Dance to the music

I recently attended a concert featuring the American Spiritual Ensemble. Their mission is to keep the Negro spiritual alive. It was a fan-tab-u-lous concert. I enjoyed it from the moment they sang “Walk together children” at the beginning to the last note of “Walk together children” at the end of the concert.

My daughter was there as well. As we shared in the program, I was reminded of how in the early days, she danced to the music – any music. I distinctly remember how we watched Sesame Street videos over, and over, and over again. I realized that she was fascinated by the music – they sing songs for just about anything. Even Oscar the Grouch can get a song in.

What I really enjoyed about Sesame Street was that the producers were certainly harnessing the power of music to introduce not just early childhood concepts – same and different (one of these things is not like the other) or in and out, up and down. Music was used to introduce the viewer (parent and child) to the range of musical styles that existed. One of my absolute favorite Sesame Street videos is What’s the Name of That Song?

As Big Bird tries to find the name of the song that’s stuck in his head (who hasn’t had that experience?), we are introduced to a plethora of musical genres. First off, there’s the talent: Queen Latifah, Diana Krall, Wayne Brady, Diane Schuur, Patti LaBelle, Denyce Graves, The Dixie Chicks. If anyone can marry musical genres with appealing children’s concepts, it’s Sesame Street.

Discovery – exposure to ALL things bright and beautiful is crucial to building the brain and developing an appreciation for music in its many forms. Picture Patti singing the alphabet a la gospel style. My daughter already knew the alphabet but this was her introduction to a concept that applies to music and life – there can be variations on any theme.

Imagine Elmo dressed for bed and being serenaded by Denyce Graves, renowned opera singer. (If you live in Washington, DC you’ll know she attended Duke Ellington and she is featured on a mural just as you leave the city via New York Avenue, NW). She performs a song from the opera Carmen – all the little animals come out to sing during the chorus and Elmo finally falls asleep. The power of the opera singer gently crooning a familiar aria to Elmo is awesome and absolutely delightful. You don’t have to be a music aficionado to appreciate the talent, the giftedness of each artist, and the musical food fest that Sesame Street provides.

Discovery – children will grow musically if you feed them songs, programs, experiences that introduce them to all types aspects of music. If you make only one type of musical deposit, you deprive them of data points that they could use later in life to make sense of the universe. We don’t know how they process everything, but we do know that they take it in and store it for some other time.

When we finally saw Patti LaBelle on television in an interview with someone, my daughter recognized her immediately and began singing the gospel alphabet from Sesame Street. She was making associations from her data set.

At school, she arrived at the speech therapy sessions singing “I love to spell. S-P-E-L-L”. It’s a song from the reading program “Super Why”. Music comes naturally – we all have a voice; we may not all be gifted to sing for an audience – but we’ve got a voice and we should use it.

I harnessed her musical interest by signing her up for Kindermusik. She learned rhythm, played the glockenspiel, made a dulcimer and played it, and learned the recorder. Along with way we learned about whole notes, half notes, quarter notes. I had to help with the homework so it was a good refresher for me and it gave us something new to share – language was still a challenge, but the music tapped into an area where she was confident. God knew what He was doing. The language challenges were forgotten as she immersed herself in the variety of the musical experience that is Kindermusik. We learned songs from different countries and who was never shy singing out or with the words?

Discovery – if you don’t provide experiences that affirm the gifts, you deny the child an opportunity to be confident and proud of his/her strengths. No person is all weaknesses.  There are things that come easily to us and things that we have to work harder on. Kindermusik allowed her to shine – she sang lustily and was often the only one, besides the teacher - who remembered the words and the tune!!!

Picture this: you’re a child with a speech delay. You’re receiving speech therapy. Many times things people say to you mean very little. Then, you are introduced to a music class where the language is not words but notes and rhythm and it’s a language you can easily understand. Here is a place where you can dance to the music and make music. You can speak the language and be understood. At the Kindermusik graduation, one parent said “I’m looking to see her on stage ‘cause she is so talented.”

As the class unfolded over the course of the two years, she grew musically. Now, we’re staring the piano. The teacher says she has long fingers and good position – gifts from the Creator. She has been anxious to play the piano, here’s her chance. Yes, these things cost money but there’s a steeper price to be paid if we fail to nurture the gifts they have been given.

Discovery – the only way to know what’s inside the package is to open it. With a child, the mind is the package. You’ve got to expose it to all kinds of things so that it can open, blossom, and bloom. Like the computer, garbage in, garbage out. If you don’t feed the right things or enough of the right things, you stunt their growth.

Thanks to all who introduce us to music, whether we go willingly or reluctantly; for all who teach the future educators the joy and power of music; for all who sing, dance, play and encourage us to value the gift and power that lies in music – I say thank you!!!

Discovery – singing is a joy to me; watching my daughter learn and delight in a language that allows her to communicate, develops her brain, and affirms who she is – I am grateful to the Creator and for those He has gifted with musical talent. Through the gift of music, we have been allowed to grow and discover a place where we can shine and I for one will continue to dance to the music.