music

Jan. 28th, 2009 01:52 pm
moominmolly: (natalie-run)
[personal profile] moominmolly
I've known for a while that Natalie is strongly motivated by music. She loves hearing songs, and there were lots of times when she was a baby when the only thing in the world that would calm her down was one of us singing her a song (preferably, multiple people singing it as a round). That would grab her attention right quick.

When it's just me and her in the car, it's fun to play her [livejournal.com profile] fennel's mixes, because she will just talk with me over the music until one catches her ear, and she asks, "what's this one? Who is singing this song?"

Anyway, until recently, she's mostly just asked questions about the lyrics of songs. But two recent conversations have made me curious about how much attention she pays to music.

Scene #1:
N, D, and I are driving in the car in Georgia over winter break. I am singing something, and David joins in. Natalie, from the backseat, says, "No, daddy, you stop singing. Just mommy should sing. When you sing it makes mommy's voice lower."

...well, that's true. I can sort of carry a tune all by myself, or if someone's singing the same part as me, but singing against someone else is hard and I do have a tendency to go flat. But... really? Enough that she NOTICED?

Scene #2:
I've been on a bit of a Paul Simon kick since election day. Last Tuesday, I was playing Graceland in the car when I picked up Natalie. As I got in the car, I said, "oh, Natalie! I think you might like this music I'm playing now. Let me find a good song for you and then tell me what you think of it." We had a bit of a conversation about which song to play which wound up with her spontaneously saying, "play me your favorite one." Unsure what to choose, I chose Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes. Since then, I've played her a few other songs from the album -- she is QUITE concerned about the boy in the bubble and the baby with the baboon heart and hopes that their doctors can help them be healthy soon -- and she keeps coming back to that song. We've probably played it eight or nine times together in the past week.

At first, she asked about the lyrics, as usual. "Why is she a rich girl? Why is he an empty pocket? Why is she crazy? Why are her diamonds not on a necklace? Why is he saying woo ooo ooo ooo ooo?" But she has also been very interested in the break after the a capella bit with Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, where the band comes in and it sounds like a different song. Then she started insisting that I play it "starting from the part where he says she's a rich girl" (i.e. that opening bit). Then she said she liked "the band part where there's no singing". Then, last night, the following conversation:

N: And this part of the song is the band part.
Me: Yes, it is. The band plays music for a while, and then the singing starts again later.
N: .....there are lots of sounds in this song.
Me: There are. Lots of different instruments.
Me: like... DRUMS...
N: and MARACAS and SHAKERS...
Me: and GUITARS...
N: and TRUMPETS...
Music: *janglejangle*
N: and like a BANJO...

Wait, a BANJO? How does she even know what a banjo IS? I mean, I don't think it IS one, but it was jangly steel strings that sound different from the other guitar parts. It's not insane to think. Shortly after that, she declared that she was tired of Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes and that Call me Al was her favorite song EVER EVER. Uh, okay.

Anyway, most of our conversations about music aren't that complicated, but sometimes stuff like that happens and I wonder who on earth I'm talking to. It's fascinating.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] arachne8x.livejournal.com
I've recently fallen in love with that song myself :) What an adorable little world explorer you have.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
She is not lacking in the curiosity department.

Date: 2009-01-28 10:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cassielsander.livejournal.com
I listened to that album approximately infinity times during high school.

LJer [livejournal.com profile] jrmtorres made a fanvid from the original Star Wars trilogy (http://jmtorres.livejournal.com/961798.html) using "Boy In The Bubble" as the soundtrack, which you might find entertaining.

It's more about the feeling of wonder than about specific lyrics, although it does show look in the Bacta healing tank from Jedi for the lyrics "the boy in the bubble".

I downloaded it to my video-capable mp3 player to watch when I'm feeling in need of a boost.

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Date: 2009-01-28 07:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com
You two have the best conversations _ever_!

Date: 2009-01-28 07:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
When she's in a conversational mood, she can be really fun. :)

Date: 2009-01-28 07:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pekmez.livejournal.com
ooh neat! "Just mommy should sing" or "just daddy should sing" could
have come straight out of [livejournal.com profile] gljiva's mouth - I wonder if it has
to do with us sounding noticeably less good together.

We are taking [livejournal.com profile] gljiva to this concert at Longy on Sunday February 8th, which has an "instrument petting zoo" afterwards.

http://www.longy.edu/concerts/concerts_series.htm#familyseries

Date: 2009-01-28 07:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
Yes, "just mommy should sing" and "just daddy should sing" (and "just I should sing") all come up a lot. :)

Instrument petting zoo! oooo!

Date: 2009-01-28 08:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ukelele.livejournal.com
(her daddy has a pretty striking voice! it was nice to have someone hold down the low end of happy birthday so authoritatively.)

Date: 2009-01-28 07:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elvendoll.livejournal.com
I come from a family of musicians on my mother's side, and I was frequently asked to name all of the instruments I could hear in music on the radio when I was a kid. Enough so that I don't actually remember the question being new to me at any point, and my memories of it start around the time I was 4-5.

I wasn't as into learning music as my family expected me to be, but that was one of the easier-to-me quizzes.
Harder was picking out what note was played without looking at the person at the piano, and the singing was downright impossible.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
Huh, interesting! I don't come from a family of musicians, so all of this is unfamiliar to me... I guess I knew that little kids had a sense of pitch and could learn music, I just never THOUGHT about it.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elvendoll.livejournal.com
Also, how do you answer questions like "Why is she a rich girl? Why is he an empty pocket? Why is she crazy? Why are her diamonds not on a necklace? Why is he saying woo ooo ooo ooo ooo?"?

N. is at that age when I stop being able to communicate with children and I'm fascinated by conversations like that.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
Oh man, the answers to those were all pretty long. I had to pause the song to answer them. I think I said something like...

- I don't know why she's rich. Different people have different amounts of money for lots of different reasons -- maybe their jobs give them more money, or their parents had money, and I don't know why she has it.

- That could mean a few things. Maybe it means he doesn't have much money, or he's not carrying anything, or he's looking for something to do...

- It sounds like she likes to go on crazy adventures?

- They're saying she has SO MUCH MONEY that she can put really expensive diamonds on the bottoms of her shoes JUST BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO, where people won't see them. I don't know why she did that.

- He's trying to tell you about how he feels without using words, and sometimes music and singing is a good way to do that.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:36 pm (UTC)
inahandbasket: animated gif of spider jerusalem being an angry avatar of justice (Bass me)
From: [personal profile] inahandbasket
You can has musician! or at least music lover. ;-)

Speaking of Mr. Simon, have you heard his newest album "Surprise"? Thoughts if so? (want mp3s if not?)

Date: 2009-01-28 07:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
Want mp3s please! I have not! You mentioned it before and it piqued my interest but I haven't followed up on that.
Edited Date: 2009-01-28 07:43 pm (UTC)

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Nice icon!

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Re: Nice icon!

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Re: Nice icon!

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Date: 2009-01-28 07:38 pm (UTC)
jasra: (thinky (Ivy))
From: [personal profile] jasra
What a wonderful conversation. It's neat what she's picking up on.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] signsoflife.livejournal.com
I never even really noticed in an articulate sense that structure in "Diamonds" before.

Trying to explain the lyrics of some songs to a three year old would deeply faze me -- I don't understand half of them myself!

Date: 2009-01-28 07:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
Oh gosh, I have a really hard time with some songs, and often resort to "I'm not sure what they mean -- I think they're just saying those words because they sound good together when you sing them".

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Date: 2009-01-28 07:46 pm (UTC)
dot_fennel: (Default)
From: [personal profile] dot_fennel
I am suddenly curious whether she would find covers of her favorite rock songs striking, or totally unexceptional. Presumably songs of the songs she knows are songs she hears lots of different people sing all the time. But if she thinks of parts of the arrangement as being part of the song...

Date: 2009-01-28 07:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
I was wondering that too! So I played her The Irish Rovers singing The Biplane Song (which she's heard SUNG a lot), and she giggled... but I didn't play her another recorded version of the song. I guess that would be the test.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com
I wonder if you tend to sing in a lower key when you and D sing together? She is getting much better at pitch, but her own isn't exact enough to make me think that a tiny variation would be enough to bother her :)

The other day we were in the car for some reason for a long time and I sang her the song about having a hole in your bucket, and she was totally fascinated by the circular problem -- she kept demanding to hear it again and then interrupting to try to sort out another little bit of it.

Date: 2009-01-28 07:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
I do sometimes switch to a lower key, but I hadn't in that case.

Her own pitch is pretty... vague. :) But I was figuring that production would lag behind comprehension, you know? But then, I know nothing about this.

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Date: 2009-01-28 08:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nitouche.livejournal.com
We started Simon in the toddler music program at the Royal Conservatory back in September -- it's an enormous amount of fun, lots of singing and percussion games. I'm sure there must be something similar in your neck of the woods, and if so, I highly recommend it. Next fall we'll start an instrument (could do it now, but we don't want to overload him on classes), but we haven't yet decided which one -- piano has a linear scale, which is nice, but lots of kids seem to start off with violin. Decisions!

Date: 2009-01-28 08:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] anotherjen.livejournal.com
I used to play Graceland (the album) over and over and over, in high school. I still think it's fabulous.

Ilana just inherited my old iPod, since I inherited my housemate's old one. So I just filled it up, with songs we know she likes and also songs I'm guessing she'll like. It'll be interesting to hear her reactions to artists like Pat Benatar, who I chose, for instance, because she likes Melissa Etheridge.

I'm so glad that Ilana didn't ask me to literally explain lyrics when she was Natalie's age. I think she just made up her own explanations in her head. Now it's more like, "....Did she just say 'balls'?" And then I have to explain how yes, she did, and yes, it's bad language, and even though we try not to talk like that, it's okay since it's part of the song, and how saying "you don't have the balls" is like saying "you're not brave enough."

Date: 2009-01-28 08:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bloodstones.livejournal.com
My mom listened to tons of Paul Simon and Simon and Garfunkel when I was growing up, and I still do. When I was little I always took lyrics very literally which meant the line from Cecelia that goes, "making love in the afternoon / to cecelia up in my bedroom / I got up to wash my face / when I come back to bed / someones taken my place" painted a very vivid picture of a really bad afternoon for that guy. She invited someone into *his* bedroom? But he was only gone for a minute!

Date: 2009-01-28 09:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com
literal girl is literal...

What does that line mean, if not what you just said?

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Date: 2009-01-28 09:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] redheadedmuse.livejournal.com
Rio learned to walk when she was 8 months old because she was so motivated to dance.

When she was little, we did Music Together classes and they were great!

Now, Rio takes music classes at Tufts through their community music education program. She likes it a lot, and one of the other homeschooling families we know also has their kid doing classes there. I have never been - Martin takes her - but it's apparently very creative, lots of movement and dance as well as singing and hearing. In the next class above hers there are instruments.

Rio *loves* piano, and we happen to have a piano, so when she turned 4 I tried to enroll her in Suzuki piano lessons. I found an excellent instructor who teaches out of her home in Porter Sq. Rio liked her a lot, but after one lesson they both agreed that Rio did not want to study Suzuki method piano. We plan to try again when she's a little older with private piano instruction through the Tufts program.

I was bummed about that, because I love the Suzuki approach. But it's not me who has to learn piano. :)


Date: 2009-01-28 11:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moonshadow.livejournal.com
That's so pleasing. :) Does she like to play instruments? I can't imagine you don't have any in the house, being who you are...

Date: 2009-01-29 12:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] oddlystrange.livejournal.com
Hee that's awesome!

We have a lot of those "How does he know *THAT*?!?!?!" moments with Aidan, too. Not necessarily about music, but just random things where you just think he can either read, or read minds, or surfs Wikipedia when we're sleeping. Not sure which.

Still, sounds like you have a definite musician sprouting up!

Date: 2009-01-29 03:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fanw.livejournal.com
Wow!
It's always lovely to hear about her explorations. This one definitely reminds me of home. I grew up the last kid, so of course I got to twiddle around with my brothers' and sister's instruments. But I also remember fondly "Tubby the Tuba" a recorded story of a Tuba who gets stuck playing oompah all the time and wants to be like the other instruments and get a melody. And there was also a "Child's Introduction to the Orchestra" meant to introduce very young children to the sounds in the orchestra. Less memorable, but still good. Then there are wonderful things like Tschaikovsky's Peter and the Wolf which explicitly ties instruments to characters or pieces like Ravel's Bolera which simply introduces the theme over and over again through every instrument in the orchestra (in a cool and totally mesmerizing way).

Of course, this is just how I was introduced to music, and it's a little too focused on classical. The only other thing I grew up with was jazz, which ALSO happens to give lots of time to individual instrumental solos. Listening to any music and figuring out the pieces and who plays what is always a fun game and can work for any genre at all. Hmm. I wish I could introduce Natalie to fun musical things!

Date: 2009-01-29 03:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] artricia.livejournal.com
Funny how the fussy baby thing goes with music. I can't tell you how many times I've sung "Do Re Mi" in the last year.

I didn't know you were in Georgia over winter break!

Date: 2009-01-29 02:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
Yes! Sort of in the middle of totally nowhere, and just for a couple of days, and we totally failed to tell anyone we knew in Atlanta that we'd be coming through, but D has a lot of extended family there so we wind up there at Christmas a lot.

Date: 2009-01-29 06:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starphire.livejournal.com
It's surprising to read about you and D and N singing together. I can't recall if I've heard you singing before though I know you've talked about it, and I'm sure I haven't heard D sing.
We've been having somewhat regular music time upstairs; you're all welcome to join us anytime! I see S slowly figuring it out but she's still pretty shy about joining in with others.

Date: 2009-01-29 02:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moominmolly.livejournal.com
That's wild. We really do do it a lot. :) Usually in the car, or out in the world, or at bedtime, I suppose.

Date: 2009-01-30 02:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] qanga.livejournal.com
I hope someday I can be as good at parenting as you are.

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