Extra Educational Information from Upado Unlimited

Like the Trapp family in Sound of Music, Kids today can Learn Solfege Too!

7/21/2018

The film, Sound of Music, was released in 1965 and has been introducing families around the world to solfege for over sixty years. Julie Andrews, staring as a young governess in the movie, makes life more musical for the Von Trapp children by singing the solfege style song Do-Re-Me.

Solfege is a method used in all levels of music education to teach pitch and sight singing. The way that solfege works is that a certain syllable is assigned to each note,

and then the musician practices singing various note sequences using these matching syllables. Each note has a hand signal as well. Students who have studied solfege are able to mentally hear the notes of written music and then sing them out loud without having first heard the melody of the song.

The team at Up-a-do Unlimited creates song pattern books such as Popular 8 Note Songs and Popular 8 Note Songs for Christmas, and in each book, a solfege chart is included on the “Music Notes and Rhythm” page with “Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do” matched to each letter and each color of the keys on the xylophone.

Because each song pattern is color coded, the solfege chart is color coded as well. For example, a blue box corresponds to the “DO,” and the green box to the “RE,” and the yellow box to the “MI.” An eight note C scale can be played on a xylophone, a recorder, piano, or sung out loud.

A large children’s choir purchased a classroom set of Up-a-do Unlimited xylophones and music pattern books so that the youngest students could learn solfege. When the choir director plays a note on the xylophone, the students play the note on their xylophones and match the pitch with their voices. Because Up-a-do Unlimited xylophones are perfectly tuned, the choir is able to learn accurate pitch.

The study of solfege can eventually help musicians recognize more complex musical

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Summer is Here! Time to Go Camping!

6/12/2018

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In the documentary, “Mile… Mile and a Half,” a group of artists, videographers and photographers hike the John Muir Trail. At one point, they meet up with two musicians who have brought along a small xylophone. The duo plays tunes on it while sitting on bear canisters high up in the mountains.

One of the most memorable events on a camping trip is sitting around the campfire singing and playing instruments.

Often, old familiar tunes are played on a guitar, and those with small portable instruments like a recorder or penny whistle can join in too. Backpackers are limited to smaller sized instruments, but glockenspiel or xylophones can easily be tied to the back of a backpack and taken along down the trail.

Many types of music can be played with an eight note xylophone or recorder. One kind that is very popular is a round. When a round is played or sung, each musician voices the same tune, but each one starts at a different time, and the song fits harmoniously together. Most of the music books in the Popular 8 Note Songs series contain rounds. There are many rounds that can be played on an eight note xylophone including Frere Jacques, Three Blind Mice and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Singing and playing rounds allows the outdoor enthusiasts to create harmonies around the campfire with just a single tune. Duets are fun too, and there are several included in Popular 8 Note Songs including “Pop Goes the Weasel.”

Sometimes getting to a campsite can require a long drive in the car. Music helps keep kids (and adults) happy, and a xylophone on a child’s lap can provide hours of entertainment.

All it takes is a music pattern book and a small instrument to make some new musical memories. The Up-a-do Unlimited Glockenspiel Xylophone is small and portable, and campers and backpackers can take it with them almost anywhere.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected].
Wishing you joy on your musical journey!
Debra Newby

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Dr. Suzuki: The Inspiration Behind the Song Choices in Up-a-do Unlimited’s Xylophone Song Book

5/12/2018

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Most families know someone who is taking Suzuki violin, piano or cello lessons, but they may not know exactly what that means. Sometimes they are aware that one of the parents goes to the lessons with the child, and they might have had the privilege of hearing the young, budding musician play at a level that astonished them.

What makes the Dr. Suzuki’s ideas about music education so valuable is that he believed that the youngest child had the potential to play music in the same way that they learned to speak, and he believed that talent is a learned ability.

Dr. Shinichi Suzuki was a Japanese educator and musician who believed that all children could learn things well, especially if they had the right type of environment.

The type of lesson that Suzuki envisioned for the small child was one where the parent was an active participant who attended lessons and took notes so that he or she could be the child’s coach at home during the daily practices.

When Dr. Suzuki wrote his first volume of violin music for children in 1945, he included six folk songs, five pieces that he wrote himself, and songs by Bach, Schumann and Gossoc. Each song taught a new skill, and each skill built on the next. Sometimes the skill learned was helping a child prepare in advance for a much more difficult piece in a later book. The use of folk songs gave the children the joy of being able to

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Glockenspiel Xylophone: A Creative Outlet for Overstimulated Children and an Alternative to Video Games

5/12/2018

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Today, many experts believe that there is a connection between the increasing number of children who have ADHD, bipolar disorder and depression - and the ever increasing amount of time that these children spend in front of an electronic screen. Victoria L. Dunckley, M.D., author of Reset Your Child's Brain, says that children are in an abnormally high state of arousal from being constantly overstimulated.

These kids are tired, cranky and often depressed which affects them both socially and academically.

Dr. Dunckley believes that screen time disrupts sleep patterns, changes the brains reward system and induces stress. She suggests putting children on electronic fasts so that they can enjoy imaginative and creative activities instead.

One of the most relaxing and creative activities for children is creating music. Upado Unlimited’s Glockenspiel Xylophone is precision tuned and has a bell-like tone which can be calming for overstimulated children. The xylophone comes with a twelve page educational music pattern book that includes songs that progress from very simple melodies to a more complex Bach Minuet. Playing a percussion instrument like a xylophone requires eye-hand coordination that uses large muscle groups which can be very beneficial for all children.

Many songs can be played on an eight note xylophone including rounds like Row, Row Row Your Boat and Paddle Song. When two children learn these songs and play together, relationships are built which is helpful for those who have spent too much time in isolation with video games. Both of these songs are included in the book Popular 8 Note Songs, and free music tracks are available on the Upado Unlimited website. Children can listen and play along, enjoying the fun of creating music while getting helpful auditory input.

Childhood activities have changed drastically in the last ten years, and overstimulation from excess screen time has negatively affected many children. Calming and creative activities like playing xylophone music can help reverse some of these unhealthy trends.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected].
Wishing you joy on your musical journey!
Debra Newby

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Active Listening

4/3/2018

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The ability to actively listen is a crucial skill in school children. From following directions from the teacher to communicating with their peers, those children who can make sense of their world through the auditory abilities have a greater opportunity to interact with and learn from those around them. Good auditory skills help students overcome the distractions inherent in the background noise and activities in a classroom, and those skills can help them stay focused.

Active listening is a particular learning technique where an individual listens and then must respond by repeating back what he heard. The goal is to confirm that the listener has heard and understood what was communicated.

Music training is an important tool for teaching active listening.

Dr. Shinichi Suzuki encouraged his violin students to listen every day to recordings of the songs they were learning so that they would be able to repeat back what they heard. He believed that progress was directly proportional to the amount of listening done by the student. This ability to listen well and repeat what is heard is a skill that transfers well to other learning activities.

The Upado Unlimited website provides
customers with audio recordings of songs
from the Music Pattern Song Books so that each
xylophone, recorder, hand bells or piano
musician can practice active listening by hearing the recording and then playing the matching tunes
on their instruments. Free audio tracks
of the song patterns can be found at: www.upadounlimited.com/music-book-audio

If two students have an IPad or flip screen computer, they can use the free YouTube videos of

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Author

Debra Newby is a long time educator, a musician, a Heritage Dance caller and a credentialed teacher who is continually fascinated by patterns in life and academics. Read more about her in the author bio below. Ever the extrovert, she loves to chat and help people figure things out, and you can reach her at [email protected].

Click Book Covers Below to purchase on Amazon

Click Here For Instructions on How to Play the Xylophone!

click here for instructions on how to play the recorder!

Click Here for instructions on how to play the piano!

click here for instructions on how to play the harmonica!

Click Here for Instructions on How to color Music Patterns!

Author Bio

Debra Newby is a long time educator, a musician, a Victorian dance caller and a credentialed teacher who has tutored students in Japan, conducted science classes at a marine aquarium, and taught biology and chemistry courses at several California high schools. She has recently completed an exciting twenty-five year homeschooling adventure with her husband and three children, and a year ago welcomed her first grandchild into the family.

While sitting through many years of Suzuki violin lessons with her daughters, she marveled at how many songs – even classical songs – could be played with just eight notes, and she thought about ways that other children and adults could get an easily accessible start in music. She now creates Music Patterns for Upado (Up-a-do) Unlimited Glockenspiel Xylophones which work equally as well with recorders, hand bells and piano.

Continually fascinated by connections and patterns, Debra Newby also coaches and tutors high school and college students to recognize patterns in life and academics, creates dance patterns for her Heritage Dance Events Project and continues to search for more ways to help kids learn.

Debra Newby

Author

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