Improvising With Your Children

Check out this fun video of Adam Sandler improvising a song (creating a song right in that moment) with Elmo on Sesame Street.  Then read on below about how we improvised with our Music Together songs and more ways to improvise with your children at home!



This week in Music Together class we changed the song Apples and Cherries (better known as Grey Sand and White Sand) to make it into a large movement song.  Changing the words to movements is a very simple way for both parents and children to improvise their own verses to this familiar song.  We changed the verses to activities like jumping and running, walking and marching, crawling and snuggling.  You could also change them to give your children directions about what they need to do at home (eating my breakfast, putting my shoes on).  I encourage you to try improvising ( the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition) your own verses with your children at home, no matter how little they are.  If they see you try it they will learn to try it to!

Another fun song to improvise new verses to in the Summer Music Together collection is "There's A Little Wheel A Turning in My Heart." Try changing the verses to something fun you have done this summer, "There's a little girl a splashing in the pool, there's a little boy a digging in the sand."  Check out Laurie Berkner and Nancy Cassidy's versions of the song for some more verses.

There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart            
There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart  
In my heart in my heart 
There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart 

There are two hands clapping in my heart . . . 

There are two feet stomping . . . 

There's a little dog barking . . . 

There are two eyes blinking . . . 

There are some kids sleeping . . . 

There's a big truck honking . . . 

There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart . . .

There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart,            
There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart.
In my heart, in my heart,
There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart.

There's a little song a-singing in my heart,

There's a little frog a-leaping in my heart,

I see the sun a-rising in my heart,

We're dancing round the world in my heart,

Sing ABC's With Sesame Street!

Here are some fun Sesame Street videos of celebrities singing the ABC song in different musical styles.  Enjoy singing along at home!

Music for the 4th

Happy 4th of July!  It's a fantastic weekend to enjoy both fireworks and music.  Click the link below to watch the Boston Pops play some wonderful patriotic music and sing along with your children!

If you are looking for some wonderful music and fireworks together you can go out and watch the Charlotte Symphony tomorrow night (Sunday, July 3rd).  Take a picnic and enjoy the show!

Can't make it to see the Charlotte Symphony perform, then watch the Boston Pops play on July 4th and enjoy the fireworks on TV.

Dance and Play Along Songs from Music Together Fall 2010

Here a some fun songs we have danced to and played instruments with in Music Together this session.  Enjoy singing, dancing, and playing along at home!

Mary Poppins Lullaby

We watched Mary Poppins this weekend and I love the songs in this movie. The lullaby she sings even makes me sleepy. It's a great lullaby to add to your bedtime routine with your little ones.

Songs We Sang at The Reunion

Here is some of the music we sang for for the Orff-Schulwerk reunion.  I hope you find something helpful here if you teach preschool music!  Recordings of Hoe-Down (horse song), Doop-Doo-Dee-Doop (free dance with scarves), Can-Can (great free dance song like Hoe-Down), and many others are on here so you can just click on them in the blog and hear them in your classroom or at home.
   




All Around The Kitchen


She Sells Sea Shells

Doop-Doo-De-Doop

This week's free dance song in the Music Together class was Doop-Doo-De-Doop sung by Blossom Dearie.  Click the YouTube link below and dance along at home!

Can Can

One of the pieces we have enjoyed dancing to and playing instruments with in class is Jacques Offenbach's "Can Can." To dance to this song we have tiptoed when the music was soft, and kicked our legs, wiggled, and jumped when it got louder.  Click the link below to dance and play along at home.

Some good American Jazz in 5/8

Here is the song Take Five by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.  We listened to this song both in the Music Together class and at the Montessori school today.  The jazz piece (American music) is in 5/8.  To follow the syncopated rhythm in the bass and piano count/clap/play 1,2,3,4,5.  Have fun playing along!

Learning 9/8 Time Signature Isn't So Hard To Do

For those of you who are registered to start the spring session of Music Together in Fort Mill (Starting Thursday, March 25 at 9:30, there's still time to register!) we will be doing a piece in the Tambourine Collection that goes:

12   34  56  789
Hip hip hip hippity
12   34   56   789
Hap hap hap happity
12    34   56  789
Hop hop hop hoppity
123       146       789
Hippity, happity, hoppity, clap, clap.

It is in 9/8 time signature which means it's a rhythm that most of our ears are not used to hearing. While this all may seem difficult to us adults, children don't know that. If you want to get a head start and hear what the rhythm sounds like listen to Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo Al A Turk. Whether you are in the Music Together class or not this is a great song to listen to.

Favorite Dance and Play Along Songs

One of my favorite play along songs is Buggy Ride played by Wynton Marsalis. Unfortunately I can't put the version I like from YouTube on here but if you click on the title it will link you to it.  It's a fun jazz song from the Charlie Brown soundtrack.  Have fun listening for jazz band instruments, (such as the saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bass, drums, and piano), playing along with instruments, and dancing.

Hoe-Down by Aaron Copland is another song I love to use with little ones.  We've danced to this song in almost every class I've taught.  Have fun pretending like you're cowboys out West riding your horses while listening to the orchestra play.  Listen for the horses to go fast, slow, jump, fall asleep, and go again!




More favorite songs to come soon....

Arirang

For those of you who took the Music Together Drums Collection, here are some great YouTube videos of Arirang, a traditional Korean folk song.

The first is of the New York Philharmonic playing Arirang.  Listen for the melody that we sang in class and pick out the instruments you see with your children.



The next video is of someone ice skating to Arirang.  This is fun to watch and may give you some good movement ideas.  Pretend like you are ice skating and use scarves while you dance like we did in class.



The last video is of a family singing the song together.  The grandparents are very old, and grandpa doesn't have teeth, but they still sing together.  It is always wonderful to see a family singing a traditional song together.



The Montessori students will be studying Asia soon.  We will sing Arirang in class, and discuss the difference in tonality between American folk songs and Asian folk songs.  Your children have studied the instruments families a little bit in class.  See if they can identify instruments in the orchestra while watching the New York Philharmonic play Arirang (in the above video).  If you need some help identifying the instruments and what families they belong in check out sfskids.org.  This is the San Fransisco Symphonies kids website and is a wonderful place to play.  I used this website when I was teaching public school to help the students learn their instruments and musical concepts.