Happy Birthday Song

Here is a really sweet birthday song that our kids love and are sharing with their families at birthday parties.

How To Make a Straw Oboe

The First & Second Grade class at BAM has been working on making how-to-videos for making the simple instruments we use in our songs. This video was done to show you how to make an oboe (reed instrument) with a straw. We write our own lines and these guys are getting pretty good at including some "sit-down" comedy in the video. Enjoy!

"Sana Sananina" African Folk Song

This video is of the Kindergarten class singing Sana Sananina. Great song that I learned in South Africa. The kids are using rhythm instruments that I have been collecting for years from all over the world. Enjoy!

How to make a horn - BAM Folk Music Class

So today we worked on making a horn using our kazoos. Pretty easy but a great craft and will add to the pizazz when our band performs in couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy

How to make a drum - BAM folk music class

For the past couple of weeks we have been working on making drums for one of the songs we are going to sing at the April 2 performance at School. Today's video was made by the 1st and 2nd grade class. They are showing how they made their drums.

I got the material for the drum body from a local carpet store. The cylinder is used to roll carpets on. I just used a power saw to cut them in 12 inch lengths. I like these much better than oat meal cartons. They are very thick and can be made in different lengths. They are also great for decorating. We just used felt pens to make our designs. You could also use colored paper, cloth etc. to decorate the drum. We used weight balloons in lots of different colors for the tops of the drums. Just cut off the nipple of the balloon (or whatever you call it) and pull it over the top of the cylinder. We found it best to tape the balloons on the drum. Thought the balloons are surprisingly resilient they are also very easy to replace. Check out this cool video.

BAM folk music class - March 6, 2009

So we are getting ready for our Performance on April 2. We started working on some drums we are making and recorded a couple more songs. I am posting a little outtake of some solos on the song "We Shall Overcome". Enjoy! It should be noted that we filmed this on "Crazy Hair Day" so that is what is up with the crazy hair. The soloist are Nia and Indgo and the outstanding camera work is done by Sean.

BAM folk music class

CHECK OUT THE NEW KINDERGARTEN VIDEO. WE UPDATED IT TODAY!
I am teaching two after school classes at Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School in Berkeley. I have been teaching music at the school with all the kindergarten Classes for the last couple of years but this is my first time working with small groups and with older kids. We are having a great time learning lots of songs and now working on writing some songs. You can check out our first time recording posted on youtube. The kids are very excited to be "published" on the internet. We hope you enjoy...