movie full of fabulous songs.
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