The Banana Boat Song! Love this one! Not too raucous, but catchy, plus most everyone at least recognizes it, and can easily sing along with the response. This rendition is by Taj Mahal, from the disc, A Child's Celebration of the World.

From Wikpedia: "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) is a traditional Jamaican mento folk song, the best-known version of which was sung by Harry Belafonte. Although it is really Jamaican mento, the song is widely known as an example of calypso music. It is a song from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home."

This is an example of a Call and Response song, with a repeated melody and refrain. With each lyric there would be a set response ("Daylight come and' me wan' go home") from the workers but with many different sets of lyrics, some possibly improvised on the spot. In our Bongo collection, examples of this style are the verse portions of "Little Liza Jane" and "Little Johnny Brown". We've already done something like this with Little Johnny Brown, when we each made up a motion and sang it, then all sing "Johnny Brown". Later in the semester, we will ask for some of you to make the "calls" for Little Liza Jane, while the rest of us sing the response. It might be something like "I have a little boy whose name is John" (call), then "Little Liza Jane" (response), "He likes to dance with pajamas on!" "Little Liza Jane". It doesn't even need to be rhyming. Your children will love having themselves featured in a song, and may like to help create a verse themselves.

On another subject: here's the facebook link for photos of the animals Down Under

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Preschool-Music-Plus-Music-Together-Classes/214968955184776

Hi all,

Our Free Dance selection this week is "Lollipop" by Ronald and Ruby, off The Golden Age of American Rock 'N' Roll, Volume 6. Here is a little of the Wikpedia article: "The recording duo Ronald & Ruby comprised Ronald Gumps, and songwriter Beverly Ross. The recording was originally a demo disc but RCA got hold of it and Dixson, who owned the master and had produced the demo, agreed to let them release it. Ronald and Ruby's version rose up the chart reaching #20 but when it was learned they were an interracial duo (as were the songwriters Dixson and Ross), television appearances that had been previously booked were canceled and interest in the song waned. "Lollipop" was then covered in the United States by female vocal quartet The Chordettes whose version reached #2 and #3 on the Billboard pop and R&B charts, respectively. The song became a worldwide hit." Different age, for sure!

The Play-Along was "Mbube", a traditional South African song, the source of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", of which the most popularly known version is by The Tokens. The recording we used is by the Mahotella Queens, a South African singing group. It was also recorded by Miriam Makeba, and numerous other groups. Here are some links to various versions on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GvrVIQ3QbE     (Mahotella Queens)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6AAtKmx6Qk&feature=related  (Miriam Makeba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi4XmAbA7JU&feature=fvwrel  (The Nylons, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight")

Our Music Together^® song, Funga Alafia, is a Nigerian welcome song. When I looked it up, there were many conflicting "facts" about the language, the exact meaning, etc. But there was basic agreement that the motions mean, "With my thoughts, I welcome you. With my mouth, i welcome you. With my heart, I welcome you. (The last gesture is variously:) I have nothing up my sleeve, I am unarmed, peace..."

Happy singing and dancing!

Karen

I am so excited about our classes so far and about the Bongos songs! There are some of my favorites in this collection: I love "Down Under", even if it's a little challenging. "Ding-a-Ding" is new to me and already I love it. "Mountain Dew" is surprisingly catchy. Traditional favorites like "Eensy Weensy Spider" and "This Old Man". I could go on and on.

And all you parents and your children are GREAT! Really good energy, lots of parental participation - You're doing a great job. I love when you and your kids offer ideas for movements or verses - we can get really creative together!

Thank you for making my job the best in the world!

Our play along music this week was "Singin' Every Day" from the Music Together FIDDLE Collection.

Please be sure to take a look at your Musical Growth Chart this week - look for behaviors you see in your child. Maybe you've noticed him babbling musically along with the songs, or moving his arms rhythmically (with or without matching the beat of the song). Maybe she sings lullabies to her stuffed animals, or leads her siblings in sing-alongs! Maybe you've notices an increased alertness in your infant when certain music comes on, or especially when Mom or Dad sings! Maybe your preschooler is now marching accurately to the beat of the song! Remember to think about what your child was doing when you first began. Don't fall for comparing her with other children in the class - all children are unique. All have different experiences at home, with more or less musical involvement, and some have even been taking Music Together classes for two years already!

On the back page of the chart, you may have noticed the "Parent's Experience through Music Together". I hope you read through this as well. I know that I have seen many of you become more comfortable with your own music-making, sharing ideas, and playing with the class. I have also been pleased to see your relationships with other parents and caregivers grow.

Musical development is an ongoing process, like learning to talk. You want to keep providing models and increase the complexity of vocabulary and structure, not just for the first few seasons of life, but for their entire childhoods. As with speech development, musical development will not always happen in exactly the same way or at the same age for each child, but given the ongoing exposure and especially the models of live music making and enjoyment, the development will happen. Your child will become "musically competent", which means he or she will be able to sing in tune and move with rhythmic accuracy. These days, in our media-centric culture, some children never develop these abilities, but with you and your child making Music Together, you have helped to ensure that he/she will! It will likely happen by age 5 or 6.

Our Free Dance this week is Ants In My Pants, by Gunnar Madsen, from the album Ants In My Pants. Gunnar has lots of really fun children's music. Some of my favorites from this album are The Lonely Dog Tango, Don't Shake Hands With a One-Eyed Pirate, and Old Baloney. My absolute favorites are the ones from his first children's album, Old Mr. Mackle Hackle. The title song is terrific, and I also love The Evelyn Way, Elephant Traffic Jam, and We Eat Meat (about a T-Rex and his buddies). Quirky, fun, not your usual children's fare. He was a founding member of The Bobs, an acapella vocal group. They are also really quirky. They still exist, but Gunnar is no longer singing with them.

Gunnar also composes other music, some of which we have used in previous Music Together semesters. His album of waltzes, Spinning World, is lovely - piano and violin. He has done some solo piano albums too. 

Gunnar came to my notice (when he was one of The Bobs) because he had been one of my brother's close childhood friends, and I had been friends with his sister. Lost contact for a long time, then here he is.

Our free dance music this week is Don't Stop by Ozomatli, on the album Don't Mess With the Dragon.

Our play along music is L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole. This particular one is from a greatest hits type album, called The World of Nat King Cole.

You've heard me say many times, "move with the beat" "move your feet to the beat" "show the beat in your bodies". We play our instruments faster or slower with the same song. I say "macro beat", "micro beat", "double time", "elongation", "small beat," "big beat"...

Is this ever confusing? 

If so, read on. I hope to clarify some of these terms for you in the following paragraphs.

When I talk about BEAT, I am talking about the basic pulse in the music or chant. The BEAT is like your heartbeat or your walking/running steps - sometimes faster or slower, but steady and repetitive. If you were marching, you'd take one step for every beat. When you clap along with the bluegrass band, you are most likely clapping the beat.

The BASIC BEAT is somewhat subjective. With any piece of music, one person may clap twice as often/quickly as another person and both are keeping the beat. Think of "Jumpin' Josie". Some would clap on the bold syllables like so:

   E-v'ry-one up and jum-pin' Jo-sie ...

and some would clap on these bold syllables:

   E-v'ry-one up and jum-pin' Jo-sie ...

and both would be correctly clapping with the beat. In the first example, with more frequent claps, I would call it clapping the micro-beat (or "little beat"), the second example I would call clapping the macro-beat (or "big beat"). If you clapped like this:

   E-v'ry-one up and jum-pin' Jo-sie ...

you would be clapping the "diminution", also known in traditional musical terms as the "subdivision".

If you clapped only on the first syllable of each phrase in this song (E-v), you would be clapping the "elongation". All of these beats keep pace with the music, and are steady and repetitive. Which of these is comfortable to you and seems to fit the music best is a subjective judgment. If just asked to clap along, adults tend to gravitate towards the macro-beat while children often seem to prefer the micro beat. (Their heartbeats and their footsteps tend to be more frequent than our grownup ones, too). So when I say "move to the beat", I mean move with a steady pulse, but which steady pulse you pick, is up to you (unless I request a particular one or ask you to copy me). And "double time" is just what it says: twice as fast/frequent as what you were previously doing.

You can also change from macro to micro to diminution to elongation in the same song. When I model this, I am often either changing when starting a repetition of the verse/song, or I do it to help differentiate the different phrases or sections in the song.

By the way, you have probably heard people talk about the "back beat". This refers to clapping on the "weak" beats of a song. When you stamp-clap to a song, you are usually stamping on the strong beat and clapping on the back (weak) beat. In Josie, the back beat would be like this:

   E-v'ry-one up and jum-pin' Jo-sie ...

On another post, I'll discuss rhythm and how it is different from beat.

So, is all this clear as mud? Any questions? Comments? Need to know more? Less? I'd love to hear from you.

Karen

- This is a fascinating TED Talk about the critical period of sound discrimination learning in babies. I think it has implications for music learning as well. It's never too early to begin doing music with your child, just as it's never too early to begin talking with your child. The live human component is shown here to be extremely important. This goes along with the Music Together philosophy that parents and caregivers modeling music making is of utmost importance! Do it with your child!

 I guess the link didn't work, so here's the url, you can cut and paste:

 http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-02-16

Thank you to all who came to the Open-House-Song-Fest-Food-Drive! We had a good time, singing, playing, visiting. And we collected a bunch of food for the LINK program and the First Baptist Food Pantry.

I also want to thank all the families in the Winter 2011 semester! It's been great watching your children develop and gain musical skills. I love hearing the stories of what they do at home. Why don't you write up your stories and post them on the family discussion forum page on this website or our facebook page? Others would like to hear them too, and comment on them.

Thanks again!

Our playalong music this week is Celebration, by Kool and the Gang. I was pleased that so many of you seemed to be familiar with it. Your group may have had this as the free dance music and Goin' for Coffee, a preview from Maracas, for the playalong.

A Note on Cadences

In all our classes you have heard me sing "Bum-bum - into the box", high to low, when putting away instruments or other items. Those notes, usually sung in the key of the song we just finished, are the fifth and first scale tones of the key, also known as the dominant and the tonic (or resting tone), or 5-1, or sol-do (thinking the do-re-mi scale). In our most commonly heard music , both popular and classical, the dominant to tonic change is recognized by our ears as a cadence, an ending. Think of the bass lines in your favorite do-wop songs, hymns, folk songs, rock songs - they almost always end with a 5-1. This can be an ascending or a descending interval; our ears hear it the same. 

This is an extremely recognizable interval. (in music, an interval is the distance from one pitch to another). We use it consistently in class to signal the ending of a song, the ending of instrument use, the ending of an activity. I'm sure you have seen our toddlers "get" it after a few weeks! I suspect, that if you were to sing it at home when it's cleanup time, or when a meal is done ("all done" on 5-1), your children will know exactly what to do. (Whether they act on what they know they should do is another question! Toddlers are famous for expressing their increasing independence by saying "NO"). Try using this interval as an aid for transitions from one activity to another at home. And you can reverse it for a little heightened expectation for the next thing! Sing on 5-1 for the end of something, for instance dinner, then sing on 1-5 ("and now....") holding out the 5 ("now...) a little extra time before announcing the next activity ("...clean up!"), which could also be on 5-1, or any melody you want to make up.