HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! MERRY MERRY!

Tonight! 8pm. Auborgenes - sebastapol. Ananta with paul lamb and me. 8-10. ladies limelight.

Earstu w/CV1 5pm today. My Friend Joe Cafe. Mendicino ave. Across frm college- santa rosa.

Earstu and CV1 at Barley n Hops 8:30pm. TONIGHT! OCCIDENTAL.

Great day! Going on a walk and playing a wedding in Healdsburg. Im over the flu!

Good Music for Kids!

 Eric Herman - A great kids song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-xZvPRHFFo

Elaine provided us with the following additional information:
"Didgeridoo:  A musical Instrument made and played by Australian Aborigines.  Originally made from hollow branches of various Australian Trees found in Northern Australia.  Decorated with Ochre and variety of natural dyes.  Each maker had his own specific decorations.  Fun Didges for kids of all ages can be made using Polypipe offcuts or the hard tubes from old vacuum cleaners.  Minimum size 3 feet by 1.2 inches diameter up to 6.5 ft.  The larger the tube the deeper the sounds made. Sit children on floor with one leg outstretched, place Didge end on an angle to floor, with the foot raising it slightly. Blow into tube by quick breath in through nose and slowly breathe out through mouth down the tube.  When they can successfully produce a noise introduce other vocal sounds such as tick tock, clucking and other animal noises any sort will do.  The better players can make noises such as animals running to and fro.  Additional short piece of pipe can be used as a beat against the outside of the main tube."          Music for Kids.com

Soulshine at Windsor on the Green now! Chris Hayes from Huey Lewis is sitting in!

Earstu gypsy jazz trio. Tonight. 8pm. Barley n Hops. occidental.

Soulshine playing 2 night. calistoga. hydro bar. main st. 9 to 12.

in sebastapol? call us for ur own personal earstu concert. 707-753-1703. now.

Mad Hatter

You used to be much more..."muchier." You've lost your muchness.- mad hatter

Music for Kids Donation Program

Music for Kids is donating back to schools! Check out Music for Kids for more information!

Generation Gaps :)

Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.
Bill Cosby

Children are drawn to music

Music is a natural part of everyone. It creates an atmosphere of fun, interaction and excitement. That is why children are naturally drawn to it - Light

Good Quote:

Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.  ~Harold Hulbert

Making an Instrument

 A string instrument made from a plastic bottle and thread. Click below.

Click here to learn how to make an interesting instrument!

Interesting Instrument!

A Hurdy Gurdy - Check this out

Aristocats

 From the Aristocats:

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat!

Buddy Rich on the Muppets show. No Drums!

Look ma, no drum set!

Flower Pots and Tin Cans

Tin Cans and Flower Pots make a great percussion instrument! Take any empty tin cans (soup, etc), make sure the sharp edges are crimped with plyers or filed down. Set them down and use wooden dowels or spoons to play them.
Clay Flower Pots make excellent sounding bell drums. Strike the pots near the rim with chopsticks or other light beater. The playing motion should be sideways against the sides of the pots near the rim. (advice from Bart Hopkin)

Drum Set for the Entire Family!

From Cradle to Grave

Our brain neurons are hard-wired for music -- from cradle to grave. And the more we use 'em, the less we lose 'em!

Snow and plains combine, To form a bond so divine, That nature itself bows. - L. Benson

25,000 Years Ago! Vulture Bone Flute

Perhaps the earliest known musical instrument, a vulture bone flute found in Germany, dates back to 35,000 years ago. The foot-long flute, made from the naturaly hollow wing bone, has five finger holes and a v-shaped mouth piece.

Flutes

Playing a musical instrument can reverse stress at the molecular
level, according to studies conducted by Loma Linda University School
of Medicine.

Ukulele Madness!

Gather around the circle and discover the magic of music for kids

Gather around the circle and discover the magic of music for kids

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Pie Pan Tambourine Craft

If keeping time to the music is your kids' favorite pastime, have them ring in some fun with this easy-to-make pie pan tambourine. You'll need to help them with a few of the steps here.

What You'll Need:

• Foil pie pan
• Nail
• File or hammer
• Jingle bells - Old Christmas bells, etc. Purchase at art store, drug store, 5 and dime store.
• Yarn or string

©2007 Publications International, Ltd. A finished pie pan tambourine in action.

Step 1: Punch holes in the edges of an aluminum foil pie pan with a nail. Help kids smooth the sharp edges of the holes with a file or hammer.

Step 2: At each hole, tie a small jingle bell to the pan with yarn or string. Now jingle those bells -- you'll have a rhythmic adventure you won't be able to resist.

--- You can purchase bells at your local arts/craft store or toy store-----
Musical Instruments for Kids!

Music is a way to help focus children in the right direction.

Owls at my parents owl box.

Check out this link:
http://www.laphil.com/yola/

Kids Singing: http://ping.fm/LPiRk

Movies for kids: The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Singing in the Rain

Austin Pea Party :)
http://ping.fm/6dayA

After receiving keyboard lessons, preschool children in L.A. performed 34 % higher on tests for spatial-temporal reasoning than children who were either trained on computers.

Music changes the fabric of reality. Since kids are in the moment all the time they don't miss a beat!
http://ping.fm/5uUX5

"I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds."
-Dizzy Gillespie

"When one teaches, two learn." - Robert Half

"I've noticed that one thing about parents is that no matter what stage your child is in, the parents who have older children always tell you the next stage is worse." - Dave Berry

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

Tim Cain: Doggie Song -
http://ping.fm/lFErt

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels" - Thomas Carlyle

Didgeredoo:

Andy Graham with a bow didgeredoo!

This is what music is for.

Music is an important part of life:

http://ping.fm/vaLk0

Next drum circle: Saturday May 8th. More details 2 follow.

Odd instruments: The Theremin.
http://ping.fm/5RjDY

Make your instrument!

Children from Springfield, IL made some really cool instruments. Check it out! Make 'em yourself.

http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/langellr/summer.htm

"I can’t live without music. To me music means fun and action. When I am angry with my parents or my sister, music is able to calm me down." - Age 13, Germany

Famous Composer Timeline-
Bach: 1685 - 1750
Telemann: 1681 - 1767
Handel: 1685 - 1759
Vivaldi: 1678 - 1741
Purcell: 1659 - 1695

JIG : A lively dance, usually in 6/8 or 12/8 time. Let's do a jig.

Now is a good time to celebrate music!

Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next. ~Franklin P. Jones

“You know the drum was the first instrument besides the human voice.” - Billy Higgins

Aretha Franklin, [Queen of Soul] -
"I've always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music."

"Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music." ~William Stafford

Cool Animal Sounds! Check it out:
http://ping.fm/FIdWI

“When I am happy I like to sing those songs that I like.” - Age 8, Hong Kong, China.

"It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself." - Bach

Mary had a Little Lamb for Piano - Music Lesson

My son teaching "Mary had a Little Lamb" on piano.

Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZfze3pU_Cw

Even after regular lessons are started the fun spirit of music should continue to be emphasized.

Gary is offering drum lessons in the little town of Cotati. Email me if interested. gary@musicforkids.com

Fill glasses with water at different levels and check the intervals of the scale. The higher water the lower the pitch. Happy drumming.

If parents start music education early a childs later education will b no trouble.

The instinct for rhythm appears in all human beings.

Drums of all kinds are the most common and practical of all musical instruments.

Have your daughter burn you a CD of her music for your car.

Enjoy music with your teens. Ask your son to plug in his iPod on the next family road trip.

Music is powerful. It can help quieter kids
reveal things they normally can’t. Music can express emotions adolescents may not be able to voice. It’s also at the center of many social interactions, cultural movements, political movements. Music creates an atmosphere. Music stirs passion.

Coming soon: americas music supply.com

Music is a way to connect your heart to your brain.

Quick one!

Students who have been involved in public school music programs score higher on their SATs than those who don't.

Music for Kids 

Quick Thought

A parent or child does NOT require any musical training to make music. Grab a kazoo and hum!" Anyone else have a simple thought on music with kids?

My son on the drums. Mini set.  Music for Kids

 

2 Year Olds Teach Us about Music and Art!

The zen of creating music and art at two years old!

Two year old's teach us that it's the "process" that counts. They enjoy dancing, doing finger plays, acting out songs and creating rhythm. Using their new found motor skills 2 year old's enjoy making sounds by banging on household items. Give your child an old pot and some wooden spoons. They love to explore. Put some beans in a container and let them shake it! They enjoy the sensory pleasures of creating art and music. Two year old's teach us that it's the process and not the final product which counts! So the next time your 2 year old starts to bang on something, don't scold them, grab a spoon and bang along!

Music for Kids!
Simply Smart

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Music and Animals

Music is good for the soul. They say it calms the savage beast. And it turns out that's more than just an old wives' tale. It's a proven fact.

Classical harp music is used around the world to help alleviate stress and heal sickness in cats, dogs, chimpanzees and other animals. Even animal shelters are now investing for sound systems and music to create a more serene environment. Studies show that dogs and cats prefer classical music. Cats will relax in front of the speakers when classical music is playing, and dogs will actually bark less - especially when listening to the music of Bach.

Music for Kids.com

MATH and MUSIC

Early Greeks thought there was a clear connection between music and mathematics. Over the entrance to Plato's Academy at Athens there was an inscription that could be translated: "No one may enter who does not know earth's rhythm." . . . in the belief that what held all things together was music.

Music for Kids.com

Getting your child into Classical Music - Top 10

TOP 10 things to do to get your child into classical music

1. Listen to classical music at home, not only as a background sound, but when you are playing with your toddlers. If they are accustomed to listening to piano music and orchestral works, they will start to enjoy them. There's lots of classical music which children will find easy and familiar like Mozart's variations on “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.
2. Use classical music to create atmosphere when the kids are dressing up:
* Brides can walk down the stairs to wedding marches.
* Fight scenes or laser fights will work better with Mars from Holst's "The Planets", or the John Williams Star Wars Theme on in the background.
* Soldiers can march to real march music.
3. Do some acting: play Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns and act out the animals with the children. Each track relates to a different creature varying from hens, to elephants, birds, aquarium, swans and pianists. They can get into the music by pretending to be the animals.
4. Put on some Strauss waltzes and polkas and dance your little ones up and down the corridor to the lively dances. Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (go for the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) usually gets little girls dancing too!
5. Listen to music with a storyline. The most well known is Peter and the Wolf. All children are used to listening to a story, and this introduces them to the idea that music can tell them a story they can understand.
6. Make music! Most children like making a noise, so get a shaker or maracas from any baby shop. Tambourine, drum and claves (thick short sticks you hit together) are all easy for clumsy young fingers to play. So you can get a real instrument (which will make a much nicer sound) by buying your instruments from www.musicforkids.com A more expensive instrument that is a good addition to your “orchestra” would be xylophone but these are more expensive.
7. If you like making things, then make your own shaker. It really will take you only a few minutes. For this you need 2 plastic cups and a handful of either dried lentils, or uncooked rice. Put the lentils, or rice into one cup, then sellotape firmly the open end of that cup to the open end of the other. Finished, one shaker.
8. Start a kitchen band with the family. It isn't as daunting as it sounds. You just use things that are in your kitchen as musical instruments. You can use metal saucepan lids as cymbals, and metal different sized measuring cups as a (short) glockenspiel. A metal cake tin stands in for a drum, with a wooden spoon to hit it with, your home-made shaker, and if possible, several upturned metal saucepans to hit with metal spoons as different sized drums. Then put on a piece of music – maybe one of the marches we mentioned earlier – and bang to the rhythm of that. If you feel really confident, you can do the trick of filling some glasses with different amounts of water and hit them lightly so each will make a higher or lower sound than the last. But the main thing is that you are making lots of noise, with a rhythm, and it's FUN.
9. Go to a mother and toddler group with singing. There are sure to be some in your area. It is generally accepted that very little children get a great deal from joining in with the actions which usually accompany the songs. Singing to your children is also considered very soothing, so don't worry if your voice is good enough. It will sound just fine to the little ones. Learning to sing is a very important skill for little children, and one they enjoy hugely. Extra tip: If you have to look after someone else's crying child, sing to them. They usually stop crying. Learn a long repertoire so you don't get too bored.
10. Take your children to a concert. Make sure it's aimed at toddlers so it isn't too formal or go on for too long. Meet friends and sit at cafe tables, chat and listen to well known classics and opera. The children are welcome to dance or sit, but not expected to stay still and silent so the pressure is definitely off the parents