Music Exploration 15 – last night of the proms

Damn that headache after a work conference in a boiling hot room yesterday.  Hence this Music Exploration post is a day late…maybe I should just change my day to the 16th each month?!

Anyway, there’s been a lot of music going on this month.  Most of it is by accident rather than specific intention, but there’s definitely signs that N is enjoying different types of music and choosing music off his own back.  This is really what I was aiming for with my Music Exploration theme, trying to provide more breadth of musical experience, and making it an everyday part of N’s life.

This month, we’ve been

Watching the Foo Fighters

Ok so that’s not so far away from ACDC, but it’s something different.  We recorded some of the Radio 1 Big Weekend concert from a while back, and Foo Fighters is one show that’s been retained and is watched regularly.  I prefer the less shouty tracks, but N is quite happy to listen and watch all of it with his dad.  Oh yes, and shaking his booty to it as well.

I do love to watch him dance.  It’s very natural, very liberating and errr, well if it wasn’t a 4 year old, it might be classed as a little ‘daring’.  He’s not getting his moves from me.

Waking up to…Last Night of the Proms classical music

From one extreme to the other.  Now I have an ipod docking station in the kitchen, my old cd kitchen player has been moved upstairs to N’s bedroom.  Initially it was in the playroom but he kept playing cds over the sound of my music in the kitchen! N’s got into the habit of asking for music before bed which isn’t too bad because I just leave one track for him to listen to and put it really low volume.  But mornings are another matter.

Several times I’ve been woken up by him playing a free from the newspaper CD of Last Night of the Proms highlights.  While I do love classical music, 5.30am renditions of Jerusalem or Rule Britannia aren’t great.  One morning he even played the whole CD, so it’s great that he’s enjoying listening to it.  I think he just lies in bed while it’s on as well, because he never gets up to play in his room despite him having toys up there.

I suppose I need to track down all my other classical cds which I think are hidden in the depths of the under stairs cupboard.

Leading the singing at nursery

Not one to be shy about his vocals, the nursery manager told me the other day, that N had been singing to the other children in the wooden playhouse in the garden.  Supposedly he’d sung 2 songs before the other boys decided to join in.  Then he even asked them what they wanted to sing next.  I never thought he’d be confident enough to sing away intentionally in front of others – he certainly won’t sing to order for me – so you never know, I might have a little performer on my hands.

That’s all on the music front for us this month.