ABC Music and Me

I am so excited to be offering the ABC Music and Me class next year! ABC Music and Me was chosen to receive the Teacher's choice award, based on childhood educator evaluations of the program! I have a demo class for the program next week and I am looking forward to that! I think the ABC program is a great way to introduce kids to music as well as aid in their overall development. In the ABC program, so many areas of child development are included. They will build confidence, coordination, vocal expression, careful listening, pre music notation skills, inhibitory control, social skills and creativity. The class is broken down into 2 age groups, 2 to 4 and 4 to 6. The older group will also begin pre-keyboard skills and staff notation.

My demo class next week will also include other instruments that I play since this is at a music camp. So I will play piano, trumpet and mandolin. Here is my program:

Hello, How do you do? This is the welcome song that we want to include in every class. I will play along on the mandolin.

Pop goes the weasel- We will do a circle dance to work on coordination and social skills as I play the mandolin.

Twinkle Twinkle- The children will do creative movement with scarves as I play an arrangement of Twinkle Twinkle on the piano.

Old McDonald- This is an old favorite with a new twist. We will sing the entire song but count silently on the EIEIO part. This works on inhibitory control, the ability to stop and start. This is an important ability to nurture for musical skills as well as life skills such as self control and coordination.

Hickety, pickety Buttercup- This vocal play works on their language skills as well as their social and mathematical skills. Each child waits eagerly for their turn, and then must visually recognize the number of fingers I hold up. Then they count as they play the triangle the specified number of times. So they are counting in 4 different ways, by seeing, by hearing, by speaking aloud the counts, and by physically playing the counts.

Excerpt from Carmen-- We will all pretend to be horses as we gallop along to the trumpet during an exciting excerpt from the opera Carmen. Exposure to fine classical music during the early years is not only fun, but children are absorbing the sounds around them during the early years. Don't you want to expose your child to the best music possible?

Instrument exploration-- Kids love to explore instruments! Not only does instrument exploration work on their fine motor skills, but it gives them the opportunity to work on cause and effect. They learn which instruments make high sounds, and which instruments make low sounds and well as which are loud and which are soft.

Here Comes a Blue Bird-- We are going to learn a song about a blue bird. The repetition in this song as well as the focus on a tri-tonal melody helps the children to begin to learn to sing in a range that is comfortable and natural for them. We will also play a game with this song!

De Colores-- We will listen to a recording of this Spanish song while moving a colorful parachute to the music. This type of movement not only encourages the children to move together, but to control their movements and coordinate them to the music.

Sign and Sing class

This is a sample video of some activities from a Sign and Sing class

Summer activities

Last night we took the kids to the Drum and Bugle Corps show at Spain Park High School. I enjoyed getting to visit with friends from high school and college who are now music educators! The kids were a little lively but paid attention a lot longer than I expected. We ended up taking them off to the side to let them run and dance to the music. Young children just can't be expected to sit still and watch something three hours! They need to move around to learn and absorb what is going on around them. It was fun! I will try to post events like that take place around town on my blog and my studio calendar. Any amount of music that a child can be exposed to during the early years becomes a part of him in some way. That is why it is so important to make these first exposures, the best experiences possible.

http://www.dci.org/

Practice, practice, practice.

I conducted a practice class for Kindermusik last week. It was a lot of fun! I saw an active toddler learn to relax to music. I heard another toddler echo my vocal play exercise. They all loved the instruments! There was a 3 year old boy who wanted to just go nuts with the music. I was so impressed with how he calmed himself down to move with the music along with the other kids. The older kids were like little helpers and helped teach the younger kids. I could not believe how well all of them listened and sang along! And the best part is how the songs stuck with them even after they left the class. It was awesome!

I've noticed with my own kids how much they have changed since I've begun to practice my Kindermusik with them. My 21 month old is starting to sing songs and make sentences. After doing active listening so many times, he has begun to ask questions about all the sounds around him. My 3 1/2 yr old has also been singing and making up songs. I have been amazed at how my 3 1/2 year old has been learning the Kindermusik songs! They have both been very interested in instruments! They have helped me so much with my class!

Check out this web site for a video of some Kindermusik classes. http://www.kindermusik.com/

Learning Something New

I have been learning a lot with my Kindermusik class this summer! The other day, my grandmother showed up with a new instrument for me out of the blue. It was a mandolin. A mandolin is a stringed instrument with 8 strings, that are tuned in pairs. It is tuned simmilarly to the violin, which I had learned to play many many years ago. I can still play the violin-- its just that the bow gets in the way. I am enjoying the pick a lot more than the bow! The only thing about the mandolin, is that it is a killer on your fingertips. The double strings, really close together make your fingers feel like they are on fire! After about a week, I have developed some callouses to be proud of. The other day when I was cooking, I touched something that should have been really hot. But I could not feel it at all because of my mandolin callouses. Who needs an oven mitt? Despite all the fingertip pain, it has been a blast. I have been bluegrassin it up and it has been fun! I can't wait to share my new instrument with my students!

Kindermusik

I have been doing so many things this summer! In preparation for the fall, I have been taking the Kindermusik course. I have wanted to take that course for 6 years now-- ever since I finished the Orff level one certification. I am pretty much done with the course at this point and can't wait to start my first classes! I have been amazed at all I've learned about the power of music and child development!