Ring Ring, Count to 20

by | Listen & Learn Music

As much as I love writing my own completely original tunes, sometimes you just can’t beat a good old fashioned piggyback. I’ve adapted the song “Boom Boom, Ain’t It Great to be Crazy” several times in the past, and now I’m doing it yet again.

My most recent adaptation is for the bells — I use it with handbells like those on the album cover, tone blocks tuned to D and A, and even jingle bells.

Ring ring
We can count to 20
Ring ring
We can count to 20
Singing and ringing is so fun to do
Especially when we’re counting, too

{Count to 20, playing the bell on each number}

I started using this as a counting song way back during my internship, inspired by a student who loved to play the paddle drum. So not only did this song give him incentive to work hard (he got to play the drum on the “boom boom” lines and with each number he counted) but it has come through for me time and again ever since.

Listen, Learn, Love!

by | Listen & Learn Music

Listen, Learn, Love!

Here’s the truth: February is not my favorite month of the year. It’s bitterly cold, and my stress levels are higher than usual since our local National Federation of Music Clubs Junior Festival takes place over two weekends later in the month.

But February does have its redeeming qualities. For one, it’s short. And two, there’s Valentine’s Day. And while I don’t get too over the top excited about this particular “holiday”, I do like that it gives me an excuse to write and sing songs about L-O-V-E.

This year, instead of complaining about February, I’m choosing to celebrate it. So I compiled some of the songs I’ll be using the most this month, wrapped them in a pretty little package, and called it Listen, Learn, Love!

This 6-song collection features not only the recordings for each song, but also a PDF download with lyrics and chords. Five of the songs are originals I’ve written, and one is an adaptation of a pop song that I use frequently with my kiddos.

Give your month repertoire a boost with Listen, Learn, Love! — at $5 for this package deal, what’s there not to L-O-V-E? Happy February!

Clatter Clatter Clackity Clack

by | Listen & Learn Music

Rhythm sticks are one of those instruments I find myself including in music therapy sessions over and over again, because they can be used to address so many different skills.

For that same reason, they have been a staple in my early childhood music classes throughout the years. And since I use them so often, it should come as no surprise that I have written and adapted LOTS of songs exclusively for rhythm sticks.

My most recent sticks-inspired song is actually a chant (although it could easily be set to a melody, which I may decide to do in the future). It’s short and to the point — the idea is to have children listen to a rhythm I play, and then play that rhythm back.

Just as I did in the recording, I keep my rhythms very brief and uncomplicated since the children I’m working with are very young. But I could also envision using this chant with older students, making the rhythms more difficult. Another idea would be to ask students to take turns being the “leader” and come up with their own rhythms for everyone else to repeat.

Do you rock the rhythm sticks, too? Tomorrow I’ll be sharing some more songs I use to accompany all that clacking and tapping…see you then!

P.S. Did you know that you can gain instant access to a vast collection of over 200 songs (mp3, lead sheet, and instrumental track), videos, tutorials, and visual aides, plus ALL new releases from Listen & Learn Music?

Learn more about Listen & Learn Plus

Sit With Me Maybe

by | Listen & Learn Music

Sit With Me Maybe

I struggled this week to come up with a song topic. Some weeks I have so many ideas that it’s difficult to narrow them down; well, this wasn’t one of ’em. After sitting at my desk racking my brain for almost an hour, I decided to take a little Facebook break.

I’m so glad I did, because the inspiration for the song was right in front of my eyes. Someone had posted the lyrics to the immensely popular hit “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen, which just so happens to be the overwhelming favorite in my studio at the moment.

With my kiddos getting ready to go back to school in a few weeks, we have been really focused on social skills — eye contact, making friends, having conversations, etc. — and I’m very much in need of some new material on these topics. So with a little help from Carly Rae, Sit With Me Maybe came to be:

My husband LOVES the original version of this song. So after I played it for him yesterday, he immediately sent it out to all of his friends who have kids and insisted on playing it for his entire family. I wish he would react to ALL my songs that way ;)

I had a lot of fun trying to recreate the instrumentation for this song, and while it’s far from perfect, I think Carly Rae would dig it. I hope my students do, too!

Note: this song is intended for educational and therapeutic purposes only. It is not meant to parody the original “Call Me Maybe” — it is simply an adaptation geared towards addressing goals such as communication, peer interaction and social skills.

I Can Do It By Myself

by | Listen & Learn Music

I Can Do It By Myself

A fellow music therapist recently posted on a Facebook forum that he was in search of songs or interventions about performing tasks independently. I commented that I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head, but that it sounded like a great topic for a Listen & Learn song. After all, I have plenty of students with goals related to performing tasks independently. And that’s how “I Can Do It By Myself” came to be.

Naturally, the tasks that I chose to include this song are all musical: playing the drum, playing the piano, and playing the bells. But because the song is so very simple, just about any task (including movement, item manipulation, etc.) can be substituted to accommodate a child’s specific goals.

So many of the songs I’ve written have come about because other music therapists have either mentioned or specifically requested topics. Feel free to send your suggestions and requests my way…coming up with new subject matter every single week can be a bit of a challenge!

Colors All Around

by | Listen & Learn Music, Uncategorized

Colors All Around

This week’s song topic comes courtesy of my mother-in-law, a special education teacher who works with young children. Every month I make her a CD of Listen & Learn songs to use in her classroom, and she creates amazing visual supports to accompany the songs.

This weekend I asked her what kinds of goals her students were working on, and she gave me a long list. At the top of it was learning the basic colors, and since I hadn’t written a color song in a while, the choice was easy.

Colors All Around focuses on the colors of the rainbow — though I simplified a bit, leaving out indigo and substituting violet with purple. I included three examples of each color and envision the song being used as a sort of “I Spy” game.

When it came to recording this week, I kept it super simple. Guitar and vocals, a throwback to the original Listen & Learn song style. This one is all about the lyrics, after all. Which songs about color are you digging lately?