Some general ideas...

Well, just to get everyone thinking about different ideas for basic music playtime with any age, I thought I would put on some generic activities.

These activities are for listening and responding.

• Play music on the radio or a cd and dance with your kids. Try listening to different styles and beats of music and dance more gracefully or crazy depending on the mood. It will show them that music affects our mood and can make us to feel happy, relaxed, excited, sad, silly, etc. Ask them how they feel when you play certain songs. Get them thinking while they're playing! This is also just a great thing to do to get to know your kids better and spend time with them. (you can use this activity for any age and just adapt)
• For a quiet time activity turn on some music and have your kids draw what they see or how they feel when they are listening to it. Like I said before, try different styles: classical, rock, country, funk, jazz, blues, etc. Suggest using shapes, squiggles, landscapes, or any other drawing method.
  
• Play some music and have the children take turns telling you a story about what is happening...a knight is trying to save a princess and the ogre is chasing him! He's running as fast as he can...it can be any story. They will have fun using their imaginations.
• As you're watching a movie and talk about how the music changes when different things are going on-having fun, running, feeling sad, or big dramatic moments. Again, this teaches them how music can affect the way we feel.

These are hands-on activities.

• Fill different size containers with beans, rice, sand, rocks, or anything you can find to make instruments. Discuss how they all have unique sounds. Let the children experiment with them. Have them sing a familiar song (Twinkle Twinkle or Mary Had a Little Lamb) and hit or shake their new instrument on every word. For more advanced kids, they could tap the beat.
  
• This is a fun rhythm game. Pick a theme (or don't, it's your choice) and have the kids think of words that go along with it. We'll use food since I love food -eggs, waffles, pancakes, toast- eggs becomes: 1 quarter note, waffles: 2 eighth notes, pancakes: 2 eighth notes, toast: 1 quarter note. Tap a steady beat and then say the words. If this is confusing, I'll post a video of myself doing it. Continue picking different words. Work up to 3 or 4 syllable words (3=triplets, 4=quadruplets).
  

Well, that's going to be it for now, but I will be posting new ideas regularly. As I said before, any suggestions are welcome and encouraged. Keep music alive in our homes!

Welcome to Musical Playtime!

I have been meaning to start a website about Musical Playtime for a while now, but I'm just bad at making decisions, so I decided just to get some ideas flowing with a blog since it's less stressful (hopefully!!). Well, I should start by sharing a few of my ideas. Two very important beliefs to me are: 1.) I believe that children learn quickly through play, structured and unstructured; and 2.) I believe that children learn quickly through music, structured and unstructured. Learning by these two means (play and music) also shows significant results in retention of knowledge. So, if you can learn something quickly and retain it indefinitely, there are no limits! They say the sky's the limit, but it's not true...there is much more out there to discover!

With all of that said, my long-term goal in this project is to find ways to teach children (and adults) all different subjects by using play and music. Doesn't that sound fun? Now, since that is a daunting task, I will need a lot of help in discovering new ideas and programs. My short-term goal is to develop ideas for teaching music. I have a deep love of music! I have always had it. Music is a communication that reaches beyond speech or even body language. Music has the power to reach directly to your soul-body, mind, and spirit. Music has a powerful influence...for good and for bad. Let us teach our children to love the good music. Help them to discover their abilities to express themselves through music.

It can start from as early as the womb. My son loves music! I was in a large band when I was pregnant and even then he loved the sounds and vibrations. He was so used to the sound of music when he was born that he would sleep through a 200 piece band without even stirring. I took him to band with me one day in his carrier and I play low brass, so he was sitting back with me by the tubas, euphoniums, trombones, and percussion. Everyone thought he would wake up, but he just slept peacefully. When he was awake, he would sing along even at just a couple months old. I thought it was a coincidence, so I stopped playing...he stopped singing. I started playing again...he started singing. I just hope that I can continue to share my love of music with him throughout his life. It has been said that when you bind a memory to an emotion, it will last forever. My clearest memories have musical soundtracks to accompany them! Sometimes, it's also been music that I have created. Now that is an incredible feeling!

I think anyone can have those feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction with any creation. Whether you are a mother, cook, scrapbooker, decorator, construction worker, smiler, baker, flower arranger, or gardener (or anything else), you are a creator! To create means: to cause to come into existence. You don't have to be the typical "creative" type to be a creator. Be you!

Now, Musical Playtime is for teaching creativity, tonal awareness, rhythm, pitch, singing, composing, experimentation, fun, and most of all - listening. When you take the time to listen, you can learn so much! If you listen to a wise man, you will learn wisdom. If you listen to a bird singing in the morning, you will learn it's song. If you listen to your heart, it will teach you all things that are possible to learn!

I am here to listen to you and to share my ideas back. Let us help each other to find ways to raise children up to be creative, innovative, smart, and courageous. Let's start the training of the future leaders of our country and the world.