Listen Purposefully, Avoid Tuning OUT

We are surrounded by sounds, but how well are we listening to them?   Is there too much so that we “tune out” the sounds, ignoring it like “musak”.   Or can we hear the violins play the melody, and the horns play the ominous chords that helps us feel the building tension in an orchestral piece about a [...]

Benefits of Beats for Babies and Beyond

Why do I need to spend time with my child focusing on Steady Beat?  There’s an old adage, “With age comes wisdom”.  And then there’s the comedy trailer, “… and sometimes age comes all by itself.”    The same is true for steady beat.  Most people don’t understand its importance:  in an international study by the [...]

A Parent’s Guide to Beats and Rhythms

For the non-musician, sometimes musical terms can be a second language.  For many parents, some terms may be familiar, especially with the brilliant musical teachings of The Little Einsteins (Thanks Disney).   But it might not be easy to explain it to someone else, much less understand these concepts well enough to help your child develop [...]

Developmental progression of Steady Beat

Help your child develop a Steady Beat Learning to keep a steady beat is more about ability than age, because you can improve this ability at any age.  And it always starts with experiencing it fully FIRST.  But during the earliest years, there are developmental milestones that must be met in order to progress to [...]

Active listening to bells, bells, bells

In this series of blog postings, we’re having fun with bells.  For the next few postings, we’ll focus on LISTENING !   Intentional listening helps us focus our attention on the aspects of the sounds we hear, and be able to tell the difference between sounds, much like we recognize our own child’s voice from any [...]

Listening to bells LIVE – Small bells

Small bells of many sizes are unique in their ability to show how size and shape effect the pitch of an instrument.  In this posting, we focus on train bells, handbells, and bells you might find on playgrounds.  The videos will provide a good start in recognizing the different bells and their sounds. I also [...]

Steeple Bells and Tower Bells

Now in our active listening series, we’ll focus on larger bells in a tower.  This includes bells in a steeple that are played by people pulling on ropes, as well as carrillon bells played by a keyboard device. A tower bell is a LARGE metal bell which is hung in a tall tower, often a [...]

The Biggest Bells – across the world

ORIENTAL TEMPLE BELLS are HUGE, sometimes multiple stories high.  The sound is produced by a log that has a brass end fitted to it.  In some cases, the bells are so large, this log must be carried my many men who must move together toward the bell to strike it.  Unless you take a trip to the orient, [...]

Exploring bird sounds with children

“What does a bird say?”  A lot more than tweet, or chirp.   Most children only consider one sound, but an observant child with more experience in bird sounds might ask, “What kind of bird?”  Fun vocal play with different bird sounds can open up the world of birds, and sounds, with your child, and can [...]

African Talking Drum – Music that really talks

In our Kindermusik for the Young Child class is currently studying African Cultural Music.  The students got to explore making the changing sounds that my talking drum makes.  I can demonstrate a few rhythms and how the drum changes pitch as the strings are squeezed, but I am no master.  Fortunately, these YouTube videos allow [...]