Inch by Inch - Boy Style

Here is our latest version of "Inch by Inch" it was all boys in our 1st and 2nd grade class today so we let them "loose" for this take! Enjoy (and just know, no child was injured in this filming)

Three Little Birds

We are into the Fall Session of our 2014 "Folk Music Class" at BAM. We have already made a couple of instruments (Sax-a-Straw) and a percussion shaker. Now are also learning lots of new songs. This week we learned a Pete Seeger and a Bob Marley song. We will see more of our Pete song as we work on our theme "music cast out fear" for this session. Today we recorded our first take on Bob's "Three Little Birds". ENJOY...

We will, We will, Rock You!

So the past couple of weeks our older BAM class has been working on drums... We have done drums in the past but we tried a new way of making them this time. As usual, we used all free stuff... #10 cans from a local Italian restaurant (a little nasty smelling but we hope that goes away with time), some paper from our friends and drum sticks made from old scrap wood from Home Depot. As you will hear... these new "steel-drums" are the real deal... Just the guys this time but Sally was rocking out just out-of-sight of the camera. (and that is the way she wanted it... ) ENJOY!

ABIYOYO

Our Folk Music Class is just that... the are just regular young folk who study traditional folk music from around the world. We learn the songs and the stories and make the instruments of people who find music to be a lifeline to a real and Free Life. This past session of or BAM Folk Music Class we made our own Ukuleles out of boxes from the Postal Service, recycled "throw-a-way" wood from Home Depot and lots of hard work and imagination. We also made our own versions of Pete Seeger's Abiyoyo.  Abiyoyo is the story of a Mythical Giant that comes to wreak a town. Everyone is afraid except for a little boy with a ukulele. With song, and the help of his father, he saves the village from the mythical fears of Abiyoyo. The body of our kid's giant is made up of pictures of what our kids say they are afraid of. With Abiyoyo as our background we tell the story of Abiyoyo and chase way our fears with Pete Seeger's song.
You can see Pete telling the story here... Abiyoyo

OUT TAKES !

So we take lots of video that never gets on our Blog... Here is some video of our recording of "If I Had A Hammer" Enjoy!

Sax-a-straws

In our class we learn lots of music and also make musical instruments. We have three requirements... 1) can be made by a kid, 2) are made to last and, 3) made out of free stuff (mostly).

So our project on this day was to make sax-a-straws. All of the kids were able to make then and play them. Very cool. Enjoy our little Sax-a-Straw concert!

Binding Songbooks

For the past couple of weeks Yun-Yun have been making Songbooks with our kids. These are not just any old songbooks. Our kids are binding the books. They start by designing the covers, each one unique. Then they sew the binding. Really, they are binding these books with needle and thread. Then they finish them off with a colored tape binding. Over the next few weeks they will be adding words and art to the books, choosing their favorite songs. Today we get to see a little of the process of making the books. Watch how attentive they are to the binding process. Amazing!

Evan playing the Banjolele and singing Matilda

Today the kids got to play the Banjolele (a multicultural instrument of american banjo and Hawaiian ukulele). We will post more of this exciting day but for now you get to experience Evan playing our favorite Matilda the Gorilla for you. This boy can rock!

How to Play the Uke with the BAM folk music class

This past week we had a chance to play the Uke in our class. We also began working on our new musical instrument project the "ZooLoo Stick"... Enjoy!

Hand in Hand !

So it has been awhile but here is a video that our Winter First Grade "Folk Music Class" did.
This is a song call Hand in Hand. I was with a group recently where we talked about Hands. We talked about our experience of Hands that help and also Hands that hurt. I am sure you can think of times of experiencing both helping and hurting hands. Part of what we do in our class is to teach our students about the power of music to teach life lessons. In writing our verses for Hand in Hand we celebrated hands that help and how in joining hands we can do even more! Enjoy