Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2009
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Lionel Trains or Lionel... Hampton!?
One of the "games" that I play with David while in the car, is changing the radio station after David exclaims "no!" I believe that David enjoys having some say in the choice of music that we listen to. Nataliya thinks that I'm just giving him another reason to yell. In either case, the game usually ends when I give up on the radio and press play the pre-loaded kiddie CD.
After exhausting the presets on the radio, I decided to try something different, and pressed the search button instead of going to the CD. Station after station passed with David offering his usual "no" until we hit an unfamiliar station playing, of all things, jazz. With finger hovering by the search button, I stopped. There wasn't any objection from David. In fact, there wasn't any sound. This wasn't how the game played out, so something very weird was going on.
When I turned my head to check on David, I first noticed that David had an expression of awe and he seemed to really be enjoying the music. His eyes were elsewhere and a smile was apparent on his face. Noticing me looking at him, he looked back and his smile widened. "David," I asked, "do you like this music?" David softly replied, "like it!"
At nap time, I put on one of my jazz CDs for David to listen to. He was very quiet as the entire CD played, and he fell asleep without any fuss or argument. After his nap, he had no interest in leaving his room. Instead, he got up, pressed play on his CD player, and then went back to bed.
At bedtime, I put on another jazz CD for him, and again he went to sleep without a single complaint.
David gets in the mood as he listens to smooth jazz.
Hmmm.... maybe I'll introduce him to rap next week! Won't that be the illezt!
After exhausting the presets on the radio, I decided to try something different, and pressed the search button instead of going to the CD. Station after station passed with David offering his usual "no" until we hit an unfamiliar station playing, of all things, jazz. With finger hovering by the search button, I stopped. There wasn't any objection from David. In fact, there wasn't any sound. This wasn't how the game played out, so something very weird was going on.
When I turned my head to check on David, I first noticed that David had an expression of awe and he seemed to really be enjoying the music. His eyes were elsewhere and a smile was apparent on his face. Noticing me looking at him, he looked back and his smile widened. "David," I asked, "do you like this music?" David softly replied, "like it!"
At nap time, I put on one of my jazz CDs for David to listen to. He was very quiet as the entire CD played, and he fell asleep without any fuss or argument. After his nap, he had no interest in leaving his room. Instead, he got up, pressed play on his CD player, and then went back to bed.
At bedtime, I put on another jazz CD for him, and again he went to sleep without a single complaint.
David gets in the mood as he listens to smooth jazz.Hmmm.... maybe I'll introduce him to rap next week! Won't that be the illezt!
Monday, February 11, 2008
I Can Name That Tune In Two Notes
What I find interesting is that David has an interesting ability to not only recognize songs, but he can do so if they're hummed or whistled. He doesn't always know the names of the songs, but he will identify some lyric or word that makes it clear he figured out the song. For example, he may not say "Theme To Sesame Street", but he will rattle off the names of several muppets from the show.
For fun, I thought I'd push it a step further and sing (badly) the first two syllables of a number of songs. To my amazement, he was right on the money, nine times out of ten! Two notes were enough for him to show off a wide smile and belt out the answer! (When you take into account that I tend to be a bit flat when I try to sing, this is an even greater achievement.)
Then he did something unexpected. He proceeded to sing more half the songs from start to finish. Yeah, he would cheat a few words here and there, humming or babbling in the missing pieces, but he managed to sing entire lines of the songs as he accounted for every last note of each song. Here's a kid who barely puts nouns and verbs together, rattling off entire lines of songs.
Could we use music to help him learn in general? While there's not much to gain in clapping when we know we're happy, understanding how one merrily rows downstream, or why so much emphasis is given to a bus's rotating wheels, perhaps we could choose songs with a more educational value. Maybe if we sing to him about conjunctions, interjections, how a bill becomes law, or why three is a magic number ... maybe ... just maybe ... he'll pick up something of value!
On the other hand, it could simply turn him off to music completely.
For fun, I thought I'd push it a step further and sing (badly) the first two syllables of a number of songs. To my amazement, he was right on the money, nine times out of ten! Two notes were enough for him to show off a wide smile and belt out the answer! (When you take into account that I tend to be a bit flat when I try to sing, this is an even greater achievement.)
Then he did something unexpected. He proceeded to sing more half the songs from start to finish. Yeah, he would cheat a few words here and there, humming or babbling in the missing pieces, but he managed to sing entire lines of the songs as he accounted for every last note of each song. Here's a kid who barely puts nouns and verbs together, rattling off entire lines of songs.
Could we use music to help him learn in general? While there's not much to gain in clapping when we know we're happy, understanding how one merrily rows downstream, or why so much emphasis is given to a bus's rotating wheels, perhaps we could choose songs with a more educational value. Maybe if we sing to him about conjunctions, interjections, how a bill becomes law, or why three is a magic number ... maybe ... just maybe ... he'll pick up something of value!
On the other hand, it could simply turn him off to music completely.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Our Family Musician
David has shown some amazing aptitude for music. At least that's what Seth thinks! But is David destined to be as good as... say... Eric Clapton!?
Let's compare:
Let's compare:
- Clapton didn't release his Unplugged performance until he was 47, but David is well on his way at two (and a half) years old!
- Clapton had the benefit of playing with a Fender Stratocaster made specifically for him. David is using a plastic guitar from a garage sale with only four strings intact.
- Clapton was at his best when he was either taking drugs, drinking to excess, or when tragedy entered his life. David's best work comes when he knows he should be going to bed or after some hot chocolate.
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