Enjoying FREE outdoor concerts with your children
Attending a live concert with your whole family is a fabulous experience, especially when it is outdoors, and you can feel so much more comfortable to participate in ACTIVE listening with your children. My very active daughter has a tough time being still, unless she is sleeping, so we do a lot of hand motions, and body rhythms to help the music come alive so she can truly enjoy it. We also try to:
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Pretend to direct the music.
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Find an open space and dance the way the music makes us feel, using scarves or streamers if possible.
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Tap the steady beat on different parts of the child’s body, moving up to the head for the high notes, and down to the toes on the low notes.
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My older child (12), and I like to close our eyes and listen, then describe the images that the music illicits in our imaginations.
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Take paper and have them draw what they hear.
In each community, there are plenty of opportunities for live music, but sometimes it is difficult to find concerts that are appropriate for very young children. In this blog, we will focus on finding opportunities, and links to opportunities to find fabulous live music that is appropriate for young children with their families. Many of these are annual events, such as the one listed below, and you will find others just by clicking on FLORIDA MUSIC in the category to the right. Please make sure to check out the Friends of Florida Folk website (mentioned in another blog)- they have a full calendar of individual events (a few are appropriate for young children, and list all their annual events as well (many of which are appropriate for young children, AND the whole family). I’ll also try to list some of my favorite Florida musicians who specialize in children’s music.
FREE CONCERTS!
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The vibrations coming from live music are like nothing that a child can get from a recorded piece of music. The music resonates in our heads and our bodies in a whole different way, illiciting more physical responses, and empathetic emotions. (This is proven through extensive research.)
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Hearing the different sounds of the instruments (the timbres) trains a child’s ear to identify the different characteristics of sounds in the world around him.
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Watching the musicians play together provides a great lesson on what happens when you work in coordination with a group of people.
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It also tends to inspire children to make music of their own, both now, and in the future with real instruments.
Merry Melodies with that live music!
Debbie Mondale
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Kindermusik in Florida 