Four years ago today, I sat down at my computer, came up with the name Listen & Learn Music, started a blog using Google Blogger, and wrote this post. I can’t believe I actually remembered to celebrate today — it usually dawns on me a couple of weeks later — but here I am, writing the 1,044th blog post on Listen & Learn’s 4th birthday!
Just for fun, I visited the Way Back Machine and captured a screenshot of the blog when it was just one month old. Needless to say, the look has changed just a little over the past four years.
In August of 2010, I made the switch from Google Blogger to WordPress, which opened up a whole new world for Listen & Learn. Here are some other blogging highlights since September 4, 2008:
November 2008: I was given the opportunity to make my songs available on Songs For Teaching, one of the most popular websites for educational music.
June 2009: I started a membership site, Listen & Learn Plus, which now has over 100 members.
November 2009: A songbook made up of songs from the Listen & Learn collection, was published by my now-colleague and good friend, Michelle Erfurt.
July 2010: I released a studio album, Time to Sing Hello, which was funded by donations made via Kickstarter by Listen & Learn readers and supporters.
January 2011: In a moment of what can only be described as pure insanity, I made a New Year’s resolution to blog EVERY DAY for a year.
January 2012: I completed my goal of 365 blog posts in 365 days, and shared my New Year’s resolution for 2012 — to write a new Listen & Learn song each week for an entire year.
This blog has connected me with hundreds of amazing people, including other music therapists, fellow bloggers, songwriters, educators, and parents. I am inspired every day to keep writing songs not only for my students, but for the students and children of those who visit Listen & Learn. What started as a little hobby is now a full-blown business…but it doesn’t feel like work at all.
I can’t thank you enough for your encouragement, comments, tweets, “likes” and purchases over the years. I feel like this is just the beginning of what has so far been a wonderful adventure!
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!
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost six years since I finished my graduate coursework in music therapy at Illinois State University. But lucky me, because I get to go back this weekend and hang out with music therapy students at their student organization’s Night of Music Therapy.
It really does seem like just yesterday that I was taking my first music therapy class and realizing I had found the perfect profession. Two years of classes and practicum experience later, I went off to St. Louis to begin my internship; nine months after that, I was suddenly in the “real world”.
That is one of the topics I’ll be covering in my presentation — making that scary transition from student/intern to professional. Finding a job, starting a private practice, making your mark on the field, and of course, a little songwriting and recording thrown in for good measure.
Because even though six years have passed since I was in those students’ shoes, I still remember exactly how it feels. I had so many questions about working as a “real world” music therapist, and that list of questions only grew as I got closer and closer to becoming one. Hopefully I can answer some of theirs tomorrow.
And the music therapy fun doesn’t stop there, because on Sunday I’m headed to Chicago for a collaborative workshop at the Old Town School of Folk Music. This is officially the last event I’ll organize as the outgoing secretary/programming chair for the Illinois Association for Music Therapy, and hopefully it will be as wonderful as last year’s workshop.
I hope you have a fun and exciting weekend in store, too. Bonus points if it involves music in any way :) Happy Friday!
One of my favorite December traditions is providing music activities for children at my church’s “Breakfast With Santa” event. This year’s breakfast is happening tomorrow, and it will be my 4th time putting on those reindeer antlers and making music with lots of excited children (while their parents take lots of pictures).
Reindeer have been the theme of the music room since year one, mostly because “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a guaranteed holiday hit with children and I have written quite a few reindeer tunes, myself. I’ve changed my approach through the years, though; here’s my 2009 version, and my variation on a theme for 2010.
I’m looking forward to Breakfast with Santa because it’s always a super cheerful, no-pressure, chaotic-in-a-good-way morning. What better way to truly kick off the holiday season? I’d love to hear about your favorite December traditions and events…feel free to share them in the comments!
Last night, I attended the National Children Protection Training Center’s inaugural gala in St. Paul Minnesota. Not only did I attend, but I had the opportunity to perform the song my mom and I wrote, because it was chosen as the winner of their national songwriting contest.
Sharing the song with all of the gala attendees was such a fun experience. And each person received a copy of the song on CD (which I didn’t have to burn!) as a souvenir. Here’s a picture of my mom and I at the gala:
The weekend was great — we did lots (and lots…and lots…) of shopping at the Mall of America and even had some chill time, which I’m not used to at home!
But I’m excited to head back to Illinois later this morning, because I have so much to do in order to prepare for my next trip. I’m heading to Atlanta in a little over a week for the national music therapy conference!
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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