Several schools are still hoping to spend as much time outdoors as possible, but this will become increasingly difficult as we progress through the Autumn term.  Instruments and materials will need to be quarantined or cleaned between uses, so we need to be thinking of other ways we can keep the children engaged and learning about music!

We have been training teachers at Stave House HQ recently, introducing games and alternative ways of using the Stave House characters to teach tunes and notation to the children.  Why not try some of these at your school?

Activity 1 – for little ones

Outside or in a hall, have the children walking around in any random directions being careful not to bump into each other.

The teacher calls out the name of a rhythmic character.  The children have to keep moving, but this time to the pulse of the character.  So they will be walking like Father Crochet, walk, walk walk, or for Uncle Semibreve, they must take 1 step and sway for the 2,3,4 count.

For the next 2 activities, print out A3 copies of the rhythm characters and attach to boards, tree trunks if you’re outside, or even the backs of chairs.  Start with 3 or 4, for example minim, crochet, quaver, semibreve.  Place these in four corners of the room or space out in an area outdoors. Explain how each character moves.  i.e. Mother Minim shouts ‘wa-it’, Father crochet walks.

Activity 2

One child (or up to 3) stands in the centre – other children at the pictures of each rhythm character.  A child from the centre chooses who they wish to swap with and calls out the name of the rhythmic value.  The child/children in the centre the swap places with the child/children at that character, moving in time.  For example, if they swap with Mother Minim the children take a step on beat, then wait for the 2^nd beat, then move again.  If they call out quavers then the children jog in time to the pulse. Jog-ging, jog-ging, jog-ging etc.  One child can be responsible for playing a tambourine to the rhythmic value of the picture named or a pulse.

Activity 3

Musical Maths – Choose a child and give them a number.  Ask the child to make the number by running to the different cards and adding up the counts until they reach the number.  For example, if you ask a child to make 9 , they run to semibreve (4 counts), crotchet (1 count), minim (2 counts) , crotchet (1 count) and quavers (1 count), or any combination they wish to make that number.

Stave House teachers testing some outdoor activities

The post Stave House Activities During Covid appeared first on Stave House.

Children can start on a musical journey from a very young age.  Several studies have shown the benefits of early musical experiences to a child’s wellbeing, cognitive function and development.  What I want to talk about now is how singing and action songs can give your babies a strong foundation should they wish to learn an instrument, or study music as they grow.

There are so many skills involved in playing a musical instrument and building on these skills can happen from a very young age.  I designed Music with Henry, our baby and toddler programme to be full of fun songs that, whilst being fun, each have a ‘purpose’, whether musical or otherwise and help prepare babies for musical experiences.  I’m going to outline some of the skills that can be developed through simple songs and actions with your child.

Violinists, pianists, drummers and wind players all need strong fingers that can stand up and curve.  It can be a challenge for a young child to stretch their fingers across keys if they have not had much practise building up finger strength.  I wrote the Music with Henry Finger Song, for just this purpose, to encourage the ability to isolate one finger at a time. The ability to cover holes, press down a key and lift a single finger.  The song ‘STOP’ can also be adapted for improving finger strength if, instead of running around the room, you play it on the table with your fingers.

There are of course other ways to improve finger strength.  Build with bricks that need pressing, pick up pencils and wooden spoons from the table, make spiders that tickle with curved fingers.  Open and shut the fingers, play games touching each finger on the thumb.  Lay them flat then stand them up. Make ‘owl eyes’ with circles of thumb and each finger.

Coordination is another key skill, especially for pianists and drummers! You cannot do enough clapping or hand crossing moving songs if you want your child to be able to enjoy playing an instrument.

Songs like Hands Together, Stepping In and Stepping out and Let us Go to Stave House are all going to help those messages travel form little brains to little hands. These songs build a very strong sense of pulse and teach the child to listen for the beat.

Tuned percussionists, such as marimba players need good coordination as they play with both hands.  If your child struggles with coordination, the piano may not be the best way forward unless you want to learn it as a way of helping develop coordination.  If this is the case, the emphasis of the lesson structure will be quite different, and the teacher and the parent will need to alter expectations.

Stamina plays quite a role in many instruments; A violinist needs to stand up for long periods of time without sagging down or needs to sit up straight in an orchestra situation. Tuba players need to be able to sit up straight to open the diaphragm.  Activities like yoga and general physical exercise can help develop your child’s stamina to hold or play an instrument for periods of time. Vocalists too use the strength of the back and the muscles in the diaphragm and need to be able to stand up tall and straight for their warm up.  You can help this from the start by singing songs that require children to move.  To crouch, then stretch tall. Our ‘high and low’ songs serve this purpose.

The ability to listen is crucial and to glean information from a score of some kind.  Sing songs that require repetition or imitation between you and your child.  Listen for sounds as you’re out and about.  ‘Sounds All Around’ was written for this reason.  You can also play games searching for things in books – can you find the duck? Can you find the squirrel? Encourage your child to look independently – it will help with reading notation later. Our songs teach a concept of pitch, and how to hear high and low notes as well as melody lines and harmonic structure.

The body needs to feel pulse and rhythm to play anything, so do as many dancing songs, clapping songs, moving songs as you can.  All of these will provide a wonderful platform for your baby’s musical development.

If a child begins instrumental or vocal lessons without the foundation of singing, moving, clapping, listening, learning to wait before coming in, then the teacher will have to build this foundation for them before they can really go on to play anything.   If you as a parent take this on yourself, you are building them a wonderful springboard from which they can jump and fly.

You may think the baby songs are sweet and they may feel a little trite but believe me they are the fundamental layers for a musical life!

Lifetime membership to the Music with Henry programme is available for a limited lockdown price of £5.  You receive a pack with songs, sheet music and access to a Facebook Group where you can watch Ruth explain how to use the songs with your child and download the tracks.  New songs added all the time.  Visit the link to join https://stavehouse.co.uk/product/music-with-henry-membership/

The post Encouraging Musical Skills With Young Children appeared first on Stave House.

None of us can know exactly how our children will develop because nurture and exposure, good and bad, will play a part in our careful plans for their future.  We cannot possibly control it all and neither would we wish to.

There is a precarious balance isn’t there, between organising and marshalling our children to the point of becoming controlling and the extreme opposite, where there is no guidance, no boundaries, no suggestions and no example. Remember too that although at times it seems as though your children are not following any of your guidance, often later in life, things that you have modelled will be deeply embedded in them so if you would like your child to develop a love for music – one of the best things you can do is be an example of that for them – listen to music yourself – talk about it , have it on in the car ,share with them your own love for music  .

Perhaps a good place to start is a question to ourselves.   Why would we like our children to be musicians?   Perhaps we need to step back from even that questions as it already sets aspirations that we may not accomplish and ask the question, why would I like my child to enjoy being able to play something?

Hopefully there are lots of very good answers to this question, playing an instrument or singing makes us feel good, it gives a platform for self-expression, it teaches engagement with emotion, it builds and develops the neurons in the brain and helps with language, numeracy, coordination, motor skills, attention span, reading, interpretation and that just for starters!

The post Ruth’s Blog – Why Encourage My Child To Be Musical ? appeared first on Stave House.