Musical Exploration 2: Children’s choirs and hooked on classics

This month we’ve been a lot less structured about listening to music.  A bit naughty as I really should have a plan to work through to make sure we manage to fit music in on a regular basis.

Listening to: Hooked on Classics

My aim for this month was to introduce N to some classical music.  Whenever I have Classic FM on in the kitchen, he’ll quite often come in, stand still and say ‘what’s that?’.  So I’ll try and explain, and get him to listen out for the drums, or tell him what instrument is playing which sound.  But he’s never been that interested in staying and listening to it for any length of time.  My idea was to get out my old Hooked on Classics albums to listen to.

Now, I know everyone used to laugh at Hooked on Classics – if you’ve not heard any of them, they’re basically jazzed up popular classic music tracks based on themes.  So Hooked on Australia, Hooked on Classics, Hooked on Opera etc.  And yes, as well as proper classical music, I also owned a couple of these compilation albums.  But for children, I reckon they’re quite a good introduction to the classical tunes, as well as having a really strong similar beat that they can march around the room or bash drums to.

We’ve been listening to music during our dinner when the OH’s working late.  It gives us something to listen and also chat about, rather than N just chattering non stop about god knows what while he eats.  Having the music on during tea did help with N concentrating a bit to listen.  I find that just having music in the background while he’s playing makes no impact as he’s so noisy in play anyway, and it’s hard to get him to sit still when he doesn’t want to.

I explained the differences in the music as each medley came on and where the music came from.  Then we listened out for the drums.  N’s not asked for it on again, but hopefully having music on during tea will integrate it naturally into our everyday lives.

Reviewing: Magic Belles cd

I was given the opportunity to review the new music from Magic Belles.  If you don’t know about  Magic Belles, they’re fairies who want to bring sparkle into little girls’ lives through music, craft and magical wonder.  The music was launched with the aim of providing an intermediary type of music – more grown up than nursery rhymes, but catering for the pre-pop music children, and the suggested age range is 3-7 years.   The hope is that children will enjoy singing along and dancing around to the proper non-baby-fied songs.

As it’s targeted at girls, this isn’t really the type of music that N (a rock lover) is keen on. I have to admit, I think it would drive me mad listening to it non-stop like most children’s music.  But it would be perfect for children want music targeted at them, and who want to imagine dancing round with their favourite characters.  For a party soundtrack it could be a perfect fit and for parents, there isn’t the worry that the lyrics would be inappropriate for the age of the children.

Magic Belles music is available online at Amazon, Google Play and Itunes

Watching: Choir of the Year

I don’t know what it is about watching people sing, but N loves it.  If Songs of Praise is on during his usual mad hour of play before an early bath or tea, he’ll stop in his tracks and stand and watch for ages.  This weekend, it was the final of the Choir of the Year competition, so children and singing.  He sat down nicely and watched the rest of the programme with me.  The singing is always lovely, but I’m not sure what it is that catches his attention?

• The faces the singers make?
• The harmonies?
• The different style of song?
• In this case, the fact it was children?

Whatever it is, if you have children that need calming down, it might be worth getting some choirs on YouTube and letting them watch for a while to see their reaction.

Discussing: Roy Orbison

This week N said that he liked the music on the radio…he has good taste as it was Roy Orbison.  So we listened to the track (Pretty Woman), I sang along a bit, and we had a chat about the music being used in a film, how Roy Orbison was well known for his dark glasses amongst other things.  I love that hearing one track on the radio can spark off a discussion, even if N has no real idea of what I’m telling him.

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Disclosure: We received a Magic Belles cd to review, all words and opinions are my own.