The Summer Music "Tour"

So, in the past, I've mentioned our family tradition of compiling a list of free summer concerts within easy driving distance...this is our third summer of concert going, after attending one or two free musical events/festivals the summer of 2006.

Some of the concerts take place at historical sites....like this colonial manor:

(Shippen Manor, Oxford,NJ)

This site hosts Sunday evening concerts on the terraced lawn. In the past the programming has been primarily olde timey and blue grass. This year they seem to have branched out a bit...still with traditional music, but they have some other ethnicities represented.
We attended a Celtic performance.

This venue is the most "serious" we've attended.

It is - as I said - at a historical site, so there is no playground...the kids attending do run around, but it is not as accepted as at other sites.

Many of the concerts take place at local parks that have band shells, gazebos or other small shelters to use as performance spaces. Most of these also have play areas close by.

This is one (above) that we go to frequently. The kids love this park and the play area. It's very family friendly, close to a small lake, and you can see the whole park from wherever you sit.

This play area is at a new venue for us this year. The band shell and play area are close together, but the town planted big bushes between the "viewing" area and the play ground, so you can't watch your kids AND the band.

Sometimes the boys even sit and listen to the music- while multitasking coloring or playing with matchbox cars, of course! Especially if we are at the Sparta concerts where the playground is at least 50 feet away, behind the viewing area, through a grove of trees....

There are so many wonderful things about these concerts:

Exposure to all kinds of music...the kids don't care how good the performers are, they just like dancing to the music!
Outdoor dining opportunities!

Making new friends at every turn....

Interacting with nature...hot weather, cool weather, sunset time changing, fireflies lighting up the dark - and sometimes crawling on our fingers (above pic).

In the past 3 weeks we've seen 10 FREE performances at 7 different locations, and the concert schedule for the coming weeks is full.

Will we see all of them? Probably not, but what a wonderful adventure!

If you're looking for some other good reasons to go check my first post about this family tradition.

Summer Music Season 2009

This will be our third year of doing the summer "Music in the Parks" scene.

I have been busy this week making the tour of local town websites to put our calendar together, and the excitement begins this friday night!

In the past two years we have enjoyed dozens of free musical performances...some exquisite and others just average, but under clear skies and with a picnic dinner and fun-bag for the boys all have been wonderful family experiences.
Some towns do outdoor movie nights as well...we saw Madagascar that way last summer....although that was a tad later as it required full-dark to get going. The musical programs usually start around 7.

Some towns don't have their calendars out yet, but some do - enough for us to get started!!!

Look for these programs in your town or nearby towns. They are almost always free (or very inexpensive) and child friendly.

Yippee!

Halloween!

Ok - I know this is overdue - but I'm trying to catch up!!

So this year Mommy was A WITCH - ok - not much of a streatch I know....
And I was going to re-cycle costumes for the boys, but then...I went to the Disney store with my mom and found 50% off BUZZ and WOODY costumes and just couldn't pass them up - the boys looked AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This year I continued the tradition of bringing music to the daycare as part of the Halloween celebration...and the teachers were involved too!

At the begining of October - RC's teacher asked me to be involved in this year's Halloween party, so I put together a list of kids tunes with Halloween words and the teachers each picked their 2 favorites. The Wednesday before Halloween I took a day off and taught the kids the songs.
On Halloween week I had Mon-Wed off, and went in to the cent again on Monday to go over the songs and have extra time with the kids. As with the other times I've gone in, each kid had a chance to help me "play" the violin...they really love that!
On Wednesday when I got tot he school for the party they told me I would also be "leading" the children's parade - unfortunately I was NOT prepared for that - and had to figure something out on-the-fly - it was kind of rough at first, but I found a groove that worked and went with it.

We all had fun!

For trick-or-treating we met up with the boys cousins again this year, and went to the local development and let the kids walk around for an hour or so....

The big YUCK this year was that I had to get on a conference call during trick-or-treating and then had to work from 8-2am after...and yes, on my VACATION DAY.

Doin the Summer Music Circuit with the Family

Ok!
We've got:

1) The activity bag - complete with bug spray; diaper & wipes; crayons and coloring pages for each boy; plenty of hot-wheels cars; magnetic drawing pads; goodie bags etc...
2) The cooler - with picnic supper and drinks
3) The camp chairs
4)The activity mat (aka Blanket)

We're ready to GO!
The past few weeks have seen us getting into the swing of the summer music scene! Music- in-the-parks - FREE MUSIC - scene that is.

So far we have been to 4 locations 2 very close to home; 2 a little more of a drive.
We have heard:

- an independant local singer/songwriter

- a swing band

- a couple of duos doing OLD standards (20's - 50's mostly) - and doing them nicely!

- a traditional bluegrass group

And we're ready for more.
Each of the places we've been has more concerts planned - and we're going to try to catch as many as we can.
As musicians, my husband and I are eager for the boys to be exposed to as much live music as possible. And the variety offered in these concerts is amazing!
The summer concerts are a GREAT way to expose young children to music in a setting that is child-friendly, parent friendly and FREE.

Heck - if your 2 year-old starts a tantrum - there is the possibility that no one will notice - and even if you do feel the need to pack up and go home - you are out NOTHING.

And, hey, you might get lucky - as we have for most of the ones we've attended, and get to really have a nice time listening to some decent music under blue skies, picnicing and relaxing with the whole family - invite some friends along and make it a party!

PLENTY of communities are hosting these concerts this year.
I highly recommend it.

Some good search words to find concerts in your area:

Music; Park;Concert;Summer+name of town etc.

Now, I GET IT!!!!!

Last night as I was driving home I had an a-ha moment. Actually, I had 2 but I can only remember the content of one. Anyone who has 2 kids less than 2 years apart can probably relate.

This particular a-ha moment was music related. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have been a musician practically since I was born. My primary instrument was violin, but over the years I had lessons on recorder and piano, and viola - which almost became my primary instrument during my highschool years.
Most of my musical experiences up to high school were pretty much fed to me by my father. He was a dance-band and orchestral musician, so Classical music was the biggie with Montovani and the like a close second.

One summer when I was in High School, my brother and I went to sleep-away music camp for 3 weeks. I got in on a viola scholarship, which meant I had to play viola in most of the groups I was scheduled to participate in. They did let me play violin in one quartet. However, to my GREAT disappointment, the music that was selected for that quartet to play was (horrors) a MODERN selection. With "MODERN" being spoken with the same disgust as a dirty word. It was dissonant and had a meter that constantly shifted. It wasn't the Mozart or Vivaldi I was used to - that I knew I could play.

I despized that piece of music - I was depressed that the only chance I had to play the violin was compromized by my lack of appreciation for the "ear-shattering" dissonance of the piece. I don't even remember who wrote it. I do remember that it was a brand new piece and that our little quartet would have been only the second formal performance of it. I say "would have been" because the four of us disliked it so much that it was never performance ready. Our coach - who picked the piece and LOVED it - was highly disappointed in our obvious disrespect and disdain.

That summer, I was introduced to another idea. The idea that music was linked to or could draw out our emotions. I heard one of the counsellors comment that the Brahms trio my brother's group was playing "made them cry" it was so beautiful....

That was new for me. I had always looked at music as a very mechanical thing. You played the notes on the page - with the inflection required by the composer - loud/soft/fast/slow etc. That gave me something to think about, and aspire to. But I didn't connect any of that to my dislike of the "Modern" quartet.

Years have passed - about 25 now - and I've been through a lot. Relationships have come and gone. My life philosophy has undergone stress and modification. I understand and appreciate everything from Gregorian chant to Heavy Metal. I don't ALWAYS want to have to listen to either, however. AND - my big a-ha moment - I LIKE music with"tight" harmonies. AKA dissonance. I frequently prefer it, in fact, and have for many years now...

Jazz, folk, rock, "Modern" classical.... It resonates deep within my heart and soul.

It is about emotions, it's about fear and loss, it's about getting to the other side.
It is about LIFE.
And Modern Life is not always - or even usually - harmonious.

Music for Tykes

The boys have been in daycare for a year now. It has been a learning experience for us all.

We chose a community run daycare center for several reasons - location, cost and food. Yes food - our daycare center serves breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks a day - and usually the breakfast and lunch are hot meals. What our center lacks is extras like the "special programs", music & sports offered at the pricey daycares (which don't serve meals or charge mucho extra for that convenience).

Since then, I've been a mom with a mission! I have music experience! I have experience teaching music to young folks, I enjoy being goofy...my only obstical is WORK. Last year when I first thought up the idea of going to the daycare and offering special music days I was still working for Atilla the Hun, but I was in the midst of a transfer. And yes now I work for better folk, but it is still Corporate America and asking for a few hours off once a month (which was my original thought) is like asking for the keys to the corporate bank accounts. (Not that they have any problems asking you to work extra hours on a weekly basis). So, I haven't quite gotten up the gumption to ask....yet.
What I have done is to do it on my own time. The first one was last Halloween. I used some vacation days to have a long weekend over Halloween - with the intent of doing some extra things for the holiday with the kids and doing some extra fall housecleaning. I also offered the daycare a special music program for the kids ....
I figured I'd bring my violin and do the usual nursery rhymes etc - then the director asked me what my "Program" was going to be - which forced me to really think about it. Thank goodness! I went in with a plan.
At the time, my boys had been listening to one of my chant cd's in the car and LOVED the song Grandmother Moon. They would call to Grandma Moon during full moon nights and sing along with the chant. So...since at Halloween the dark hours are growing - I decided to do Moon and Stars - Our friends as the theme.
I had Twinkle little Star, Grandmother Moon and a couple of other songs, a book "The Moon Comes Home", and in a couple of the rooms I used Elaine Silver's "Half Moon Rising" . Beyond that I did Happy Birthday where appropriate, and kids favorites. I played in the rooms for each age group - and had a different wonderful experience in each room. One thing that did stay the same - from 12 mos up - each kid had the opportunity to help me play the fiddle.
My next opportunity came on MLK day. Miraculously my company gives this as a holiday, but daycare is open. This time I went without a theme - and it was OK. Having lived through the experience once - I knew what to expect from the age groups. I must say, that the pre-school teacher is one of my best friends when I do this. She would really LOVE it if I could do this REGULARLY and build on what I'm doing. She has repeatedly offered to do prep lessons or followup lessons with the kids.
I guess I just have to get up the gumption to ask for a few hours once a month from my boss...it really wouldn't cost him anything. I already work overtime....