"Inch by Inch"- the Jefferson Folk Music Class

We have a wonderful class at Jefferson. Raphael and I think  that these 15 kids are so up for most anything. What a wonderful class to teach. At this class we recorded "Inch by Inch", learned to play kazoos and recorded our first kazoo song. What Fun!

The Lonely Song - a song with an A minor !

Last week we learned a new song "The Carrot Song." It is a really upbeat song that you can listen to on last weeks blog. So I played the song for my 10 year old grandson Max. The next time I saw Max he said.. "Grandpa.. I wrote a new song." So he started to sing it to me. It was inspired by The Carrot Song but he took it a different direction with the use of an A minor chord. It is amazing how minor chords change the emotion of a song. Our kids at both Jefferson and BAM learned the song, added some movement and here is what we came up with. We will start with the Jefferson kids. Enjoy!

New Class - New Song "The Carrot Song" by Izumi Hayakawa

So we have started a new "Making Folk Music" class at Jefferson Elementary in Berkeley with Raphael as our Co-Teacher. We are learning all about different kinds of instruments; wind, string, percussion, reed. We were able to play a ukulele (string), drum on our bodies (percussion) and we MADE a double reed instrument we call a "Sax-a-straw". We also learned about physics and sound waves. (If you have a child in the class, asked them about the physics of sound waves).

But the really big event of our class this week was the performance of a new song written by my friend Izumi Hayakawa. Izumi is a wonderful jazz singer and she what inspired to write "The Carrot Song" when she picked up a Ukulele (a uke can have that effect on you). Izumi and her song are amazing!

You need to understand the class was just introduced to "The Carrot Song" about 10 minutes before we asked them to perform it. This is a work in progress....  but I think we will enjoy it...