Didgeridoo

The end result of showing a kid a video of a a guy playing a Didgeridoo is that he grabs the nearest roll of wrapping paper, and starts playing. Seriously, sounds more like farts, which made him REALLY happy. He is nine after all.

Total band uniform fail, fabulous concert, enjoyable evening.

Procrastination does not pay off when you can't find your tuxedo shirt, your mom hasn't hemmed your new tux pants, and you take tap shoes instead of dress shoes to your band concert. It makes for a very hectic afternoon. But somehow, in spite of our lazy start to the band season and multiple hiccups, Max's Fall band concert was fantastic.

If you give a kid a violin

We are BIG fans of the Give a Mouse a Cookie series here in this house. Last week someone gave my kids violins. Of course my first thought was to run screaming from the house. How on earth could this possibly end well - not just one violin, but two. Then they started playing, and it was a totally different experience than when my oldest was given a violin. When Max first started playing violin we really thought that he couldn't hear that he was playing the wrong notes (and we weren't too far off - but turns out he's a brilliant trumpet play and can hear those notes perfectly). But Ian and Sam are different. First day out of the case, they wrote some music and played a song for us. They only know how to pluck the strings, not even how to play anything but open strings, their violins weren't completely tuned when they first brought them home, but they created music. So apparently in my house, if you give a kid a violin...

...he'll make music.

TMBG

So yesterday I totally threw Giants under the bus. We LOVE They Might Be Giants. They have so many good songs for both adults and kids, but one of my favorites Science is Real spoke to me after watching yesterday's GOP Presidential Debate. So today I thought I'd show them a little love/ Giants are about clever, they are about fun, and they are about creative:

Gotta love TMBG!

Take Me Out

Aside from the catchy tune, this is a really cool video. Instruments stolen, they went to the next best thing and kept plugging away on their music:

Les Paul Doodle on Google today!

I've mentioned before that I LOVE the doodles that Google puts up on their search page. But this one is more than just a doodle - it's alive. The doodle they have posted today is similar to the Martha Graham doodle they had a bit ago, but this time it's actually interactive.

So go to Google today and see what tunes you can strum. And if you don't know who Les Paul is, well, check him out here: Les Paul Online. All I'll say is that he was a brilliant, brilliant man.

Edited to say: Look how cool I am! I made my very own song for you - strumming along and smiling the whole time: http://goo.gl/doodle/oJKbu Gotta love Google for doing this...and for leaving it up for a bit!

Bailey's 5th Grade Chorus singing the National Anthem!

Trumpet Master Max

Max - rocking the trumpet at his band's holiday concert at Barnes and Noble. Well, as much as you can rock out Jingle Bells and other holiday standards! He IS the trumpet master!