Author: Miss Charlotte

Your Weekly Listen for 08/27/15 is this incredible informational video! Below, you can see Neuroscience Professor Nina Kraus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinios explain how music is interpreted by your brain.

Respected studies in neuroscience have shown that young children who take regular music lessons grow up to have more connective tissue in their brains than their non-musical peers, which enhances their abilities to learn language, music and other subjects at any age.

“Musical training before the age of seven has a significant effect on the development of the human brain … early musical training can benefit children even before they’re able to walk or talk. Babies who participate in interactive music classes show better early communication skills, like pointing at objects and waving goodbye, and also smile more and are easier to soothe.” – Psychology Today

For further reading on this topic, I also recommend this short article from Psychology Today.

John Lennon’s first and only music teacher was his mother, Julia Lennon. She played the banjo and taught him to play when he was a boy. He never had any formal music lessons.

He went on to form The Beatles and a songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney that would be one of the most successful and influential in the history of popular music.

So the moral of the story is … today, play banjo with your kid, and tomorrow, she could become a superstar! Or if not, then hopefully a happy, well-adjusted person who enjoys playing and sharing music with others and feels good about the sounds he makes. 🙂 After all, our kids are all superstars to us!

From the mesmerizing film “Latcho Drom” (the story of the gypsies as told through song and dance).

You know how, when you’re doing something serious and grown-up, the kids just always seem to want to get in the middle of it? Like if you’re trying to balance the budget or look up something business related on the computer, or talk to your lawyer on the phone? They can sense when you’re giving something your full concentration and that’s how they know it’s important. I contrast this with the way some parents (not you, of course) sometimes are in music class, half-heartedly wagging a maraca while chatting with the mom next to them. You really think your kids are going to take this music stuff seriously?

Here, in this video, you will see the kind of enthusiasm that will let kids know that music is real, important grown-up stuff. Imagine if this was happening in your living room every weekend!

Here is the lovely Viola Uotila singing a traditional Finnish lullaby entitled “Lenna Lenna Leppakertu” (Fly, Fly, Ladybug) in her native Finnish, and accompanying herself on a kantele.The kantele is the national musical instrument of Finland. It resembles a dulcimer and is a member of the psaltery family (see my posts about Joni Mitchell, 12/16/14 and Grego and Mazja, 11/30/14, for more about psalteries and dulcimers).

This is a traditional Finnish “Kalevala” lullaby. “Kalevala” is the name given to the Finnish oral tradition in poetry and contains work dating as far back as the Iron age. The poems survived as a singing tradition and were collected and published by Elias Lönnrot in the mid-1800s.

This little traditional song about a ladybug is still sung to Finnish children by their parents as a lullaby.

Note: If you are new to my blog, please also see last week’s post, “Kids, Music and Why I Started This Blog”.

Your Weekly Listen for 1/13/15 is a tribute to all who lost their lives defending free speech in Paris last week: the legendary Edith Piaf singing “Je ne regrette rien” (I regret nothing).

Édith Piaf was an iconic French singer and a symbol of French passion and tenacity. Affectionately called “La Môme Piaf” (“The Little Sparrow”), she was born in Paris in 1915. She rose to fame as a singer of French art songs during World War Two, and after the war her reputation spread around the world. She also allegedly assisted in preparing false documents for a number of French soldiers so they could escape imprisonment by the Nazis. She died in France in 1963.

“Because my life, my joys
today begin with you.”

The song, “Non, je ne regrette rien, was composed by Charles Dumont, with lyrics by Michel Vaucaire. It was written in 1956, and spent seven weeks atop the French Singles & Airplay Reviews chart.

Your weekly listen for 1/6/14 is me ranting a bit.

I have always loved music and dancing. In fact, here’s me, back in 1970 (this was my first birthday).

According to my Mom, I was dancing to my favorite song, which was “Down On the Corner” by CCR. I did listen to some “kids’ music” as a child, but I don’t really remember any of it. I remember Melanie, CCR, Cream, Buddy Holly, The Stones, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the Chieftans, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Vivaldi’s “Four Season”, to name a few. My parents, like most people in those days, had a stereo set with a turntable in their living room (also depicted here), and it was customary to put music on to set a “mood” whenever you had company over, or just anytime you felt like it. We often listened to records together in the evenings.

At age twelve, I became interested in the Beatles, and started guitar lessons. As a teenager, I got involved in my local ‘punk rock’ community. I often ‘jammed’ or shared songs with others, and I went to see a lot of teen bands play at underage venues. Later I pursued a career in modern dance, which involved an active interest in music as well. And today, I sing and play with friends, alone and with my daughter. I listen to music online and in the car, and I still have a stereo in my living room.

I have always loved music and have listened to music on a daily basis throughout my life.

When I first began teaching guitar, I mistakenly assumed that what is normal for me is normal for everyone. But in my time as a music teacher, it has become clear to me that this is not the case. When starting with a new guitar student, I would often ask, “Who are your favorite musical artists?” Sometimes, I would get a cogent answer, but more often than not, I would get a blank stare.

“I mean, what songs do you like?” I would continue, thinking perhaps the question had been unclear or the student was just feeling shy. Another blank stare or mumbled “I don’t know”. “Well, how do you listen to music?” I’d ask, “Do you listen to CDs? The radio? What songs are on your iPod?”

Gradually, through much probing, the truth would emerge: that this aspiring music student didn’t really listen to music AT ALL.

I must pause here to emphasize this point:

You need to listen to music before you can play it.

Imagine someone trying to write an essay, without ever having read a book. How can you play music, if you don’t know what music is supposed to sound like? And how can you be motivated to practice if you don’t have a goal in mind of how you want your playing or singing to sound? Before you undertake to learn a musical instrument, discover what inspires you. What music is beautiful to you? What music makes you want to dance, or laugh, or cry? A student of music should spend as much time listening as playing.

And that’s why I started this blog.

This blog is a curriculum for a music listening education.

Just imagine, for a moment, what a rich world of music lovers and players we could foster if every child was introduced to music from around the world and across the musical spectrum? How many more of those kids would want to learn an instrument? How many would spontaneously want to start bands at school, or jam and play music with their friends, without being hounded to practice? I believe, even more important than teaching your child to play an instrument, you can enrich their lives by simply exposing them to music on a daily basis in your home.

So far, in this, my music-video-centered blog, I have featured country, folk, rock, contemporary acoustic, blues, African, classical, prog-rock, improvisational, musical theatre, and Turkish folk music. My mission is to expose you and/or your young music student to every genre of music under the sun, and such a variety of exceptional artists as to enrich the most sophisticated of musical palettes. And the best part is, your little one can start this music listening program as early as the day they are born!

It’s also never too late to start. That’s why this blog is for all ages … newborn through retirement age. Just scroll back through the posts and see for yourself. 🙂

Your weekly listen for 12/24/14 is Libera, a boys choir based in London, England. Here they are singing a positively entrancing version of the classic “Carol of the Bells”. I hope you will enjoy it!

I thought I’d keep it simple at this hectic time, and just wish everyone the very best of the season. See you in the new year!

Your (not so) weekly listen for 12/16/14 is the lovely and legendary Joni Mitchell. Here she strums a lap dulcimer and sings one of her classic melodies, “California”. This video is from an October 1970 appearance on BBC Television. Although the dulcimer is a bit out of tune, her vocal performance is flawlessly on pitch, and furthermore, so inspired that I felt the video overall was well worth recommending.

Joni Mitchell was a pioneer in the folk music revolution of the 1960s along with contemporaries like Judy Collins, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. She had numerous hits including “The Circle Game”, “Big Yellow Taxi”, “A Case of You”, “Woodstock” (made famous by Crosby, Stills & Nash), “Both Sides Now” and others. Many of her songs have been recorded by other well-known recording artists. Some have even credited her with “inventing” the female singer-songwriter genre.

She was born in Fort McCloud, Alberta (Canada) in 1943 and eventually found her way to New York City where she joined in the folk music scene there and got her start. She had huge success as a “hippie” folk singer in the 1960s and early 1970s.

In the course of her career, she has released 19 studio albums. In the 1980s and 90s, she gravitated more towards a jazz sound. In 1997 she was inducted into both the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Joni Mitchell is also an accomplished painter and today resides in Canada. She is undoubtedly one of the most influential musical artists of our time.

Happy Thanksgiving! Your weekly listen for 11/30/14 is Grego of www.gregoland.com with his beautiful creation, “Mazja the Dreambird”.

Originally from the United States, Grego has built several musical puppets and has performed at festivals all over the world. He has also been featured on television in Japan, where he lives with his wife and baby. He is shown here performing outdoors at the Oregon Country Fair in Eugene, Oregon.

Mazja the Dreambird is both a puppet and a bowed psaltery, which is a harplike instrument. She herself holds a harp, a pan flute, a violin and a set of cymbals. Notice how her arm is attached to Grego’s arm so that she bows in concert with him. In this performance she is shown playing the cymbals and the violin.

I have had the pleasure of seeing Grego perform live with Mazja on two occasions, and this video, as lovely as it is, doesn’t do justice to the magic of their performance, which truly seems to cast a spell over the audience. Unfortunately Grego doesn’t perform in the United States often but I’ll try to keep my eye out for any upcoming peformances in our area!

The bowed psaltery is a descendent of the Greek psalterion and the European medieval plucked zither psaltery, both of which closely resemble a harp.

Your Weekly Listen for 11/23/ 14 is Africa Stop Ebola by Various Artists.

There is so much to say about this video, it’s hard to know where to start. I’ll begin with a bit of music video history. My generation watched the birth of music videos and we all remember when, in 1984, Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats pioneered the first charity song/video combo for famine relief in Africa with an all-celebrity cast singing “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”. The song was cowritten by Geldof and Midge Ure, and brought a host of British musical talent together to form the original “Band Aid”, including members of U2, The Police, Banarama, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and others. The song went straight to number one and stayed there for weeks, raising millions of dollars. Not to be outdone, a group of American artists formed “USA For Africa” the following year, to record and release “We Are The World”. Written by Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson, the recording featured Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Daryl Hall, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross and many others. It also went straight to number one and raised millions more. “We Are the World” and “Do They Know It’s Christmas” have both been re-recorded over the years to raise funds for other benevolent causes. In additions, dozens of “imitation” videos – songs written by other artists for charitable causes – have emerged. Bob Geldof deserves mountains of credit for getting this ball rolling. It’s entirely possible that without him, nothing like this ever would have happened.

Thirty years later, “Africa Stop Ebola” takes the trend to a whole new level. It features a host of African musicians I’ve never heard of before, but wish I had, and will keep an ear out for in future: Amadou & Mariam, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangaré and Kandia Kouyaté, Mory Kante and Sia Tolno, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Barbara Kanam and Didier Awadi. What incredible voices and presences! But this video isn’t just out to raise funds, it also aims to educate and instruct. The lyrics, written by musicians in collaboration with an academic advisor, and at the request of the Disasters Emergency Committee, counsel the African public on disease containment and sanitation practices, in both French and indigenous languages. Song sales raise money for Doctors Without Borders.

Tragically, as of my writing this, the song is NOT AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FROM ITUNES USA! I’ve written to iTunes to request that they remedy this (feel free to do the same). In the meantime, you can click here to donate to Doctors Without Borders . I just signed up for monthly donations and hope you’ll do the same if you haven’t already. Minimum donation is only $7.50!