If You Want Kids to Learn Music, First Teach Them How to Sing!

At first this might sound obvious. Kids and adults are always singing, at least the ones I hang around with are :) But when I stopped to really think about it, a lot elementary instrumental programs attempt to start kids off learning a musical instrument, when they haven't had any musical training at all yet. Learning the music basics (melody, rhythm, reading music) AND learning how to make an acceptable sound out of a trumpet, saxophone or (shudder) a violin, can be very difficult even for adults.

We all hear songs that we love to listen to and hum along to. If you start kids off learning how to sing some of their favorite songs, they will learn a lot about how to a musical phrase together, and about different types of melodies and rhythms. You can first start off with songs of the Sesame street variety when they are small (3-4 years old), and then graduate slowly to slightly more complicated songs (Nick Jr & Disney) by the time they are 6 or 7. This will gradually and eventually lead to them learning popular songs from the radio by the time they are 9 or 10 years old. Not the trashy songs from the radio mind you, but the ones that convey a positive message and are appropriate for kids. Believe it or not, there are still some great songs played on the radio every year that are appropriate for all ages. I'll run a separate post later this month and point out some of my favorite examples :)

We recently came across an article about award-winning conductor Richard Gill who is the driving force behind the National Music Teachers Mentorship Pilot Program now beginning in Australia. Core to Gill's program is a mentorship for music teachers by more experienced music teachers. The teachings are led with the philosophy that teaching kids how to sing first is a better when to introduce them to music. Here's a link to the full article on the ABC News website down under ABC News - Singing the Key to Teaching Children Music

All this talk of singing makes me remember a song written by Sesame Streets Joe Raposo and made popular by the Carpenters (top 5 hit in 1973) and by almost every character on Sesame Street over the years. Yes its "Sing" or as you may remember it "Sing a Song" - Check out this beautiful rendition of the "Sing" by the Carpenters

That's all for today folks - I'll be back soon with another post. In the meantime please consider teaching your little ones how to sing as soon as they can talk (maybe even get them humming sooner than that). You may be surprised how many other benefits they receive from this very early "musical" training!

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com
www.facebook.com/KeepMusicAliveMission

Michael Jackson is back with "Love Never Felt So Good"

It has been almost 5 years since Michael Jackson left this world too early, dying at age 50 while in preparations for what was meant to be his final tour "This Is It". Like many I have been a fan of Michael's music since the beginning when the Jackson 5 brought us such amazing songs as "I Want You Back", "ABC", "Got To Be There" and many many more. Michael and his brothers didn't wrote those songs back then but their voices did bring those songs to life and embedded them in our musical memory forever.

Once Michael transitioned into a solo artist he took a more active role in writing/co-writing much of his material. This month two new Michael Jackson songs have been introduced after being revived from the vault of previously recorded material. The first is "Love Never Felt So Good", a song written by Michael and the also legendary Paul Anka way back in 1983 (think Thriller time-frame). For those of you that don't know Paul Anka, he was famous for many hits in the 50s/60s/70s with songs like "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", "Diana", "You're Having My Baby" plus he wrote the theme song for the original Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the English lyrics for "My Way" by Frank Sinatra (not too shabby).

For an unreleased track, "Love Never Felt So Good" actually feels really good and would surely have been a hit for Michael at almost any point in his career. Listening to the song it sounds like they most likely updated the music tracks a bit to make it more current. They definitely succeeded as the song is starting to really grow on me and after 3 weeks has cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Usher did a fantastic tribute to Michael and his new song "Love Never Felt So Good" at the recent I Heart Radio Music awards. Check it out here and let us know what you think about Michael's latest song.

Also on the new posthumous new album "Xscape" is a song called "Slave To The Rhythm" which was featured in a Michael Jackson hologram on the recent Billboard Music Awards - We'll talk about that in our next blog entry coming up later this weekend.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend to everyone out there celebrating, and to everyone else please enjoy the last weekend for May 2014!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com