Sharing Music and my Heritage

A painter paints pictures on canvas.  But musicians paint their pictures on silence.  

~Leopold Stokowski

Whether it be that music does not have a photogenic canvas or that I have not yet explored how to upload mp3s to my blog, the result is that I don't tend to share something which is a very important part of my day to day routine here.  That is, singing!  After all, I am a Kindermusik educator!

Singing with a toddler and a young child in the house means there is a beautiful way of dispersing negative attitudes and behaviours and instantaneously converting them into something fun, entertaining and lightening.  Did you know singing releases endorphins? I spend much of my days singing "toys away, toys away" and Incy Wincy Spider, Little Miss Muffet and Baa Baa Black Sheep.  Yet I also sing my own songs to just about everything I am doing - saying (or rather singing) Good Morning to my blossoms and changing a little nappy, cooking meals and hanging out the washing.  I just love this appropriate rhyme:

We are clothes in the washing machine

we wiggle and we giggle until we are clean

then Mama shakes us out to dry

And hangs us on the clothes line high.

~anonymous

and this one:

I'm a little teapot short and stout,

Here is my handle, here is my spout,

When I get all steamed up hear me shout,

tip me over and pour me out.

followed by:

Here's a cup, and here's a cup

and here's a pot of tea

Now pour a cup, and pour a cup

and have a drink with me.

~anonymous

Of course bikkies, cakes and muffins follows this.  Do you know the Muffin Man?

It makes the routines so much more fun and also helps a whingey little toddler when Mum is busier than she'd like.

I come from a musical heritage.  I don't remember not being able to read music, I sang with my brothers and sisters from a very young age and regularly directed performances in the home when we were very young.  We were all in the same choirs in our youth and from here is where I want to share something special with you.

My brother recently posted about his (and my) heritage as "a choir boy" :) and has uploaded a couple of songs from albums we created.  So pop on over and have a listen.  It's a treat, the albums have won awards - ARIA awards for classical recordings.  My favourite of his pair is definitely Autumn Song, by Peter Sculthorpe, a contemporary Australian choral work.   Enjoy it before this delicious season is over.  While you're on his site search a little and you're likely to find a few gems my brother has created himself - like Awesomesauce.  Hmm, I think that all the time I am devoting to my children he is songwriting - just a wee bit jealous am I.  Still I would have it no other way.  My children are my gems.  Now back to creating things for them.