What I'm reading; what I'm working on; what musical ideas I am passionate about. It's a forum to share my thoughts on more than just music. It's about the sounds, the people, and the experiences that inspire me, every day, to do what I love. "Enriching people's lives with music."
September is National Piano Month. So, let's celebrate! Did you know that fudge stick cookies make the perfect black keys for an edible piano? Check out Instructables here for the step-by-step instructions to create your very own piano cake.
This week's Video of the Week comes from New York City. 60 pianos have been scattered all over New York City this summer for the "Play Me, I'm Yours" art project. Each day from 9am-10pm anyone can try there hand at making music, both professionals and amateurs alike. Each of these pianos has also been turned into a free standing art piece as well. Presented by Sing for Hope the pianos are located in public parks, streets and plazas and will be available until the 5th of July for members of the public to play and engage with. For more information check out this article in the New York Times. Enjoy!
This activity is for children ages 2 - 6, but can be adapted to suit any child. All you need is a music player, music in any style, drawing paper, and crayons to express music through art.
Start playing your favorite song. Give your little musical artist the drawing paper and crayons and have him draw what he hears. How does the music make him feel? What would that look like? Is it slow and lazy loops and swirls or is it fast and frantic dots and zig zags? What color is it? Don't forget to do this along side your child and compare your creations. How are they same? How are they different?
I can't wait to do this with my daughter during her music class tomorrow. I will keep you updated on how we do. Happy creating!
This is such a simple project that can enhance any music time. I especially like making projects like these and then teaching the children I'm working with a song or two that work well with percussion. Later in the week I will be posting about kids in worship. How might you use these and other children's percussion in worship?
I can not believe it's August already. This month I took my youngest to his two month wellness check up and he is just perfect the pediatrician said. He is getting so big and starting to coo and smile. Time is really flying by. I had almost forgotten how much fun this can be. As I write this Oliver is dozing off in his bouncing seat. Thank God for those!
Our oldest, Madeline celebrated her third birthday this month with a party for family and friends. She was quite the gracious birthday girl and really enjoyed opening her many gifts. I have been keeping busy musically as always and trying to get in more practice time with two children in the house now. If you have any tips for me I would appreciate it. More cute kids pictures can be had on my facebook page.
School is here and I just finished the new redesign of the Elliott Music Studio Website for Fall Enrollment at the Elliott Music Studio. In addition to private lessons in voice and piano we are expanding our offerings this fall to include music classes for children and their families with Elliott Music Classes. Classroom Music for Little Mozarts will be one of our offerings as well as Tiny Tots music for the little ones and their parents. I will have a separate post soon with the details. I can't wait to get started!
Elliott Music Studio Voted Best Music Class in Kansas City two years in a row! Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect, the online resource for parenting advice and community, allowed parents to pick the best of their local communities with its Second Annual Parents' Picks Awards. The Elliott Music Studio was of Kansas City's nominees for Best Music Class. The 2009 award winners will be featured on ParentsConnect throughout the year. Thanks again for all the support!
We are progressing nicely on the German Lieder Recital that I have been working on for the past couple months with Don Forsythe and the Raytown Arts Council. We have our accompanist now I hope and are just in search of a viola player. We are looking at an October concert date possibly at my church, One Spirit UMC. I have quite a bit of practice still to do but I love a good challenge and the music is beautiful. It looks like October is going to be a busy concert month because the Cabaret n' Love Concert to benefit the Shepherd Center of Raytown that had to be rescheduled due to a huge snow storm this past February will also be in October. Details to come.
Did you know that August 24th is Strange Music Day? I had no idea either until I found this website called Holidays for Everyday. It's one stop shopping for all the neat and unusual things that people recognize for every day, week or month of the year. So don't forget that August 30th is National Toasted Marshmallow day. I know I'll be having one!
Summer is almost over but if you are still looking for a project to keep the kids busy why not make music instruments out of common household trash items. My daughter and I have been saving toilet paper rolls just with these kinds of projects in mind. Other items that can be rescued from the trash and transformed into fun music making tools are:
plastic water bottles
oatmeal containers
coffee cans
tissue boxes
plastic silverware
Once you have collected your supplies from the recycle bin, the next step is collecting a few additional items from around the house or the dollar store to complete these fun projects.
Make a Kazoo with Toilet Paper Tubes Learn how to make a kazoo out of used toilet paper tubes!
Coffee Can or Oatmeal Container Drums This project is pretty simple and just involves some creative art design. You are going to need and intact coffee can or oatmeal container with lid and art supplies for decorating the outside. You don't necessarily need to glue down your lid unless you want to. I will leave that step up to you. The sky's the limit to how you decorate your drum. I have decoupaged paper onto the outside of my drum. I have used paints and paint pens to make cool designs. Simply taping decorative paper to the side of your drum also looks nice. Once your drum is dry all you have left to do is make some noise...I mean rhythmic music. Plastic silverware makes great drum sticks in a pinch, too.
Water Bottle Shakers Fill your empty water bottle with beads, rice or beans to make cool shaker sounds. My favorite combo is multi-colored beads and glitter for sparkle. Not much decorating is needed but I would suggest using glue to seal your lid so you don't accidentally loose your shaker contents. Just a precautionary measure.
Tissue Box Guitar Empty tissue boxes make great guitars with the addition of a few large rubber bands slipped over the hole in the box. Decorate the outside of the box if desired before adding the rubber bands. Once finished you can strum to your hearts content. Experiment with different sized rubber bands for different sounds and pitches.
Now comes the fun part, creating your own recycled music band. Gather your family or some of your children's friends and rock out. Consider adding accompaniment to your favorite children's songs or just turn on the radio and see what's playing.
This activity is for children ages 2 - 6, but can be adapted to suit any child. All you need is a music player, music in any style, drawing paper, and crayons to express music through art.
I can not believe it's August already. This month I took my youngest to his two month wellness check up and he is just perfect the pediatrician said. He is getting so big and starting to coo and smile. Time is really flying by. I had almost forgotten how much fun this can be. As I write this Oliver is dozing off in his bouncing seat. Thank God for those!
Elliott Music Studio Voted Best Music Class in Kansas City two years in a row! Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect, the online resource for parenting advice and community, allowed parents to pick the best of their local communities with its Second Annual Parents' Picks Awards. The Elliott Music Studio was of Kansas City's nominees for Best Music Class. The 2009 award winners will be featured on ParentsConnect throughout the year. Thanks again for all the support!
