STORY FROM A MOM
Here’s a video of the group Alabama Shakes performing their song, “Hold On,” on the David Letterman Show. A mom sent me the link after her two-year-old daughter responded to it in an interesting way. “She likes to talk about the dynamics,” the mom wrote. Her daughter notices the contrasts in volume and energy throughout the song and adds her two-year-old commentary: “She screaming!,” or, “She quiet.” This is why it’s so much fun to play with contrasts in dynamics (loud/soft), tempo (fast/slow), pitch (high/low), and so on–children are searching for those sharp contrasts to help them learn more efficiently. Was this little Alabama Shakes fan more tuned into the dynamics because of our play in class? Who knows. All that really matters is that she’s noticing, learning, and talking about it…and her mom is listening.
