Playing the Saxophone

LJ is fascinated with shadows and snorkels, in addition to music, these days. She was pretending to play her snorkel like a saxophone one evening this week, and particularly interested in how the shadow of her fingers looked on the wall.

A Diverse Music Listening Diet

Early childhood music education experts recommend providing a "diverse music listening diet" to young children, starting before they are born. To be honest, we have not always excelled in this area. We don't have music playing all the time in our home, or even every day, or always in the car. I think it's because we all like to make music live and we like silence.

I'm not sure what LJ's music listening preferences are right now. Certainly the Sesame Street CD is high on her list, but I think that's related to the characters more than the musical qualities. It will be fun to introduce her to more recorded music and ask her for her opinions. She has experienced quite a bit of world music, instrumental and vocal "classical" music, Christian music (both adult and children musicians), and some Broadway.

I'm Playing the Harp!

Yesterday LJ sat on one of her little chairs, arranged her doll stroller in front of it, and announced "I'm playing the harp!" She strummed her fingers on the imaginary strings, gently, with a sweet look on her face. She saw a harp at the CWRU Windi/Jazzi concert last month and is quite fascinated with it. I'm eager to get my Gu Zheng out for her!

Encourage One Another

This morning LJ sang "Encourage One Another, And Build Each Other Up" while she ate her oatmeal & bagel. She heard me singing it earlier this morning; her favorite part is "Up up up up up up up up up!" (the melody, predictably, goes up in that part of the song, partly chromatically).

LJ's Music Blog

This is a new blog intended to keep track of LJ's musical development, preferences, and milestones.  Lately she has been singing songs like "Joy to the World," "Do Re Mi," and "Come, All You People" while other songs play on the radio/CD player.  I've also heard her singing songs from M&M on a neutral syllable - some in Dorian, some in 5/8.