Quick-quicks, slows & stops... i.e. An Intro to Rhythm

Beat & Rhythm are NOT the same.  This video helps show the difference using spoken poetry:  the beat is the jumps, the words are the rhythm.  (You could try this same activity at home, though for little kids, just have fun keeping the beat & varying the volume.  For older kids, try to figure out some (or all) of the rhythms-- they aren't straight-forward!)

So far I've listed several games for reinforcing the idea of steady beat, but haven't touched rhythm yet.  Beat & pitch are the two main objectives you should always be reinforcing with your little ones, right down to gently patting the steady beat of hymns in church or stomping to the beat of a radio tune (then ask whether it was 'fast'-allegro or 'slow'-adagio or medium- andante. See a full list of musical terms for speed- tempo- here).  However even young kids can enjoy exploring basic rhythms.  Use this process to teach quarter notes, eighth notes & quarter rests.  Go at the pace of your children-- introduce the idea, enjoy it, and leave it.  You could spend a week or a day or 10 minutes or a month on each step:

1. introduce the idea of stops (hands held out, palms up, in an "I don't know" kind of position), slows (a clap- keep your hands clapped together for a few seconds) and quick-quicks (claps twice as fast as 'slows')
2. have your children echo 3-beat patterns, such as "stop, slow, stop" or "slow, quick-quick, quick-quick"
3. label your 3-beat pattern a "rhythm."  Use the terms rhythm & pattern together often in describing what you are doing.
4. allow your children to take turns clapping a 3-beat rhythm with you echoing them.  You can have them speak a rhythm without clapping first, then show them how to clap it and have them clap it with you if they have trouble speaking & clapping simultaneously.
5. explain to children that slows, stops & quick-quicks can be written down, either with
- green rectangles, yellow squares & red squares
- joined eighth notes, quarter notes & quarter rests
- combo of two
6. Set out a 3-beat pattern (literally lay out the rectangles/quarter notes), perform & have them echo.  Let them compose, perform & echo. 
7. Introduce the idea of a measure by making a measure sheet that has 3 (or 4) empty boxes into which the quick-quick, slows & stops can fit, with a modified time signature (top number- # of empty boxes, bottom either a drawn quarter note or a yellow box) and measure bar.
8. Repeat process with 4 beat patterns.
9. Down the road, create sheets with 2 measures (each containing either 3 or 4 boxes & modified time signature as above) introducing the idea of an end bar.

**Can experiment with adding in words or pitches (could add in 'sol' 'la' and 'mi') for older children.

Keep a Steady Beat

video of 'That's a Mighty Pretty Motion'

Instrument bag "Orchestra Game"- keep a beat to music

Matching the Conductor's Beat-- tapping legs along with the teacher, as she speeds up & slows down (saying the tempo name for older kids & slow/fast for younger ones)

The Beauty of Solfege

How do keys and solfege relate?  Do is whichever note is the tonic of that key; in C major, C=do, D= re, E= mi, G= so, etc.  In A major, A=do, B=re, C#=mi, etc.  So if you have access to a piano or xylophone or any instrument, pick a key and get your do from that.  I often use C major just because it's easy (no sharps or flats), but try to move it around so your kids are learning the distance between pitches themselves, not just learning them in one key (if you want to do that, may as well learn the note names "A" "B" "C#" etc.).

Here are several children's songs that can be sung using the following pitches:

- so, mi- "Tell me Your Name," "Tick Tock/Cuckoo"
- so, mi, la- first part of "Rain Rain Go Away," "One Two, Tie My Sho"
- so, mi, la, do- first part of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore"
- so, mi, la, do, re- "Keep Inchin Along (score here: http://www.pentatonika.net/sacred_zipper.html), "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Let Us Chase the Squirrel" (game, more ideas), "Who's That Knocking At My Window?"
- so, mi, la, do, re, low so- "That's a Mighty Pretty Motion" (Dee Di Dee)
- so, mi, la, do, re, low so, fa- "Twinkle Twinkle,"  "Michael Row The Boat Ashore," "Allouette"
- so, mi, la, do, re, low so, fa, high do-  "Row Row Row your Boat"
- so, mi, la, do, re, low so, fa, high do, ti-  "Old MacDonald"

So, why would we ever want to start with solfege? Because you are well on the way to an extremely usable musicality once you have an internal memory of how "far away" two pitches are from one another, and how they relate within a scale.  Once you start practicing pitches in harmony (your sister sings do while you sing mi, or you sing so while Mom plays a do on the piano) you begin to internalize that do-mi-so make up a beautiful triad, that do-fa makes you think of an 'Amen,' and that hearing ti makes you very badly want to go up to do, especially when you hear ti & re together.  Add to that an ability to see the pitches and their "distances" from one another on paper, and you'll be a huge help to any choir or instrumental group you ever join!!  You'll also be able to sing a tune on sight once you know its solfege syllables, and transposing (as is often done in guitar) will be a snap.  I love the way the choral director of the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir put it here.

A scale is like a musical ladder with uneven rungs, not even ones! Scales are made up of whole steps and half steps. (e.g. the intervals, mi to fa and ti to do are half steps. The other steps in the scale are whole steps.) The Curwen/Kodály handsigns are designed to emphasize where the whole and half steps fall. When singers learn solfege and handsigns, their ears learn where the whole steps and half steps are in the music, and it helps them to sing much better in tune!

In several settings I was required to first learn all songs in solfege; this makes learning the pitches & rhythms easier (the "notes") without the added burden of learning the correct words (especially when the words were in another language!).  My directors would at times make us bring out all sorts of emotion with nothing but solfege syllables, just to teach us how to convey emotion through our tones and facial expressions, not relying on the words.  I would strongly encourage you parents to take some of your children's favorite songs and learn them in solfege (you can use this website here-a cool resource that puts many familiar songs into solfege).  In teaching new songs, you may want to learn/teach the solfege first, then the words.  Start this young enough with your kids, and they just absorb the pitches and assume that's just how everyone learns new songs.  I love that Eowyn already tries to do the pitches & hand signs (she isn't 2 yet).

Here's a song that reinforces all the solfege hand signs-- you might need it for yourself more than for your children, since they will likely internalize them as they learn them!



The hand signs are great used in an echo game with little ones (you sing 3 or 4 pitches with accompanying gestures, and the children echo them-- you can specify whether you want them to use the gestures or just sing).  In every musical situation (choir, class, playing with your toddler), beginning with the "so-so-so, so-la-so, so-mi-mi, mi-re-do" sequence centers & anchors pitch memory, "wakes up" the voice, and warming up with songs purely of solfege syllables is often really good for establishing internal pitch.  Here's the familiar one from The Sound of Music:


(the solfege part starts around 2:15)

More videos: a really interesting solfege piece in the minor 'aolian' mode at the beginning of this video, an example of what a 5th grade choir can do, one music teacher's composition here (called 'New Year Carol'), and my favorite, the Tallis Cannon.

Why So Many Echoes?

As you've no doubt gathered from my vlogs & suggestions, I view "The Echo game" as a great way to introduce many musical concepts.  This game is very simple:  seat the children around you, and instruct them to watch & listen first (very important!), then do what you did.  So many concepts can be introduced this way:  3-pitch patterns, phrases of songs (solfege syllables or words), clapped/tapped rhythms, beats of varying tempo (slow, quick, etc.)...

You could incorporate music into your morning circle time or afternoon post-nap activity.   Start with familiar games & songs (like "Such a Makin' a Circle" or "Tell Me Your Name"), do some pitch echoing with familiar pitches, then add in a new one.  Practice 3-pitch patterns with the new pitch(es).  Reinforce it with a new song.  Then you can move to echoing rhythmic patterns, or to another musical activity.  Close with singing the new song or clapping a new phrase together, you with the children, proving to them that they can remember and use the new skills relying on their own memory.

Why, though?  If you think back to how children learn naturally, you'll understand why; they are natural sponges, learning by copying-- by echoing, by imitating.  Far too often we make the mistake of starting off musical education with labels and symbols-- but who learned to talk by reading?  No, kids learn best by hearing & watching, then copying, practicing, and later on, down the road, being told what they are doing (being given a label), then being shown the symbol, and finally using the symbol themselves.  Think of learning to speak:  for months a baby watches & listens as his parents make all sorts of noises.  He soon tries to copy the sounds, without knowing their meanings. Next he learns what words go with what (labeling).  A few years later, he learns that words can be written down using letters.  Yet another year or so later, he learns to make the symbols himself and is on his way to writing.  Watching/hearing, imitating, labeling, symbolizing, replicating.  Imitating this process with musical learning is the most natural, meaning the least frustrating for everyone involved!!  "The Echo Game" allows children to focus on imitation first, then they are given a label & a context, all in a safe setting.

A Crash Course on Teaching Pitch

This little movie aims to be a crash course on the background of the "syllabic relative pitch system (solfege)" developed by Zoltán Kodály & the hand signs (developed by John Curwen) used to represent them, as well as a game used to build pitch-matching skills. While the game would probably only interest younger children, the hand signs are extremely helpful for every age, both for their visual/kinetic aspects and their usability in choral settings. A follow-up video will outline the introduction of all 7 pitches.

Such a Makin' a Circle

At the request of a newly-homeschooling mom, I'm uploading (finally!) some videos of musical games & tips.  These would be appropriate for preschool-1st grade (some even 2nd).  I have been so pleased (and a bit surprised!) to see Eowyn (not yet 2) already mimicking and trying many of these on her own!  I taught a small class for some friends over the summer, and Eowyn was in my lap or on my hip for most of them, and she definitely absorbed a lot of it!

Sorry for the Dr. Jekell-Mr. Hyde look on this one, with half my face in shadow.  It's the end of a long day.



More to come... I wouldn't want to leave out solfege, "stop-slow-quick-quick" or "That's a Mighty Pretty Motion," now would I?

Incorporating Music into Baby Days

My three-part vaccine post is finished over at Keeper of the Home, yay!  I so enjoyed incorporating all my reading and percolated thoughts into one comprehensive post... and it was quite time-consuming!  I pray that it is a blessing to many!

I'm excited to have the time now to go back to a favorite subject of mine:  music & children!  I'm going to give five suggestions for incorporating music into your days with your baby or toddler (older kids, too).

1. Pitch Matching-  Here's my first attempt at "vlogging" (video blogging), since it would be a lot clunkier to explain the "game" of pitch-matching than to "show" it!

2. Read rhythmic books- get into a rhythm and read the "chorus" the same way each time (see, you can be musical without having a great voice!).  Rhythm is half of music,-- don't underestimate it! A short list of my favorites:   We're Going on a Bear Hunt (by Michael Rosen), Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (by Bill Martin, Jr.), King Bidgood's in the Bathtub (by Don & Audrey Wood), Barnyard Dance! (Sandra Boynton).

3. Turn off the battery-operated "musical" toys- I know, it kind of seems counter-intuitive.  Hear me out, ok? One of the most disturbing trends I dealt with as a middle-school choir teacher was the misconception (all-pervasive overwhelming cultural maxim, it seemed like!) that music should be easy.  If it wasn't, the student (and often his parents) assumed that "music just isn't his thing; he just can't sing."  I am here to tell you that music is NOT easy for many people, and that any person (with the possible exception of those with a severe auditory processing disorder) can LEARN to sing.  Music is like anything else; some people have an aptitude for it, getting good at it takes hard work, it has a practical as well as a mental aspect to it, anyone can learn it, and good teachers help with that learning process.  Compare it to math; if your child isn't a whiz at math, do you automatically assume "oh well, it's just not his thing"?  No, you probably look around for another way to present the material, and you put in extra time & effort until it becomes more or less second nature.  What does this have to do with battery-operated toys?  Those reduce music to simple one-step-cause-and-effect:  push a button, hear music.  No work, no investment, on and off at will.  A friend of mine told me she didn't mind battery toys because "I can't sing to her all day," and I realized that that's kind of the point.  When we aren't always available to sing to our children, that very inability is communicating to them that music takes something out of us; it isn't just constantly available, on-demand in the background.  It should take our focus.  It should have a beginning, middle & end, not a on-off switch that can be started and re-started repeatedly.  I think that some toys can help with musical education (Eowyn has 3 that come to mind, including a little drum that has several styles of beats)... just use them occasionally, like desserts instead of a staple food.


4. Do buy no-tech musical instruments-  by this I mean actual musical instruments:  xylophones, bells, maracas, shakers, glockenspiels.  Make your own drum out of a coffee tin & wooden spoon.  Make a shaker by filling a container with beans.  By playing with these, they will learn to associate larger size with lower pitch, that vibration causes sound, and to differentiate between pitches.  There will never be a time when they didn't just "know" those things, just as children rarely remember learning that objects fall down (not up), or that water is wet.  They just learned that by experiencing it over & over again.

5. Play songs from around the world-  Raffi is a wonderful artist in this way, singing with everything from steel drums to kazoos to piano & strings, often in other languages!  Another good starting point is Wee Sing Around the World (book and cd)  Most public libraries have children's CDs you can check out from all over the globe!  Just like you give your child a varied diet with veggies, fruits and meats of all tastes and nutrients, give your child's ear a full buffet of harmonies, rhythms and tones!

Ok... what about you?  What tips do you have for incorporating music into your every day mommy life?

Meet the Orchestra, Step 2

I have been looking forward to this post very much. These pieces of music I'm about to mention are among my favorites! I've not met a kid yet who didn't start enjoying music once these got pulled out. I remember my own copy of "Peter & the Wolf"-- a lovely oversized book with accompanying cassette tape. This was my primary source of exposure to the idea of an orchestra, and to the timbres and sounds of various instruments. Today I use these orchestral works in my preschool class (and even my middle & high school classes as a bit of a treat-- everyone loves a good story) to introduce not only the instruments of the orchestra, but most of the foundational musical principals I'll later address as "Music Mechanics" (aka very very basic musical theory). Later I'll post my actual "Orchestra Unit," so you can see how I interweave musical games, dance, musical stories, and books about music.

Remember, your goal is always to give your children as many types of experience with music as you can-- each one forms a "hook" or a "tag" for their brain to build on, so that they understand well the ideas behind music. Our goal is to make musical knowledge so deeply a part of their experience that it's like the concept of "family"-- they know all about it, they don't have to think about it, and they use it constantly. So... listen to the music, read the books, talk about them, color pictures of them, re-tell the stories, dance to the music...

Multi-media Orchestral Works:

-- Peter & the Wolf-- Prokofiev's wonderful "musical fairy tale" written especially to introduce children to the orchestra. My students experience it first in silence (well, as silent as 4 year olds can be), without any pictures, but later as it gets more familiar, we love this book version.

-- The Carnival of the Animals-- St. Saens wrote this as a sort of joke for his family to enjoy; each piece of the suite calls to mind a particular animal. My students LOVE to dance to it! There are two ways to enjoy this besides just listening to the suite: first, reading the poems by Ogden Nash (my favorite), second, the book by John Lithgow. The book creates a story using the suite as background, which can be confusing to small children, but which is fun in its own way. It was written in order to turn the suite into a ballet. I highly recommend going to see the ballet with your kids if you ever can! This website is really helpful. A new book, illustrated by Mary GrandPre (amazing-- she did the Harry Potter books) is coming out in August!

-- Babar the Elephant-- Poulenc's work is inspired by the popular children's story. On this CD it is paired with The Mother Goose Suite (Ravel)

-- A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra-- Benjamin Britten wrote this so that children could easily hear the timbres different instruments offer to a theme. It is often sold on CDs with Peter & the Wolf and/or Carnival of the Animals. This book and narrated CD is really helpful.

-- The Magic Flute: an Opera by Mozart, adapted by Kyra Teis (for younger students) or Anne Gatti (older students)

Some other great works for children:

--Messiah

-- The Surprise Symphony,

-- The Planets, Gustav Holtz

-- The Sorcorer's Apprentice

Example of how you might use these ideas:

After you've spent 2-3 weeks reading books about the orchestra, interspersed with musical games, you're ready to add in a musical story, say Peter & the Wolf. Take 2 "sessions" just to listen to it all the way through. Later sing the themes, identify the instruments, look at pictures of them, dance, do anything you can think of to add another layer of experience to the music. Later add the book Meet the Orchestra or The Story of the Orchestra. Begin to discuss the ways instruments make music- being blown into, being hit (allowed to vibrate), having strings that vibrate. This forms your basic categories of instrument families- woodwinds, brass, strings and percussion. Go back to Farkle McBride and the kids will see those categories in there. Look up coloring or fill-in worksheets online on the orchestra.

Now you have 4 "types" of musical activities to add to your music "classes:" musical books (read aloud & discussed), musical stories (listened to), musical games, and reinforcements (coloring/ drawing/ collages of pictures, dancing, music journal for older students, instrumental experimentation, & other forms of art intended to help the kids further experience the music). Alternate and intersperse them in your classes so that they don't get too predictable. I often did something like:

Class 1- musical story, reinforcement (dance)

Class 2- musical game, reinforcement (experimentation with percussive instruments), musical book

Class 3- musical story, musical book

Class 4- musical game, musical story

Go and see an orchestra perform or practice, and if possible arrive early or stay late to let the children speak with the musicians and see (maybe even touch!) the instruments up close. In about a month, add another musical story and repeat the process. Add in another musical book, say The Philharmonic Gets Dressed or M is for Melody. Keep reinforcing the ideas of pitch, tempo (speed), volume, type of instrument, melody v. harmony, and theme. You could easily do this for half a year or even a year, depending on the age of your children, working your way through the musical works I've listed, giving them a really solid base knowledge of the classical orchestra.

Next topic: Music History!!

Meet the Orchestra, Step 1

Pick a book from the list below and read it, pointing out the different instruments and asking questions like these:

-- Is that instrument high or low? (many kids get pitch and volume mixed up)

-- Is that playing quickly or slowly? We even use musical terms presto (quickly), andante (slowly).

-- Is that loud or soft? (forte or piano)

-- Have we heard that melody before? (Teach them that the melody is the part they sing-- the "way the song goes," what you'd whistle if you were trying to tell someone what song you meant. Harmony is the other "stuff" that sounds along behind it and goes nicely.)

-- Do you think that instrument will sound up high or down low? (Drill into their heads the relationship between pitch and instrument size: big instruments play low, small instruments play high)

Aim to do music twice a week for 1/2 hour each time. For example, start with the books The Remarkable Farkle McBride and I Know a Shy Fellow. Read them over and over again for a period of 2-3 weeks. Fill in the remaining class time with musical games or experimentation with musical instruments. Ask the questions above and others like them. The children should be able to identify the instruments and likely will enjoy filling in the blanks if you leave words out. Kids do NOT get bored with repetition when it is done well! Next step coming tomorrow!

(This post introduces a series of posts on the orchestra.)

Building a Musical Library

General Books About Music

-- The Remarkable Farkle McBride, John Lithgow

-- I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello, Barbara S. Garriel

-- Do Re Mi: If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido D'Arezzo, Susan Roth

--The Story of the Orchestra, Robert Levine

-- Mole Music, David McPhail

-- Can You Hear It?, William Lach

-- A Young Person's Guide to Music, Neil Ardley

-- Meet the Orchestra, Ann Hayes

-- Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin, Lloyd Moss

-- The Jazz Fly, Matthew Gollub

-- The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, Karla Kuskin

-- Two Scarlet Songbirds: a story of Anton Dvorjak, Carole Lexa Schaeffer

-- M is for Melody, a musical alphabet, Kathy-Jo Wargin and Katherine Larson

Start looking out for these books at Goodwill, used book sales, Amazon lists, etc. Just start building your own musical library, so these books are always available for your children to pick up and read on their own, or for you to read to them before bed, or just anytime.

Books About Orchestral Works:

(this series is pretty much a must-have, in my mind)-- all by Anna Harwell Celenza

I've arranged them in chronological order with a note as to which "time period" they fall into, and it might be helpful to have a timeline on your school wall somewhere, where you can write in each piece of music as you hear it.

-- Bach's Goldberg Variations (Bach, Baroque)

-- The Farewell Symphony (Haydn, Classical)

-- The Heroic Symphony (Beethoven, first "Romantic" work)

-- Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky, Romantic)

-- Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin, Modern- Jazz)

Music for Worship: Hymns 2

As promised, here is the actual "interview" my middle school students had to give their parents the first week of school:

All music sung by Christians has an element of worship in it, because ALL of our life is worship, but there are some songs which are more explicitly God-ward than others. We will have opportunity to sing this type of music in our choir this year- a unique privilege of a being a Christian school. This sort of music, based on Scripture, can stir our hearts with fervor or with conviction, allowing the Holy Spirit to minister to us. There are Psalms written out of every emotion. Music keeps Heaven in the Christian's ears.

“The tears flowed from me when I heard Your hymns and canticles, for the sweet singing of Your Church moved me deeply. The music surged in my ears, truth seeped into my heart, and my feelings of devotion overflowed, so that tears streamed down. But they were tears of gladness.” ~ “St.” Augustine (354-430)

Your instructions are to interview your father (extra credit for interviewing Mom too!) and ask him the following questions. Write down his answers. I hope that this will help your whole family think about how we are relating to our God through song.
Note: in this interview, "hymn" simply means any song used in worship.

1. What is a hymn you remember from your childhood?
2. What is your favorite hymn right now? Why?
3. Which Scripture passage does it make you think of or come from?
4. What is a hymn that has come to your mind in a time of celebration? Which time was this specifically?
5. What is a hymn that has come to your mind to comfort you in a time of sorrow? Why/how?
6. What is a hymn that has reminded you of truth in a time of confusion; one that has "set you straight" in some way?

As a teacher, I saw these 6 questions open up a lot of good conversation across generations, and was especially pleased to see the way it affected the boys when they found out that their dads benefitted from singing in worship. It was also so critical for them to realize that we don't just sing songs to the Lord out of a glad heart-- this is one error many make, and it can absolutely kill a grieving heart. Sometimes, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, and the Psalms testify to that. It's so important for saints of all ages to remember that we are to sing to God and worship Him in every emotion, be it confusion, hope, elation, wonder, and even despair. Those songs actually inform our grief and help us deal with it properly!

How Music Can Tell a Story: Theatrical Events

Another way music has long been used to tell a story is as part of a theatrical event. First it was the chorus in Greek plays. Then we had the operas all through the renaissance and on... And no, they aren't all about fat ladies singing. =D If you know the story and/or watch an English translation, they are quite entertaining!! Closer to our era the showtunes & Broadway musicals have swept the nation, and they are still going strong! (Think Phantom of the Opera & Wicked.) Children's movies- especially earlier Disney movies- were based on this principle, with many songs being used to tell the story. Finally, there is the source of the most popular newly-composed music of our day: the quite "functional" movie soundtrack. I'd say these ideas are appropriate for grade to middle school, or even high school. I'll have more suggestions for pre- and kindergarden soon! (they're my favorite age group to teach, so I'm saving them).

The following suggestions could be taken as chronological steps, each spanning a month or two. The soundtrack is very accessible if kids have seen the movie (often Disney soundtracks are pretty musically decent-- Mulan, Lion King, and The Little Mermaid especially. An added bonus is that each of these captures a "foreign" flair, which you can also tie into geography and world culture. But I list the soundtrack as the last "step" in this progression because it has no words.

--rent musicals from the library (some great ones are The Prince of Egypt, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Anne of Green Gables, Annie, My Fair Lady, Hello Dolly, The Fantastics, & The Pirates of Penzance. )
-- play selections of musicals like Camelot, The Phantom of the Opera & Wicked, all of which have themes either too scary or delicate for your children to watch in entirity, but have AMAZING get-in-your-blood songs. Tell the story, let them hear it, and be prepared to repeat.
-- discuss the idea of "motif"-- a musical phrase that always occurs with the entrance of a certain character, object, or event. Classic example: both the good guys & Darth Vadar's themes in John Williams' Star Wars. Once they've gotten the idea, try to identify themes in operas, in movie soundtracks, in musicals. Sometimes kids might pick up on phrases that are repeated in later songs in plays, etc.-- often these are motifs, too.
-- tell your children the stories (they make great bed-time tales) of your favorite musicals and then take them to see those musicals as a treat. Many musicals will have showings especially for school-aged children during the day.
-- tell your children the story of operas and let them watch clips (which you've previewed) on YouTube. I recommend Mozart's to start (The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Don Juan, Woman Are Like That). Wagner can get a little creepy and weird, not to mention dissonant. This is a great experience for all you adults too! I'll give more specific tips for this particular idea later.
-- check out soundtracks to movies (public libraries often have these)-- these are often the most dramatic music out there. Great examples are any of John Williams' (ET, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Star Wars) or Klaus Badelt (Pirates of the Carribbean) or Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, The Lion King, Pirates of the Carribbean, The Last Samurai, Kung Fu Panda). The Lord of the Rings soundtracks (Howard Shore) are wonderful, too. Let your kids listen to a track and imagine what's happening in it. If you've seen the movie, you could tell them a part of the story. This especially excites kids who love the movie characters or have seen the movies.

I will later post a concrete lesson plan as an example, but for now suffice it to say that taking 1/2 hour 2ce a week to do these activities-- call them listen & learn-- would do wonders for your child's interest in music. Use it as a "break" between 2 challenging subjects, or as a way to get back into gear after lunch.

How Music Can Tell a Story: The Ballad

Since man was created, he has set words to music to make them more memorable. The ballad is something integral to almost every culture; before writing existed and written records were common, memorized stories -often set to music to make them more memorable- were THE way a nation, family, or king's histories were remembered from generation to generation. These simple story-songs can be found in the Psalms, ancient poetry, folk songs, all the way up to today's rock 'n' roll ballads and country music songs. These stories-to-music are often the most accesible to children because they exist for the sole purpose of telling stories, and who doesn't love a good story? As I used to sing to my preschoolers "A ballad is a song that tells a story/it might be true, or it might not be/ a ballad is a song/ a sung story." Here are a few common ones that kids love, linked to books about them or tangential to them:

-- for the very youngest, there are all those nursery rhymes-- Jack & Jill, Mary Had a Little Lamb, The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Hey Diddle Diddle... The Complete Book of Rhymes Songs & Fingerplays and Wee Sing Mother Goose are two very inclusive ones. Many of the nursery rhymes have picture books devoted to them. You can also find coloring pages of them to print from online.

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider, by Iza Trapini
• The Bear Went Over the Mountain, by John Prater
• The Bunny Reads series by Rosemary Wells (Twinkle, Twinkle; The Bear Went Over; The Itsy Bitsy Spider)

-- Froggy Went A-Courtin', by either Iza Trapini or Gillian Tyler or John Langstaff. Truth be known, my sisters & I came to know this American folk song through this story-on-tape at our grandma's house.
-- Over the River & Through the Woods, by Lydia Maria Child. A great accompaniment to your Thanksgiving celebrations.
-- There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, by Simms Taback
--The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night- Nickel Creek's version is my all-time favorite of this American folk song. My 5-8th grade boys LOVED this book version, by Peter Spier.

(as usual, they use this song to show off their amazing talent and go off on random amazingly cool tangents. On the actual CD it's just the straight up song, which most kids appreciate more.)
-- while I'm on the topic of Nickel Creek, a great many of their songs are in fact, ballads ("The Lighthouse," "The Hand Song," "The Fox," "Sweet Afton"). And all of them on their first album, simply entitled Nickel Creek, are really well-done. Go buy the album!

-- The Middle Earth Album, by Glass Hammer, is meant to be set in the middle of JRR Tolkien's Prancing Pony Inn of The Hobbit fame. It has several rollicking good yarns about trolls and ladies and elves and even Tom Bombadil. If your kids have read The Hobbit, this is almost a must-have.

-- The Ballad of John Henry, another American folk song, has several books of it. I read this one aloud to my middle school boys choir class. The version I grew up on can be found on the Wee Sing America CD.
-- last but not least, there is the Celtic ballad. The Irish in particular had perfected the art of story-telling music, with professional bards called filid at every ruler's court, entrusted with memorizing, performing, and writing songs detailing the clan's history and their ruler's feats. In their tradition, Loreena McKennit is an amazing perfomer of many, many ballads including Alfred Noyes' The Highwayman and The Lady of Shalott. The Tanahill Weavers' Best Of album also has two ballad recountings of the Battle of Prestonpans which will delight most boys and girls: "Tranet Muir" & "Jonnie Cope"

Christians can also find "stories behind the Psalms" in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.

Music for Worship: Hymns

Hymns are so vital to a Christian family's walk that they get their own post. Many hymns tell a story, a story through salvation ("What Wondrous Love is This?" & "Amazing Grace") or from despair to joy ("Pensive, Doubting, Fearful Heart" and "From Whence This Fear and Unbelief?"). Many also have their roots in personal experience. While it is tremendously important for your children to see YOU interacting with the hymns, it is also enriching for them to know how those songs came to be in the first place. We tend to remember that for which we have multiple levels of experience. Here are several books you may find helpful. As always, please let me know of others you know and love!

-- All Things Bright & Beautiful, illustrated by Anna Vojtech- I have loved reading this picture book of this familiar hymn to my Hannah. The pictures are just wonderful. Though it doesn't tell a story so much as describe a setting, it is a setting so familiar to children that they easily connect it to their own experience.
--Morning Has Broken, illustrated by Eleanor Farjeon, is similar.
--the Hymns for a Kid's Heart series, by Bobbie Wolgemuth & Joni Earakson Tada- each of the 4 volumes in this series tells stories behind a dozen hymns in a way that children can understand and relate to, and each comes with a CD of the hymns introduced. I like the CDs, but I do admit that I think the adult voices aren't the best. =D
-- a little more advanced, and without the cool CD, is the 101 Hymn Stories series, by Kenneth W. Osbeck.
--Stories Behind the Hymns that Inspire America, by Ace Collins, details hymns dear to our nation's heart.

I also highly recommend looking around a bit for the stories behind your favorite modern worship songs. CD liner notes can be gold mines. Also look online-- google the song's name, then the words "story behind." Including the song's performing artist can help, too. For example, you could do "steven curtis chapman cinderella story behind." Often artists explain backgrounds to their songs in interviews, so look for reviews of your favorite CDs or interviews of your favorite artists.

Want Your Kids to Love Music? Let Them Watch YOU Lovin' It!

This will be the first of (I hope) many posts on incorporating music into your daily life, either as a supplement to school outside the home, or as an integral part of your home school. Kids NEED music, more than most people know... and so many parents I've talked to are more intimidated than they need to be in this area! I got an email from friends who are homeschooling their 3 sons, and it made my heart leap-- finally, the last push to blog on this topic. Here is a part of thier request:

"The problem is that the boys don't really enjoy music. I'm not averse to education as an "eat your vegetables" sort of enterprise, but I do want them to have an appreciation for music that I was not given. [...] I know this is terribly broad, but do you have suggestions that might help? How do I generate interest?"

But let's walk before we run. Baby steps (or would that be half-steps? Naw, that's too music-nerdy). The discussion of helping kids get "into" music reminds me very much of the discussion on helping kids get "into" reading. It's so similar that I recommend Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook for you, the parent/instructor. Take everything he recommends about a love of reading, and apply it to a love of music. If you want your kids to honestly love music, the first CRUCIAL point is for them to see YOU loving music. Music, like reading & visual art, is both functional (we use it for things like memory retention or relaxation or worship), and aesthetic (we listen to it just because we like it). Thus, it's extra-easy to incorporate it into everything, whether it's a school subject or just a sunny day. The key is to do it with them-- don't just turn the CD player on and walk away. Here are some suggestions for that:

--make music a part of your daily family life. Sing to your kids-- silly songs, hymns, lullabies, old favorites.
--sometimes play your favorite music in the car. You don't always have to listen to "101 Bible Songs for Kids." I've often spiced up a carpool ride with a good ol' rollicking 80s power ballad ("Livin' on a Prayer") or country tune ("This Everyday Love") or a pop song, or a song to help me strengthen my faith (Sara Groves or Sandra McCracken or Indelible Grace). The kids LOVE for me to "tell them the story" of the song, or tell them a part I like, and they giggle when I start belting out the lyrics. They often ask for these songs, and soon they're singing along. This is teaching them that music is a part of my narrative, and by extrapolation, part of their narrative; it's their birthright as a human.
-- let your kids interview you about your favorite songs, especially hymns. I'll post an actual interview from my middle school teaching later.
-- tell stories in which music played an integral role; like your grandma singing "The Old Rugged Cross," or your dad playing "It Had to be You" to propose to your mom.
-- often discuss music in a spiritual context-- let your kids know when a certain song's truth moved you to worship or melted your hard heart or delivered you from fear
-- turn music on as you clean and do chores. Dancing in the kitchen is a distinct possiblity.
-- tie music to stories; musicals, ballads, operas, soundtracks to movies, even hymns-- these are all ways music is used to tell stories every day, and has been for centuries. An entire post on this coming soon.
-- do a chart, maybe for a week or a month, with columns for each avenue of music (TV, car, CDs, church, etc), and a row for each day. Let them put stickers or check marks for each type they've heard that day
-- expand the chart into a journal, maybe a week-long, on all the types of music they hear. Each day have them list all the music they've heard- in the car, on the radio, on a TV commercial, at church, over the speaker at the mall, on their computer game- and/or what their favorite type was. This really helps kids realize how much they already DO like music.
-- incorporate music into family worship and family holidays. Think beyond Christmas carols and "Happy Birthday to You." Is there a hymn you could sing every Thanksgiving? A silly parody you could write for family reunions? A musical you could watch every Midsummer's Day? An album you could crank up every birthday or St Patrick's Day? The possibilites here are endless. There are so many kooky holidays you wouldn't even believe it...
-- talk about music; ask "how did it make you feel?" "what did you think of?" Don't always feel like they have to write it down or do a project on it; just talk about it like it's a normal part of every day life. Because it IS a normal part of every-day life! =D
-- if you play an instrument, let them see/hear you play it
-- take your kids to recitals and concerts. Talk it up, give them things to listen for (the highest note) or watch for (expressions, hand movements), stay only as long as they can stay interested (just leave during applause, NOT during a song!), and then go out to get ice cream. Be amazed at the things people can do!
-- point out the marching band at sporting events. See how many instruements you can identify together. Pick a favorite song each half-time.
-- listen to music from many cultures. Wee Sing Around the World is a good starting point. There are lots of CD albums from different countries, if you just walk into a CD store and ask. More on this later. (Need I mention that this would so easily tie into geography, social studies, & history?)
-- listen to music from the past- Northon's Anthology of Western Music is a great series, and if you get the accompanying books the kids can look at the scores and be intrigued. This is a COLLEGE text book, so don't try and teach from it, but it can definitely give you the parent background info, and then you can digest it and then use it to present different songs to your kids.
-- listen to music from our own history- Wee Sing America is amazing for this.
-- read books about composers, about songs, about musical plays and characters (more on this later)

Is that enough? Don't feel like you have to try to incorporate every one of these ideas every day. Just take one or two and see how they work for you. I'll bet if you start looking for music, you'll find it all around you, and even start to see spots where it's just begging to be pushed in.

--A slightly-impassioned-lover-of-music

PS: my long-term goal for this: I want to give parents all the tools they need to teach music history, the very simplest music theory, so simple I'll call it "music mechanics," music appreciation, and last and best, musical enjoyment in their own home. Later this year I hope to begin a kinder-music-ish program in my home, for preschoolers and young elementary schoolers, and I'll be using that to try out new lesson plans, and will be posting those on here, as well as the tried-and-true lessons I've taught for the past 3 years as a preschool teacher and middle school choir director. I may get Ryan to help me create a separate page or blog for those, because I envision them taking up quite a lot of "room." =D