Kids Music Company’s Weblog

I grew up in a very musical family. My Mum played the piano and the cello. My Dad played the violin and my sisters and I all learned to play the piano.

We used to sing around the piano quite regularly too. I remember Mum telling me to listen to the other notes that she was playing, and so from about the age of 8 I started singing a harmony. I find now, that if I don’t know a song, it’s much easier to sing harmony that to try and sing the melody.

It was great fun singing with my sisters in a trio. I felt sorry for Robyn who had to dodge around what I was singing. She and I both sang the parts while Bronni sang the melody.  I would keep changing from alto to tenor and back again.

I wonder what your musical experiences were like as you were growing up? I would love to hear from you.

Did you know that in the first three years of a child’s life, the brain will grow to 90% of its adult size? There has been much research into the workings of the brain and it  is a recognised fact that the brain develops connections from the right side to the left side and vice versa. The number of connections a child develops is dependant on how much stimulation the brain receives. The more connections children have, the faster they able to process information, and the faster they are able to think.

A simple way of developing these connections in the brain is by doing movements across the body.  Use songs such as ” Criss Cross” from the album Splish, Splash, Splosh, where children have to cross their hands across the mid-line of the body – onto the knees, shoulders, toes and elbows, or  “I have a Shaker” from the album Teddy Jumps where children shake a shaker above their heads, behind their backs, and from one side of their body to the other.

The best thing is that as far as the children are concerned, they are just having fun.

After all, isn’t that what being a child is all about?

How true is this?

Life can’t be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. ~William F. Buckley, Jr.

Last night I did my music workshop over at Airport West. I didn’t have a large group, but we had some fun together. I always enjoy doing workshops with teachers of small children because they are willing to join in and have a go.

One of the songs we did last night was called “I want to be your friend”. It’s from our cd “You’ve Got to Clap”, and it is a song where everyone has to have a partner.

In my first blog, I said that I would talk about why music is so important. There are many different areas that music can help in, and this song incorporates several areas. The main area I want to talk about today is “Spacial Awareness”.
You may notice with some four and five year olds that when they draw a picture of a person, they often have a face with their arms and legs being drawn out of their face. They have no body at all. This is because they have no body awareness. They are aware of their faces (mostly with eyes, and mouth, but possibly not with a nose, ears, or hair, and certainly not with eyebrows or eyelashes), arms and legs, but not of their torso. When children have spatial awareness, they draw people with bodies and the arms and legs aren’t drawn out of the heads.

“I want to be your friend is a great song for several reasons.

1.It has a steady beat,

2 It helps with coordination – both moving and standing still.

3. It has children being with a partner, which promotes co operative play

and,

4. It helps children to discover spacial perception as they walk around the room. They have to negotiate spaces that are not being used by others. They have to work out how much room is needed to avoid banging in to another child. They do this by judging with their eyes, and sometimes their bodies, just how much room they have got to be able to move safely between their friends.

Of course the children don’t realize that this is what they are doing. They are just having some fun, singing a fun song.

One of the children I have taught had no spacial awareness. He walked very closely behind other children, and often bumped into them when the music said to stop. I used to try and step in between him and the other child so that he didn’t bump into him/her. We did music every day, and because we used a lot of songs that involved walking, jumping, stamping, or hopping around the room, he gradually became aware of space. It took several months, but eventually he wanted to be the leader, and instead of following others, he negotiated the space very well, and had children following him. It was very exciting for me, to see how he had developed over the time I had him with me.

Until next time,

yours in Music.

Today I have found an article that talks about music making children smarter.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

http://www.usaweekend.com/01_issues/011028/011028harmonies.html

Heather