Music, Culture, Confessions and Sandals

I had a revelation about music in the life of communities yesterday. I want to write about that but first I need to make a confession.

I am a pastor but I really don't like being called "Pastor." I know there is a time and place for being called pastor. There are touching times when I am so pleased to be able to be pastoral as I pastor to those who need my care. But I am more than a pastor and I like getting to use my gifts in places where they just know me as Karl (often in a teeshirt and sandals.)

One of those teeshirt and sandal places is Rockridge Little School. I guess it is quite a coincidence that the preschool is located at the historic College Avenue Presbyterian Church and I am a Presbyterian Pastor but the school only rents from the church and when I am leading singing with the children I am only Karl. I like it that way. As Karl I am valued by my actions and not by some preconceived idea of what kind of person a pastor is.

With the confession out of the way let me get to the music stuff.

Yesterday I had the chance to lead the wonderful teachers at RLS in a discussion about music at the school. We talked about our own feelings about singing in public and we shared some of our experiences.

In general in seems we all like singing or at least being part of a group that sings. It was also shared that while we loved to sing as kids we were not necessarily encouraged in our attempts at song. As a parent you might try something other than "You can't carry a tune in a bucket" if you want your child to love singing. It was also agreed that we would like RLS to be a "singing" school and I got a deeper appreciation for why this would be a good thing during our discussion.

Two revelations from the day...
1: That our songs are our prayers.
I don't mean this in an organized religion sense. What we talked about was that songs are very close to our hearts and souls. Songs we loved as kids and youth can still have a powerful emotional effect on us today. They can make us cry and make us laugh when we least expect it. And our songs can be a way of expressing our hope and our vision and our collective dream of things being more just. "We are the world" aren't we? It seems right that as we shape the lives of these small ones in our care that we give them songs to take with them that lift up the values that we are seeking to instill in them; Values about friends and family, love and justice, nature and an appreciation of community.

2: That songs/music have been central in building and supporting community in society.
I shared an experience I had in a small township in South Africa when a group of children at an orphanage put on fabulous concert for me. I was taken by the complex parts and harmonies they sang. When I asked how long they had been practicing for the performance I was told most of them had never sung together before. They said this was their music and they all knew how to sing it. One of the teachers shared how her boy friend from Lebanon is so comfortable playing a drum and how all the kids know how to do music in his community. It is part of the culture, it is part of life, it is part of being a community.

This got us thinking about how we have become an audience in our culture and what a loss this is to our communities. I can't help but see what a good job we are doing at exporting this mentality. It is much easier to market ipods than it is folk songs I guess. The profit margin is certainly better.

I think we missing the opportunity to give our children the wonderful gift of music. Not as those that have ipods or watch American Idol but as a community voice where the effect of the music on the heart is more important than its effect on the ear. A community where everyone does music.

I will be sharing song with lots of children this Fall. I will be working with three kindergarten classes at Berkeley Arts magnet, a couple of classes at Rockridge Little School and possibly a first grade class at Rosa Parks. I also have a couple other invitations I am contemplating and of course I will be singing with my grandkids every chance I get.

What a joy, sharing music with kids. I am Blessed.

Song - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle Twinkle is often the first song I sing with a new group of kids because everyone knows it and is so easy to sing.

It is such a good "use your imaginations" song... "Now, close your eyes as we sing the song." "Did you see many starts?" "Did you see any shooting stars?"

It also introduces hand motions for the kids as they reach their hands high into the air and make twinkling stars with their hands.

From twinkle I move into the ABC song (same tune) and maybe Baa Baa Black Sheep (though I am not very wilded about the words).

This is a great song for creating some custom lyrics. I have a song about "Bubble Bubble little Cheese" that is interactive. I wrote this verse for a cheese day at our youth group were all the activies were related to cheese.

I also like the sense of "wonder" this song invokes. The wonder of stars and night and how big our world is can lead to other art projects about the planets and stars.

Twinkle, Twinkle
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

(2 more verses)
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark;
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

ABC Song & Bubble, Bubble
(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle)

Bubble, Bubble little cheese
May I eat you, if you please?
I like gouda, I like chedder
But that goat cheese, I like Bedder
Bubble, Bubble little cheese
May I eat you, if you please?

Bubble, Bubble…
I hear there’s cheese up on the moon.
Gee I hope we get there soon.
Bubble, Bubble…

Bubble, Bubble…
(child’s name) at a huge pinecone
Thought it taste like provolone
Bubble, Bubble…

SONG - The Pie Song "baby don't you cry"

This beautiful little song is from the movie "Waitress". Kids and teachers love this song but it also has a touching story behind it.

Waitress was written, directed and acted in by Adrienne Shelly a young up and coming female director and new mom. She also co-wrote the song for the movie. The love between mom and daughter that is so powerfully displayed in the movie was inspired by Adrienne's relationship with her own daughter.

The movie was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival and was purchased by the major distributer but tragically Adrienne was killed in her New York office/apartment before the movie was quite completed. Adrienne's husband established the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, a non-profit organization that will award film school scholarships and grants to women filmmakers.

After seeing the movie I could not get this song out of my head. The next morning I sat down and figured out the words and music as best I could remember. I did not remember perfectly so this song is my version.

My seven year old granddaughter Rose and I have been singing it together and it has inspired my grandson Sage and I to envision a special pie that we made on our yearly family reunion. (The "can't get enough chocolate... whupped cream... strawberries" grandchildren & Granpa Pie)

This song would go will with a class or home project to make your own desert with strawberries and hearts. It is a song about the power of love and comfort food made with love that we can all relate too.

You might like to hear a recording of Rose and I singing the "Pie Song" in our living room. (When she sings real loud she says she is trying to sound like "a whole children's chorus". Let us know what you think)

The Pie Song

Baby don't you cry, gonna make a pie,
gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle.

Baby don't be blue, gonna make for you,
gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle.

Gonna make a pie from heaven above,
gonna fill it up with strawberry love.

Baby don't you cry, gonna make a pie,
all my love for you in the middle of my heart.

________________

I like to add verses replacing the words with...
"La, La, La, La" or "Do, Do, Do, Do", or a hand kazoo sound.
when the kids were going on a field trip to a little farm
we added changed the words to
"Moo, Moo, Moo, Moo" and "Baa, Baa, Baa, Baa"
The kids loved it!

SONG - Teacher Teacher, ooh Baby

All the adults know the tune of this song as Louie Louie. This song has been recorded as many as 1500 times and has been the subject of many parodies over the years. You can read more about it's history at the wikipedia site here.

I wrote the words to this song when I was teaching the kindergarden class at Rose Parks Elementary in Berkeley CA. in the spring of 2007. This was my grandson's class and his teacher, Miss Luna, had just told the children that she was going to have a baby. We sang the song as "Miss Luna Miss Luna, ooh baby...". The kids loved it and it made Miss Luna cry, "A song for me..." We sing the song standing up with "rock and roll" hand motions. The chorus celebrates a friendly relationship between teacher and students (we love you miss luna). The verses are a celebration of being able to play in our beautiful world and the belief we can be anything we want to be when we grow up. Click here to see Rick Berry singing his song Louie Louie.

Teacher Teacher, ooh Baby
Tune by Rick Berry, Lyrics by Karl Shadley

CHORUS
Teacher teacher, ooh baby, we gotta go.
Yeah-Yeah-Yeah-Yeah
Teacher teacher, ooh baby, we gotta go.
Yeah-Yeah-Yeah-Yeah

The boys and girls told me just the other day
That they should go outside and play
Got to use our lungs & stretch out legs
On these fantastic, beautiful days

CHORUS

What to be an astronaut, fly to the moon
Or maybe a custodian, I’m good with a broom
A doctor or a teacher or a fireman
I can be anything, I know I can

CHORUS

Rick Berry singing Louie Louie

Check out Rick Berry singing his Louie Louie song. What about making a video of kids from RLS singing the song?

"You share music with them... you share your heart."

I told the dad of one of the preschoolers that I was surprised by the love shown to me by the children. He was not surprised, "You share music with them... you share your heart."

Once a week I pack up - my guitar, kazoo and holder, capo, picks, an electronic stuffed California Quail, and music I have been collecting for 37 years - and join with 40 preschoolers for an hour of singing. We sing silly songs and songs that make you cry. We sing protest songs and aerobic songs that make an old man like me breakout in a sweat. Sometimes we don't sing and just listen. Sometimes we find our neighbor's hat more interesting than the music and sometimes we find our own antics more fun than the music - until the teachers redirect us back to the music.

I have been singing with the children at Rockridge Little School since March but for a couple of weeks in July I had to take a break because of my Big Brother's death. I had received many condolences about my brother's passing but none more touching than the unexpected one I received on my return to Little School.

"Karl, Karl, Karl..." "Yes, what?" "Karl, I heard something really bad happened to your brother. I am sorry. Are you OK?" "Yes and thank you for asking" (take a deep breath and do your job). adding a couple of other voices to the conversation "I love you Karl" "I love you too..." I say Thank you again and count my blessings.

I was caught off guard by the community we have been building. We are making connections. We matter to each other in some small way. The words we are sharing are remembered. We are getting inside each others heads and hearts.

I love singing music in a group. I think singing old songs is a way of paying respect and joining with those who have gone before us. I believe that music speaks in a very special way to the head and the heart. I love singing with the kids at Rockridge Little School. I love the kids at RLS and I am so blessed that they love me.

Reporting from my small (little kid like) place in the world