It was jam session time on the keyboard today! And boy did we have fun!!! At first I just sat the keyboard in front of Ashton to let him discover what it would do by himself. With anything Ashton’s natural reaction is to reach out and grab the object in his focus and put it in his mouth . . . and the keyboard was no exception! Obviously he hasn’t learnt about volume or size comparison yet! But as he reached out and made contact with the keys and the sound came right back to him, a flurry of notes combined together, his eyes opened wide, his back went straight and his hands went banging straight back down in a second attempt to create this bang of sound! You could see all over his body the excitment the keyboard and the sounds he was creating had on him.
Ashton explores the sounds of the keyboard
I just held him up to the keyboard for what seemed like an eternity (need to work those mummy muscles at bit better I think!) letting him explore the different sounds coming from the different keys. He went up and down the keyboard and on the odd occasion would turn back to look at me and to share the moment with him.
The joy of music exploration!
As I saw his interest level start to drop away I re-sparked his interest by changing the sound the notes made to be like a violin. The sound each note made was longer and for lack of a better description “more shrill”. But I could see Ashton noticed the difference, as he refocused his attention. I continued to refocus Ashton whenever I saw his attention wavering by introducing a new way of using the keyboard. We explored the backing beats, which really got him jumping around and even playing the keyboard differently. We played the scale over and over, his hand on mine, my hand guiding his fingers, his eyes watching my hand move up and down. We played some simple nursery rhymes or well known children’s songs (the extent of my abilities on the piano.) In the end we spent a good 35-40 minutes playing on the keyboard!
Now who said babies have a short attention span! We just need to help them develop it, by refocusing them and keeping learning interesting!
So we don’t have violins or cellos, clarinets or flutes but we have got lots of random bits and pieces around the house that we get creative with to make our own instruments! and thats what Ashton and I have done!
We have started by making our own shakers with different containers and different mediums to go inside. We have used dry wheat inside a peanut butter jar, an old bead necklace cut up into a Body Shop Body Butter container, and some colourful pegs put inside an old CD container. Each shaker making its own unique sound when it Ashton shakes it. (There are obviously lots of other options that you can do to make different sounding shakers and if your child is older you could even take it a step further and decorate your shakers with paints or stickers.)
Ashton really enjoyed getting all of the shakers on his high chair tray all at once and banging the shakers up against each other, making an array of shaking sound! We did make a point of exploring each shaker one at a time and listening to the unique sound each one made.
I’m rather excited about using these shakers for more musical exploration and have already got lots of ideas for other instruments I want to try and make with Ashton to explore different sounds. If you have any ideas or experience with making musical instruments with materials that are lying about the house… please share!
Ashton and I along with Mr Bop, Dez, Dionne and their kid, were able to go and see the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra playing at the Bruce Mason Theatre on the weekend, for their special children’s “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” show. I am so glad we were able to attend as all of us thoroughly enjoyed it!
Ashton with our family conducting the orchestra
Ashton was captivated and watching the stage intently most of the time. He was jumping around and responding as the music changed tempo and rhythm. All of us were encouraged to help conduct the orchestra (the children were even given little straws as baton’s.) The conductor showed us some basic movements that we could do to conduct and all of our children loved being involved in this way.
I loved seeing how the orchestra brought children’s songs to life and engaged the children’s imaginations as they gave them a little story to go along with each piece they played.
At the end of the show the families were invited to walk through the orchestra as they played and Ashton was looking from left to right at each of the instruments in action around him. It inspired me to want to come home and explore instruments and different genre’s of music with him so that he can continue to develop and appreciation for all types of music and in time use music as a medium for expressing himself and for extending his imagination!
The Auckland Philharminoa Orchestra
This week I’m going to have a music focus with Ashton! We will let you know what musical adventures we find out ourselves on soon! For more information about the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and when they are performing go to http://apo.co.nz/home.aspx
Throughout this past week Ashton has been exploring lots of fruit. He is loving his fruit puree’s at the moment so I thought I would explore fruit with him in a way that would start him recognizing what the fruits look like before they are pureed. Before I gave him a particular fruit for one of his meals I sat down with him and let him play with the fruit for a bit. He held it with his hands and of course picked it up and put it in his mouth. He inspected it from a distance and up close.
Peaches and Nectarines Yum Yum!
After his initial inspection seemed to be over I took the fruit and started eating it next to him. Straight away his curiosity and interest in the fruit picked up again, he started watching me intently while I ate, then he started reaching out to me to give him the piece of fruit. So I would give him the fruit and straight away he would start munching on the bit where I had started eating. If I took it away from him or it dropped from his grasp he would get upset that he had lost his snack. He was really starting to enjoy exploring the fruit!
Banana's and Apples! Mmmm!
As the week progressed and we kept exploring different fruits or whenever I was eating anything he would start to insist I share with him. He has also begun to enjoy eating a lot more in general.
It was jam session time on the keyboard today! And boy did we have fun!!! At first I just sat the keyboard in front of Ashton to let him discover what it would do by himself. With anything Ashton’s natural reaction is to reach out and grab the object in his focus and put it in his mouth . . . and the keyboard was no exception! Obviously he hasn’t learnt about volume or size comparison yet! But as he reached out and made contact with the keys and the sound came right back to him, a flurry of notes combined together, his eyes opened wide, his back went straight and his hands went banging straight back down in a second attempt to create this bang of sound! You could see all over his body the excitment the keyboard and the sounds he was creating had on him.
So we don’t have violins or cellos, clarinets or flutes but we have got lots of random bits and pieces around the house that we get creative with to make our own instruments! and thats what Ashton and I have done!
Ashton and I along with Mr Bop, Dez, Dionne and their kid, were able to go and see the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra playing at the Bruce Mason Theatre on the weekend, for their special children’s “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” show. I am so glad we were able to attend as all of us thoroughly enjoyed it!
Throughout this past week Ashton has been exploring lots of fruit. He is loving his fruit puree’s at the moment so I thought I would explore fruit with him in a way that would start him recognizing what the fruits look like before they are pureed. Before I gave him a particular fruit for one of his meals I sat down with him and let him play with the fruit for a bit. He held it with his hands and of course picked it up and put it in his mouth. He inspected it from a distance and up close.
