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

Hits and Misses on the Radio - July 2014

For today's post, we're gonna talk about some of our favorite songs currently on the radio and a few tunes that in our opinion miss the mark. First up on the recommended is list is "Am I Wrong" by the Norwegian duo Nico & Vinz - great melody with an intriguing underbeat that keeps pulling you in. It also has one of my favorite new lyric lines

"I ain't tryna do what everybody else doing
Just cause everybody doing what they all doing"

Making your own path and not apologizing for it - that's something we all should a little more of in our lives. Nico & Vinz took this cool song with an original feel all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts.

Next up is "Me and My Broken Heart" by the 4 piece band from the UK known as Rixton . This song has a monster hook

"All I need's a little love in my life
All I need's a little love in the dark
A little but I'm hoping it might kick start
Me and my broken heart"

"Broken Heart" starts off with this crazy catchy hook and never lets go after that. You will be singing along after just hearing this one time I promise. Rixton made it all the way to #6 on the Billboard 100 chart with this hook-laden gem, yet another great tune by a another new act imported from across the pond.

Last up in our trilogy of featured radio hits is another seemingly new artist at least when talking about this level of chart success. Ingrid Michaelson has been releasing singles to radio for several years, but her last big radio hit was with her debut CD and the song "The Way I Am". Fast forward 7 years and when I first heard "Girls Chase Boys" by Ingrid I thought it was kind of a silly song. The video homage to Robert Palmers "Simply Irresistible" was absolutely cut and fun to watch but I'm a song guy. However, after hearing "Girls Chase Boys" several times I began to hear it in a new light - the beautiful pop melodies and whimsical feel of the music really began to draw me in and I've been hooked ever since. Give it just a couple listens and I think you'll see what I mean if you don't already.

In addition to the three songs above there are some other holdouts still on the chart after weeks because well they are just great great songs. These include "All of Me" by John Legend, "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry and "Rude" by newcomer MAGIC!. We've talked about all three of these great tunes in earlier posts over the last month.

Misses on the radio today

This next group of tunes were recently released by established artists and unlike many of their earlier hits, they don't quite catch our attention. Songs like these usually make it on the chart because of the artists popularity and some good will from their earlier hits. In the artists defense, its quite possible they never intended for these songs to be released as a single. However they lose that control to record companies who will often try to put out as many "singles" as possible over the life of a full CD in order to keep the attention on their artist. Personally I think the labels do the artist a dis-service by doing that. If its not a song with hit potential - don't push it down radios throat and then make us listen to it and wonder if the artist's creativity has dried up.

Current examples of this are "Love Runs Out" by One Republic, "Birthday" by Katy Perry, "Map" by Maroon 5 and "Angel in Blue Jeans" by Train. All great song titles but the greatness stops there and we'd all be better off if radio was instead playing a much better song by a completely unknown artist. Once again my apologies to the artist as these decisions are usually completely out of their control.

That's all for this weekend - we'll be back tomorrow with some more good news about music changing someone's life. Until then please have a great nite!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #13 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission

Radio is Still KING and "SAY Something"

First full week of April is here and according to sources, radio listening is still king when it comes to where folks listen to music first (49%). At least that's when looking at my age demographic. When they look at the younger music lovers, sites like Pandora, Spotify or their IPhone was the #1 location they listened to music.

Where is the #1 place you listen to music: Radio, CDs, MP3s, Pandora/Spotify/Beats/etc, Vinyl records???

Read the full article here from the Denver Post and then post a comment to let us know: Denver Post - Radio is STILL King!

Now here is a song that will really take your breath away when you stop what you're doing and really listen. Brought to us by the the duo "A Great Big World" and featuring Christina Aguilera, the lyrics plead with us to communicate with the one person we're standing right next to, but feeling so far away from. Today would be a good opportunity to say something or maybe something more to the ones that we love. Go ahead and do it I promise you'll feeeeel good reconnecting all over again.

If you need another dose of "Say Something" please check it out again below:

"Say something I'm giving up on you...
I'll be the one if you want me to.

A Great Big World consists of singer/songwriters Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino who also had their song "This is the New Year" performed on an episode of Glee last year. They've already toured with Ingrid Michaelson, Matthew Morrison, Five for Fighting and certainly more opportunities on the way.

Okay folks that's our Monday update for the week...We'll be back at the end of the week with another post and another great song (until the great songs run out :))

Peace, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com