Thanks Giving: Music

Day 4 - A November Discipline of giving thanks each day.

Full of Thanks for Music

I am grateful for the ebb and flow of music in my life.  I love good music - folk and classical fill my soul; jazz and blues make me want to dance.  Singing is something I have always done when I am fully happy.  I took lessons in voice, as well as, guitar, clarinet, piano, oboe and theory along the way.  But, it wasn't until we moved here, my mandolin in hand, that I realized that while I love music, I don't love cracking the musical code.  I love to sing, but reading music and memorizing cords has always been tedious.  That isn't to say I don't want to learn how to play my Mandolin, I do.  But, I have set it aside for now.  My creative time is spent writing and stitching and in this season, these things, that are purely blissful, are what this tired mama needs.

All that said, I have been delighted in the past few months to see Jonah encountering music in a new way.  We went to music classes last year and he loved hearing new instruments (of which the french horn was his favorite), but this year the classes don't work for us, so we've been doing music at home.  We buzz around the living room to "Flight of the Bumblebee", sing through favorite songs, and dance our hearts out to Raffi, Elizabeth Mitchell and Jack Grunsky.  And then, a couple weeks ago, I was trying to come up with a simple tune to go with our Godly Play Lesson on Samuel.  One thing led to another, and I had written out the music for our xylophone.  More songs have followed and my logical little boy is spending lots of time cracking the code and loving it (oh, how different his brain is from mine.)  

We have a whole collection of books to sing with - here are a handful of favorites.  Both boys have responded so well to books with songs.

I'd love to know any ideas for Music at home or any favorite sing-a-long books you might have.  Leave a comment if you have any suggestions or favorites.