Can I tell how you excited I am about tonight? The Third Floor Music Festival is an event being put on by our local arts center here in Springfield, and I’m thrilled to be included in the lineup.
10 of Springfield’s most talented musical acts will be performing at the festival, and frankly, I’m still a little stunned (in a good way) that Rachel & Matt is one of them. After all, Matt and I have only been playing together for a little over 8 months, and we don’t have the name recognition the other acts do just yet. But we’re working on it, and hopefully playing in the festival tonight will help with that!
Each act plays for 30 minutes, with the exception of the headlining band, who will play for 90 minutes. Matt and I have chosen 8 of our original songs to showcase during our set, and have been practicing every night this week to get them down solid. 3 of those songs are less than a month old and have not yet been performed live.
For those of you Springfield friends reading this, we’ll take the stage at around 7:15 pm and would LOVE to see you there! The buzz has been going strong and we’re hoping for a huge turnout. It’s going to be a fun night…doesn’t get much better than 7 solid hours of live music performed by local musicians!
I hope you all had a lovely Father’s Day, whether you were celebrating your own dad, other dads in your life, or YOURSELF! Yesterday I shared a special video tribute that I made with the help of Listen & Learn readers and my students’ families, so be sure to check that out if you didn’t already.
The song that accompanies the video is this week’s original Listen & Learn song, and even though Father’s Day has passed, I want to share it with you so that you’re prepared when it rolls around again next June! One my friends who is a dad said over the weekend, “every day is Father’s Day!” — so really, I guess the song is applicable all year long ;)
And if we’re celebrating Father’s Day all year long, we’d better do the same with Mother’s Day, right?! Of course, I have a song for that too.
When it comes to family love and appreciation, a song I really do use almost on a daily basis with my students is Love, Love, Love (My Family). Every day is a good day to tell your family how much you love them!
I can’t tell you how much fun I had collecting the photos for this video. After putting out a request to my newsletter subscribers and families in my studio, I received tons of emails not only containing photos, but also the stories behind them. The same thing happened last month when I created my Mother’s Day tribute — I’m thinking this needs to become a yearly tradition!
I’m lucky to have 3 “dads” to celebrate on this day: my dad, Alan (who you saw in the last picture of the video, dancing with me at my wedding), my stepdad, Joe (also pictured earlier in the video with myself and two stepsisters), and my father-in-law, Steve (who was looking dapper in a tux with my husband and brother-in-law on my wedding day).
I’ve gotten a chance to spend time with all 3 of them this weekend, and am looking forward to even more Father’s Day fun today :) I hope you have the chance to do the same…and if you’re a father yourself, enjoy your special day!
Yesterday during Sergei’s piano lesson, we were working on C chords. Forming chords is a new concept to him, and when he was having trouble getting his 2nd and 4th fingers to stay out of the way, I introduced him to the pencil trick.
I’m not sure where I came up with this idea, but I’m positive that there are others out there who use it as well. As silly as it looks, the “pencil trick” really does help my students get the hang of playing chords.
Sergei was more than happy to serve as my hand model for the photo above, though just a few moments after I snapped the picture, he was ready to put the pencils down and play his C chords without them. Success!
Do you have any funny-yet-helpful little tricks like this that come in handy with your students? My motto when it comes to teaching is whatever works — no matter how seemingly ridiculous or silly. Long live the pencil trick in my studio ;)
This week, I decided to give one of my OLD songs some NEW life. Tap Tap Your Rhythm Sticks has been a staple of mine since I wrote it way back in 2008 (here’s the original blog post to prove it!) and believe it or not, it’s by far my best-selling song out of the 200 or so I’ve written.
There are several reasons why I think this song has been so popular and effective. First of all, it’s meant to be used while playing rhythm sticks, which are always fun for my kiddos. Secondly, it’s upbeat and catchy. Third, the lyrics are repetitive while still varying enough to keep everyone’s attention.
Not only does this song encourage rhythmic playing, but it also addresses the concepts of loud and soft. Playing and singing softly can be difficult for kids at times, but for some reason, this particular tune does the trick almost every time.
My original recording was low in quality and didn’t include anything other than my guitar and vocals. I think it works much better with a little bass, piano, and of course, rhythm sticks!
Welcome! I’m Rachel Rambach, board-certified music therapist and creator of Listen & Learn Music — educational songs and musical materials for children. I love sharing my work with you, along with my behind-the-scenes creative process, adventures in business ownership, and life as a mom of two.
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