Thanks for coming to visit the Family and Friends Music Club!
I teach piano and group music classes in and around Bristol, UK. Please click on the Piano Lessons or Group Music Classes tabs for more information.
I also blog about musical ideas and activities, please scroll down the home page, or pick a category to the right to have a look around.
With Easter fast-approaching I thought it was about time I shared these little guys!
Making novelty shakers is a fun way to make use of the plastic yolks from ‘Kinder Surprise’ eggs if you are lucky enough to have access to them.
Egg-sized shakers are a great percussion instrument/toy for children – the shape and size is perfect for little hands, and they can be used for rolling around, keeping a steady beat, making sound effects…
To make these minion-themed shakers:
As you’ll see from these pictures – we definitely made these minions ourselves! I do not have a gift for crafts and my kids are all young, so you can see that this is a pretty straightforward activity.
E insisted her minion should be a girl; setting aside my thoughts about whether girls necessarily need to wear dresses and have blue eyeshadow I’m amused by her ‘glamour-minion’!
These particular minions like to shake about and sing along with various minion-style songs – a great way to join in with pretty much any song without knowing the ‘real’ words – bonus!
I wanted to share some Bowie with the Kindergarten Music Club this week, and the vote from my own children was for Changes. My theory is that the kids like this one because of the ‘ch ch ch’ refrain – they are, after all, big fans of repetitive sounds in popular music.
So for the listening section of our class today, we:
And while I worked individually with the kids on their recorders the rest of the group designed themselves a pop musician ‘look’ using this blank person template.
What a fun lesson, and what great music – thanks, David Bowie!
Hopefully yesterday’s post is helping you make use of your candy stash, but what about all those Halloween bits and bobs that aren’t edible? Let’s start up where I left off yesterday…
Percussion!
Did you collect your candy in a bucket? If so, turn it over (when it’s empty!) and start playing your Halloween drum. Looking for drumsticks? Did you get any pencils? If you got the sort with erasers on the end (or if you got any erasers with holes for pencils) then try using the pencil end and then the eraser end and listen out for the difference in sound.
If you have more than one little trick or treater who collected a can of pop they could both try tapping the sides with their pencil- (or lollypop-) beaters between sips to see who has the most left in their can. Listen out for the difference in pitch: a lower sound = more drink left in the can.
How about one of those mini slinky plastic springs? I tried stretching ours over small tub and using it as a sort of guiro/scraper. You can play it with your pencil or fingernail. NB. A container with rounded corners is useful for keeping your spring in place – you could also try taping it down if it keeps popping off, although it’s fun to experiment with the sound as you alter the stretch of the spring.
Which Hand?
My kids got a good variety of bracelets, stamps, stickers and tattoos. For young children still struggling with knowing their right from left, you can use any of these things to help mark the difference.
Which Finger?
It can sometimes take quite a while for young pianists to get the hang of their finger numbers. Dollar store rings can be a fun way to help with this. The simpl
est activity is to challenge your kid/student to put a ring on (for example) left hand, finger 4 (or one on each of their finger 4s to help with the concept of the hands mirroring each other). You can do one finger at a time, or try to build up a whole hand covered with rings – kids with magpie-like tendencies enjoy doing this with a collection of colourful/shiny toy rings.
For my beginning students I put together a simple version of Mary Had a Little Lamb using rings to help identify which fingers to use. You can grab a copy at the bottom of this post if you’d like.
This is another activity that you can do with stickers or stamps – stamping or sticking something on the sheet music and then putting a matching stamp, sticker or colour on the corresponding hands and fingers.
Memorisation/Keyboard Familiarity
Did your trick or treaters collect any glow sticks/jewellery? How about challenging them to play the piano in the dark with just the light of their accessories to give them the occasional clue (or stop them from getting spooked)!
Breath Control
As usual, a lot of my ideas are centred around the keyboard, but if you collected any bubbles, these are great for practising using a controlled breath for singing or playing wind instruments. Also, just the process of dipping the wand in the mixture (and not spilling it!) is great for hand-eye coordination. See, life skills – not just music 😉
Composition
Yesterdays post included a printable composition sheet. We found some cute little pumpkin stickers which could be used to make a composition that lasts a little longer than the candy version! You could use them for dictation activities, too.
Finger Strength / Fine Motor Skills
I love those little pots of Play-Doh as a Halloween treat/loot bag staple.
Try pushing finge
rs into the dough to practice using tips of fingers rather than pads (making circles rather than ridges) and strengthen fingers.
To make it more piano-specific you can flatten out a rectangle and score lines for the edges of piano keys and practice legato and staccato techniques.
You can also work on rhythmic values and patterns with rolled up dots and ‘sausages’ of dough.
Giving Back
Some kind people give out toothbrushes and dental floss in our area. I guess these are best used for the intended purpose. If you don’t need them you can always pack them up with some other essentials (and treats) and see if they can be used at your local hospital or homeless shelter (or cut out the middle-man and hand them over next time you pass a homeless person).
Of course, I can’t resist adding my musical spin…if you’re about to bin an old toothbrush, you could consider re-purposing it as a drumstick/brush – we made witches’-broom sound effects with paint brushes in our Kindergarten music class last week, but a toothbrush would make a somewhat sturdier sound!
And dental floss could used to make a harp or even string a guitar! I have a packet of dental floss that my youngest unwound while I wasn’t looking so maybe that’s best used for music rather than mouths!
One Last Halloween Treat…
… here’s the Halloween printable for beginner pianists I mentioned above, the clip art isn’t by me – I’ll add the credits to comments.
If you don’t happen to have rings in the colours or designs I’ve used, you can cut out the little pictures at the top of the sheet and stick them onto rings (or directly onto fingers). Alternatively, a dot of washable pen in the appropriate colour will do. Slightly older children will probably be able to follow without using rings/colours anyway. I personalised my copies with the names of my students; I’ve left a blank space for you to do the same.
November 1st = an extra hour in bed and a house full of candy here in Calgary. 🙂
If your little spooks haven’t already devoured their Halloween stash, here are some candy-themed musical activities to try…
Music Notation
Draw an extra-large sheet of manuscript paper and use Rockets, M&Ms or any small candies to make musical notes.
For beginners you can simply practice placing notes on lines and spaces. You can also compose your own short pieces or play a dictation game with one person singing a melodic pattern for the other to arrange on the staff.
Feel free to grab my printable from the bottom of this post to try this at home.
Hand position (for piano)
Rock
ets are a great shape for little hands to get used to the feeling of playing with the tips of fingers rather than the pads. Play around with tapping on the candies and pushing them around to try and get those fingers muscles working – you could try and select different colour candies for different finger numbers.
Making Patterns
Using any candies you could challenge your kids to continue sequences and complete patterns. Depending on the ages of your kids you can vary th
e complexity of the patterns and the position of the missing candies. If they are finding it too easy you can introduce mistakes
for them to fix (your choice whether they are allowed to eat the mistakes!)
This is such a useful activity for early maths skills, too.
Percussion!
I fondly remember the days when my daughter used to call Smarties ‘shakins’, because we cruelly let her believe that they were percussion toys rather than sweets. Smarties, Nerds, Milk Duds… anything that will rattle or roll around in a box can be used to shake along to the beat of the Monster Mash… Even any crisps/chips that got squashed at the bottom of the candy stash can join the rhythm section!
And if you got a can of pop along the way – there’s your drum right there. Make use of those lollies as beaters.
And for the non-candy Halloween treats…
…tune in tomorrow! In the meantime, here’s my candy-ready manuscript paper – I hope you’ll find it useful. candycompositions
The summer break already seems a long time ago here. Those last couple of weeks of the holiday seemed to fly by and so it is only now that I’m spending a little time to reflect on what we learnt during our unofficial family and friends music summer camp.
I was frustrated that life seemed to be speeding by without me making time to share my experience and love of music with the children so I set myself the challenge of doing a musical activity with the kids every day (and documenting as many as possible) throughout the summer break.
Some activities sparked a lot of fun and creativity, some failed to live up to my expectations, but there were definitely a few valuable lessons along the way…
If you’ve already dipped into any of the Summer Camp posts I hope you found something fun there to inspire you. If not, well, it’s not too late, just click on the Summer Camp category to find all the posts about songs we listened to, games we played, instruments we tried and all the other musical bits and bobs that kept us busy over the summer.
The blog has been having a bit of a break while I set up my real-life music classes here in Calgary (very exciting!), but I’ll be back with plenty more musical thoughts and ideas in the next few weeks – please stay tuned! 🙂
The Family and Friends Music Club is venturing into the real world!
I’m launching group music classes for young children next week and will be adding private piano lessons later in the month. Please take a look at the Group Music Classes page for more information and, if you’re in NW Calgary, please consider signing up for some musical fun!
So, after a week of singing and dancing, let’s calm things down a little…
1. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
I can’t imagine this is going to be new to anybody, but it’s still one of E’s favourite songs so I couldn’t leave it out. You could also use it as an introduction to Mozart’s piano music…
2. Brahms’ Lullaby
Lullaby and goodnight, with roses bedight
With lilies o’er spread is my baby’s wee bed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed
Lay thee down now and rest, may thy slumber be blessed
Lullaby and goodnight, thy mother’s delight
Bright angels beside my darling abide
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast
They will guard thee at rest, thou shalt wake on my breast
This lullaby doesn’t necessarily have the most catchy lyrics, but once the melody is familiar to your child it could serve as a nice introduction to another great composer.
3. Golden Slumbers
Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles await you when you rise.
Sleep, pretty baby, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
Cares you know not, therefore sleep,
While over you a watch I’ll keep,
Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.
When I was looking up versions of Golden Slumbers my youngest fell in love (or, more accurately, was mesmerised by) the version below, but don’t forget there’s also a Beatles version if you’re after something a little less saccharine!
4. Beautiful Boy, John Lennon
A favourite with my children ever since watching Mr Peabody and Sherman.
5. Sleeping Bunnies
So now the kids are all calm and quiet, let’s get them all bouncing! I’m sorry – I can’t resist including this – it’s not really a sleepy song, I know, but it never gets old in our house…
See the little bunnies sleeping ’til it’s nearly noon.
Shall we wake them with a merry tune?
They’re so still, are they ill?
Shhhh, shhhh….
Wake up soon [clap]!
Hop little bunnies, hop hop hop,
Hop little bunnies, hop hop hop,
Hop little bunnies, hop hop hop,
Hop little bunnies, hop then… stop!
The version on this video is slightly different from the version I usually sing, but I like it because it prolongs the bouncing – sometimes with really little kids it takes them so long to get up and bouncing that the song is nearly finished by the time they’ve got going. Of course, you can always just sing the hopping section twice through… or pause for longer while everyone gets up (if the rest of your group is patient enough).
+ Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
And while we’re bouncing rather than sleeping, here’s another great favourite. I love this version, from the brilliant Putumayo Animal Playground album.
This category is very much down to personal taste, but my children all seem to enjoy a song with a singalong ‘la la’ or ‘whoa whoa’ -type chorus, so I thought I’d share a few favourites…
1.Something in the Water, Brooke Fraser
2. Be My Forever, Christina Perri feat. Ed Sheeran
3. Live Life, Jesse & Joy
4. Roar, Katy Perry
5. Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
+ MMMBop, Hanson
I fear some people might not thank me for including this particular ear-worm, but since I’m featuring songs with ‘la-la’ or ‘oh-oh’ refrains I thought this one would also go down well with the kids. Unfortunately it seems to have reminded L of her desire to have her own drum kit!
I did also try the kids with Blur’s Song 2, certainly the most famous ‘woo-hoo’ song I could think of, but they were disappointingly lukewarm. Maybe it’ll be a ‘grower’…
Family and Friends Music Club 