Music and Audio Books

Jack stories don't get any better than when told by Jackie Torrence. A friend gave our family our first Jackie Torrence tape when we were going to drive from Florida to Ohio on vacation about 15 years ago. As you might imagine the 15 year old wanted no part of any dumb old storytelling tapes. Well you guessed it, by the time we heard the first side, she was hooked, along with the rest of use. We played it so much that it was just about the only thing we listened to all the way there and all the way home. I am going to begin a collection of storytelling tapes for myself and my grandchildren and the first one I thought of was Jackie Torrence so I ordered Majic Mountain Jack Tales and was not dissappointed. I love it and plan to order eventually all the Jackie Torrence audio tapes I can locate.

A must for all Mozart lovers. It raises ones awareness,enabling one to take a look at oneself.Seeing oneself, reminds one that the undesciplined side to us has to be improved. This book enables one to do just that.By providing the strength one needs to carry the task of self improvement, in ones daily life.

I had my doubts--how much could a classical piece of music relax or "inspire" a restless, ruthless 2 year old? I casually put in the first of the boxed series titled, "Relax, Create and Draw" (or close to that) and within 20 minutes my 4 year son and 2 year old tantrum throwing daughter were at the table drawing--no kidding--with no coaxing on my part. It brightens our mood and is a lot better than the Rugrats!!!

At first I kind of rolled my eyes at this one. Yes, I'd heard all about how classical music can help increase children's intelligence, but I wasn't terribly interested in upping my daughter's IQ (she's only 9 months old!) But then we listened to this CD and she loved it--grinning and moving to the music from the very first notes. My husband and I enjoyed it too. This is the first of three volumes of Mozart music for kids, and it is specifically designed to enhance IQ, inspire creativity, and provide a rich listening and learning experience for children of all ages. It's extremely enjoyable to listen to, and if it happens to inspire kids both intellectually and creatively, all the better. We now play this CD all the time because we really like listening to it.

My Son is 4, and is entranced by the exciting story of Mozart's life. The children's acting is wonderful. The music is wonderfully blended into the story. What a way to introduce kids to classical music!

I so enjoyed this biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that I could hardly put it down. Siepmann does a good job of putting Mozart's life into a clear context, both in terms of the events surrounding him as well as the wider historical and musical world. Also, there is a good balance here between biographical and musical discussions. Interestingly, Siepmann chose to discuss most of Mozart's music in separate chapters that he calls "interludes," so while this is somewhat disjointed from a biographical standpoint, it makes the book more useful as a musical reference after you've read it. The book is concise, though, at just 170 pages of main text, so there's not a great deal of detail for those who already know the main outline of Mozart's life and work. I like the fact that Siepmann chose to include extensive quotations from Mozart and others to give a better sense of their thinking. And the 2 included CDs are fun to listen to along with reading the bio, or on their own, especially as the selections are complete movements. The associated web site on Naxos gives most of the works in full that are represented by single movements on the book's CDs, and has more music and information as well. All in all, a very enjoyable and useful book.

This soundtrack is awesome! The songs are great especially "I'll Make A Man Out of You."

I found this movie to be the best rendition of the christmas carol. The Muppet Christmas Carol was beautifully written and eloquently stated that life should be cherished for the moment and perserved for the future. It was heart felt and very Christmas feeling filled.

Music For Creative Dance:
Contrast and Continuum, Volume I
Music by Eric Chappelle
Creative Dance Ideas by Anne Green Gilbert

1 All in One: (Two contrasting melodies)
Alternate moving lightly and strongly; smoothly and sharply; with free flow and bound flow; changing levels, direction, place or focus.

Create a rain forest or jungle dance: wind, birds or spirits float and fly through the jungle, then explorers slash and stamp through the jungle. Partners copy each others movements, changing leaders when the music changes; dance with upper body half on one part and lower on the other.

2 Fiddlers Three
(Continuous music in 3/4 time)
Use for free dancing or improvisation, technique or exercises.
Practice skills such as slow slides, big skips, turns, swings, waltz run.
Combine movements together such as four waltz runs, four swings, four turns and stretch into a shape. Re- peat.

[...]

This is a two CD set each CD is 30 minutes long. The second CD is for the "music discovery book", I love this CD, it is just perfect for group music classes and it is a fun CD for kids to just listen to. There are 25 songs: a hello song (mentions mozart mouse and beethoven bear), a goodbye song (could be used for any program), 8 rhythm instrument songs, 5 movement/music appreciation songs, and 8 listening/ear training songs.

The first CD is essentially a "book on CD" of the "music lesson" book and I don't see why you would ever use it because a teacher could read the story herself much more entertainingly.