Welcome to Winter!

Music Together classes in Lake Wylie were fantastic this week!  I'm so glad to see both familiar and new faces in class.  Thank you for being engaged in the musical activities we are doing in class.  The more involved the adults are in the class the better all of the children will learn.

Some tips to make the most of class:

*Sing, dance, and make sure you're playing instruments too!

*Let your children be free in class as long as they are safe.  You do not have to force them to do the activities.  The only big rules are no running, and be nice to others and the instruments.  Some children will wonder around and come back while others will sit still and watch.  As long as the adults in the room are engaged in class they will all learn!

*Please bring extended family!  Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, that lady next door that your child calls Grandma.  Children learn best from the adults they are closest to.  Your child will learn much much more from experiencing music with family than they will from me.  I am just here to guide the class, pass out the instruments, and point out the awesome musical achievements your children are making.  Music class would not work without all of the wonderful adult involvement.  

*Invite a friend.  If you have a friend that would like to try a free class please invite them.  If they sign up you get a discount on your next session!

Thank you all for trying the little musical experiment we did in class.  Below is the link to the video it came from.  While I did not execute it anywhere near as well as Bobby McFerrin does, it was still fun to try.  It definitely worked better in some classes than others.  I think that had to do with where it was placed in class and the need to be watching children at the same time as watching me and singing.  Either way it is a neat insight into how the human brain works.

Our dance this week was Greg and Steve's version of the Chicken Dance

Our play along was Old Joe Clark (The tune Clap Your Hands comes from)
There are many versions of this classic song.  I encourage you to check them out on iTunes or Amazon.
The version used in class was a bonus track from the Rambling Boy CD.

Here is a fun version you can play along with at home!

Lastly, this weekend the Charlotte Symphony is having a Lollipops concert.  Their Lollipops concerts were created specifically for children.  At 10:00 there is an orchestra petting zoo, drum circles, instrument making, and coloring.  The concert begins at 11:00 and is a fabulous way to introduce children of all ages to the orchestra while not having to worry about them being a wiggly or leaving for the potty!  This concert will feature, "Beethoven's iconic Fifth Symphony theme with a modern twist along side other orchestral favorites like Rossini's William Tell Overture and Brahms' Hungarian Dance."  Click the links below to check out Project Trio, who will be the guest artist for the concert, more information about the Lollipops concerts, and some of the music you will be hearing!

A fun old cartoon that includes William Tells Overture
 If you watch Little Einsteins with your child you may recognize the Hungarian Dance from there!

Dance?

Here is a link to our free dance from this week so you can enjoy dancing all week long!



Why should you dance for your child?  If your child does not show interest in dancing why not just sit down?

Dancing with your teaches them to put rhythm into the lower half of their body.  This is a huge development for kids and adults!  The ability to put the beat in your feet will help with coordination, sports, and dancing!
So whether you are holding your child while you dance, dancing while they sit and watch, or dancing with your child, make sure you dance and move those feet!

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 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.  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!

Over The River

Do you consider the song "Over The River and Through The Woods" to be a Thanksgiving or Christmas song?  Here's a little history about the song...

     "Over the River and Through the Wood" is a Thanksgiving song by Lydia Maria Child. Written originally as     a poem, it appeared in her Flowers for Children, Volume 2, in 1844. The original title of the poem is, "A Boy's Thanksgiving Day". It celebrates her childhood memories of visiting her Grandfather's House. Lydia Maria Child was a novelist, journalist, teacher, and wrote extensively about the need to eliminate slavery.

It is sometimes presented with lines about Christmas, rather than Thanksgiving. For instance, the line "Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!" becomes "Hurrah for Christmas Day!". As a Christmas song, it has been recorded as "A Merry Christmas at Grandmother's". Although the modern Thanksgiving holiday is not normally associated with snow, New England in the early 19th century was enduring the Little Ice Age, a colder era with earlier winters.^[1]

If you are interested in reading more about Lydia Maria Child you can visit the Poetry Foundations website.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lydia-maria-child

Here is a Christmas version of the song to enjoy at home!

Holidays

As we begin our Holiday session of Music Together and Holiday season in most of our homes I wanted to give you a little information about the different songs you have on your Holiday Music Together CD.
As you listen to your CD you will hear music from the following celebrations:
Diwali - A 5 day festival

Observed by	Hindus, Jains and Sikhs
Type	Religious, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius,Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago,Surinam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji (National holiday in these countries)
Date	Decided by the Hindu Lunisolar calendar
2011 date	Wednesday, 26 October
2012 date	Tuesday, 13 November
2013 date	Sunday, 3 November
Celebrations	Decorating homes with lights and candles, Fireworks, distributing sweets and gifts

Hanukkah - An 8 day Jewish festival

2012 date	Sunset, December 8 to nightfall, December 16
Celebrations	Lighting candles each night. Singing special songs, such asMa'oz Tzur. Reciting Hallelprayer. Eating foods fried in oil, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods. Playing thedreidel game, and givingHanukkah gelt

Christmas - Christian (and non-Christian) Holiday

Observed by	Christians Many non-Christians[1]
Type	Christian, cultural
Significance	Traditional birthday of Jesus
Date	December 25 (alternatively, January 6, 7 or 19)[2][3][4] (see below)
Observances	Church services, gift giving, family and other social gatherings, symbolic decorating

There are many celebrations around the world this time of year.  We celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ in our home.  However, I feel it is important for my children to learn about other celebrations around the world.  Listening to music from many cultures is a fantastic way to introduce the youngest children to other cultures.  Music from other cultures has fascinating tonalities that are wonderful to expose your children to.

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.

Let It Shine

I couldn't resist posting this great video I came across of "This Little Light of Mine" being sung at the University of New Hampshire's commencement.  How great is it to think that the gift of music you are giving your children now is something they will be able to continue to enjoy for the rest of their lives!



We listened to a jazzy version of "This Little Light of Mine" in class.  It was recorded by the Chris Barber Jazz Band if you are looking for the recording to use at home.

When we sang Los Fandangos in class we first put the clapping rhythm in our hands and then in our feet.  The ability to put a beat or rhythm below your mid-line is called the cephalocaudal trend.

Here is some more information about how rhythm develops.  

We are all born with ability to move and, if 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!