by: Stephanie Duhon
I walked into a packed room at The Motherhood Center with excitement on Saturday afternoon. Uncle Gerry and Aunt Denise from Music Together® were in town for a special concert! It was a fun-filled hour of singing, dancing and celebrating. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a room goes quiet when a Music Together song begins.
Gerry Dignan, also known as Uncle Gerry on the popular Music Together CDs, and his wife Denise, are visiting Music Together locations all across the country in celebration of the program’s 25th anniversary. We are so happy they decided to make a stop in Houston!
Music Together was first introduced to the public in 1987. Today, the curriculum is taught in 2,000 communities in 48 states and 40 other countries around the world. Wow! That’s amazing!
Since Saturday’s concert, my daughter Nicole is now talking about “Uncle Gerry” and how he sang the “Glad to see you song (aka the “Hello Song”), which is one of her favorites. While we were running errands this morning, the “Hello Song” came on and she said “Uncle Gerry!” and was keeping beat to the music. Love it!
The day before the concert, we had our 8th Prelude Music class of the semester. I cannot get over how quickly this semester has flown by. We had to make up a couple of classes this time due to sickness and travel, but Nicole loves all of the Prelude Music teachers, so she did well in the makeup classes. She sure was happy to see Ms. Emily on Friday though!
One fun take away from Friday’s class was when we listened to an instrumental song and danced around with scarves to the music. Emily said it’s important to include songs without words so the kids will focus on the melody. Because toddlers and young children are still learning language and vocabulary, they latch on to every word they hear. So when they hear a song, they immediately focus on the lyrics. By including songs that are instrumental, or only include tonal patterns, it encourages the child to hear the melody instead.
