Clapping games have been a favorite pastime of children for generations. They are found in all cultures. Learning them has been something passed on from one child to another. This has usually happened on playgrounds, but now some children are also watching videos on YouTube (like this one of two girls playing "Slide" and "Miss…
Be Resolved to Learn to Play Music
We've come to the time of year when we look ahead to the New Year and plan our resolutions. Perhaps you've resolved to learn a new musical instrument. Being a beginner is a wonderful thing. In Zen Buddhism, the word shoshin means having the attitude a beginner would have: open to new possibilities, eager to…
Let’s Go for a Sleigh Ride
“Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, ring-ting tingle-ing too, come on, it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you." These words in the introduction to Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" bring its listeners along for the ride to enjoy the glide of the sleigh, the trotting of the horses, and the jingle of the…
Klezmer Music
Klezmer music
Music and Mental Health
"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast," wrote William Congreve in his 1697 play, "The Mourning Bride." It has been long known that music can have the power of soothing us when we are sad, anxious, angry, or otherwise upset. We seem to be instinctively drawn to particular music depending on our moods. The…
What’s That Sound? It’s a Theremin!
You're watching an old scary movie late at night and your hear a strange sound in the movie's soundtrack. How to describe it? Eerie, ethereal, down right spooky. It has almost a vocal quality. You think you may have heard it before, because it reminds you of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations". What in the…
Illustrated Songbooks, Part IV
This post is part of the Illustrated Songbooks series. Songbook Illustrated by Kate Greenaway A Day in A Child's Life, music by Myles Birket Foster and illustrated by Kate Greenaway. Kate Greenaway was an English illustrator who was born in 1846. She’s best known for her illustrations of children’s books, especially the depictions of children…
Illustrated Songbooks, Part III
This post is part of the Illustrated Songbooks series. Songbook Illustrated by Jessie Shaw Fisher Child Songs From Hawaii, music compiled by Elsa Cross and Ermine Cross Jessie Shaw Fisher was born in 1887 in Hawaii. She was an artist that taught art courses at the University of Hawaii and illustrated a few books. Elsa and…
The Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune)
This month we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. But did you know that nearly 150 years ago there was an earlier moon landing? In 1865, Jules Verne published his novel De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon) and ten years later it was used as the basis…
Can You Do the Cancan?
“All the girls in Paris France Love to do the Can Can Dance.”¹ The dance and music is strongly associated with the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He portrayed the dancers and their dance halls in many of his posters. As a result, people today may associate the cancan with Paris of the 1890s. The cancan…
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