Play all day

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:24:08 PDT

by Anna.

In appreciation for the excellent free resources you are providing here I would like to offer case examples of rhythm learning in the home.

We are starting to jump into rhythm grooves. "We" consists of me my 10 year old and my 3 year old. My older child and I tend to hold things together and the little one dances around and provides accompaniment (sometimes more chaotic than others) and other times its just me doing the rhythm thing with the kids playing around.

So far we have been dabbling with the simple salsa. I have taught my son the parts and he can play sometimes with another part and sometimes not. Ocassionally I will try to help him with this but more often than not our sessions involve me playing "conga" (its a djembe actually) and the children dancing around the room.

The song that has developed is

Play all day

We just like to play all day

Sometimes they make up songs to go with the beat too but often the play all day verse is requested.

We have been doing this run around playing game for as long as I remember. Even before the drums have become central. We used to do it with just a vocal accompaniment. It was not initiated by me. I would just sing and they would just run.

Some other non drum movement activities my kids like are dancing and acting out nursery rhyme songs. Running around in cicles wildly (as previously mentioned. Also, I adapted an Ella Jenkins song (I am not sure how close I am to the original song but it was definately inspired by her).Its kind of a bluesy thing with a bridge.

And you run and you run and you run and you stop

Is the main theme and the bridge is

And you hop hop hop hop hop (the hops are in a 3-2 son clave pattern...I suppose I could sing this with different claves too)

Then we add different motions. Crawl, skip and more recently I have been inspired by Laban and I have added float, glide, stretch, pull anything works. The key to making it fun is to always hop at the bridge. When they get tired we return to run and slow down at the end and we all collapse.

We have developed a repertoire of other activities. The kids really like 2 long songs "Arkansas Traveler" and "The Shekere" to the point that they start singing and insist that I join in to help. They know a handful of movement games. We do hand clapping games.

My little one probably would be doing music even without any parental intervention but I am pretty sure my oldest would have felt too uncoordinated without encouragement and practice at a young age. He is still learning to coordinate to an external pulse. This is much harder for some people than others. And people who struggle with this coordination can get really frustrated unless they are given frequent opportunities to practice in a playful and non threatening way.

There are thousands of homeschool moms out there who have all day to play around with their kids. What a great place to implement an "arts immersion" curriculum. Especially since so many families are already rejecting the traditional academic sequence.

What would be the best way to encourage and assist homeschool moms in initiating this kind of musical fun in their households? I have been tossing around this question in my head lately.

I think its key to train the moms (or dads). Singing and a basic rhythmic feel are fundamental skills. Beyond that I have found the ability to sing while playing another instrument to be extremely handy (especially the drums). And to be able to play one rhythm and sing another that really helps too. Of course you can do so much without this but I think many parents could learn to do the same thing with a bit of practice. (And its fun too)

My favorite part of this site is that most of the rhythms have a song and the two are coordinated. Even some dance moves.

What would be really great would be a CD with quality examples of world music and some simple dances to go along with it. Perhaps it would have to be a DVD. I wonder if this already exists.

Square Dance (videos too)

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 07:58:24 PDT

by William.

"Square dancing at the Santa Clara County Fair, August 2003."

It's so much fun they're still at it a year later: "Square dancing at the Santa Clara County Fair, August 2004 - samples of some patter sequences."

On the Path

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 10:30:00 PDT

by William.

A French band playing the theme from the Austin Powers movies:

An Israeli band rocks out to Ellington:

ReBirth at Mardi Gras, post-Katrina:

Dubrovnick:

Samba

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 18:59:26 PDT

by William.

In Brazil they start young:

Listen to the strong bottom. Like thunder.

Open Discussion About Section 4

Play all day

Square Dance (videos too)

On the Path

Samba