Living Music From the Heart: Music Curriculum Volume 2 for Ages 7 and Up****A Beginner Music Kit****

 Yes, you can begin here!  Volume 2 is a beginner book with all the tools you need to get started!
The only difference between Volume 1 and Volume 2 is the ages; Volume 1 is for the child at age 6, (imitation stage/HANDS);Volume 2 is for the child at age 7, he is now entering the HEART stage.  Please consider this when purchasing. 
Living Music From the Heart: Music Curriculum Volume 2 by Jodie Mesler(click here to read the review)

Living Music From the Heart: Music Curriculum Volume 2 is a playful and artistic teaching method that is for everyone, for experienced musicians, as well as for teachers with little or no music training, giving all a very easy and pleasurable experience. For the beginner music teacher, you will find it easy to sing and play music with the aid of the DVD tutorials and lesson book. For the more experienced music teacher, you will find many helpful tips on how to teach in a more playful way, unlike the strict academic methods of our youth. Your child must be at least 7 years old, this approach is for children who have already started school and is appropriate up to age 9. Twenty lessons are included with techniques, games and more than 50 simple pentatonic songs for you to enjoy. The music lessons are set up so that children learn music by listening and imitating the teacher; therefore, you will learn how to read music notation in my next volume which will be specifically designed for children 9 years or older. Here you will get ideas on how to integrate singing, rhythms, games, and songs in a creative and natural way.

My method, which I call The Heart Method, is based on Rudolf Steiner’s study of human development, inspired by my love of music and deep respect for the way children learn. It is for those who long for a more nurturing and living way of learning and teaching music, remembering that music is the language of the soul. In Living Music From the Heart Volume 1, the primary focus was on pleasing sounds, rhythms and listening skills taught through imitation. Around second grade, it is time to learn simple pentatonic songs. By staying simply within the five note scale pattern, music becomes fulfilling and enjoyable. For the child we will weave in playing high and low, slow and fast, soft and loud, long and short. We will guide and inspire the child to have great technique through these songs and games as we teach him how to tongue, slur, listen and make up his own songs.


Some of you may enjoy using the pentatonic or soprano recorder for your child and that is a fine choice. I will be using the penny whistle during the tutorials and throughout my entire music curriculum series, but I will include a clip on how to finger the pentatonic recorder and how to finger the soprano recorder. Once you feel comfortable with the fingerings, you will be able to follow the tutorials and lesson plans more easily.


My recommendation for the penny whistle comes from Steiner’s reference to a blowing instrument. In The Kingdom of Childhood, Steiner says, “As early as possible the children should come to feel what it means for their own musical being to flow over into the objective instrument…if you can you should choose a wind instrument, as the children will learn most from this and will thereby gradually come to understand music…” In another lecture, The Child at Seven, Steiner states, “until approximately the end of the ninth year, the child wants to experience everything that comes toward it within its own inner rhythms – in what belong to beat and measure. It will relate everything to the rhythms of breath and heartbeat…” While many Waldorf schools and homeschooling families have traditionally used the recorder or flute, I believe the penny whistle is a wonderful blowing instrument to begin a child’s music education and is consistent with Steiner’s indications.


Please take a moment to read this review from Lauri Bolland, a Waldorf Homeschooling parent who has experienced the entire method.


Here is a complete overview of the curriculum:

SONGS

1. My Fingers Are Dancing
2. Jack Be Nimble
3. Like the Turtle
4. Hush Little Baby
5. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
6. Inch Worm
7. Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate
8. Little Miss Muffet
9. Thunderstorm
10. Old MacDonald
11. Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater
12. Tick Tock, Hear the Clock
13. There Was a Man and He Was Mad
14. Jack Sprat
15. Jolly Old St. Nicholas
16. Star Light, Star Bright
17. A Song From My Heart
18. Mary Had a Baby
19. Little Jack Horner
20. Turn Into Light
21. Morning Song
22. Polly Put the Kettle On
23. Whisper Then Shout
24. Shortnin’ Bread
25. Little Poll Parrot
26. Jogging With My Doggy
27. Did You Go to the Barney?
28. Georgie Porgie
29. Clap With Me
30. Little Liza Jane
31. Little Robin Redbreast
32. Swing Your Partner
33. A Frog Went A-Courtin’
34. Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
35. Crocuses
36. In the Springtime
37. Humpty Dumpty
38. Hot Cross Buns
39. Johnny Get Your Haircut
40. March Winds
41. The Tooth Fairy
42. Ducks in the Mill Pond
43. It’s Raining, It’s Pouring
44. The Dance
45. Bought Me a Cat
46. Little Tommy Tittlemouse
47. Willow Tree
48. Run, Chillen, Run
49. High Diddle, Diddle
50. Goodbye Old Paint
51. Hickory Dickory Dock
52. Fresh Tomatoes
53. The Farmer in the Dell
54. A Wise Old Owl
55. We Are One Big Family
56. The Crawdad Song

TECHNIQUES

1. long tones
2. pentatonic scale D, E, G, A, B, D', E', G'
3. tonguing
4. slurring
5. rhythms
6. improvisation
7. high to low
8. low to high
9. descending
10. ascending
11. building a repertoire
12. long tones and short tones and rests
13. measuring tones
14. tempos; slow, moderate, fast
15. soft and loud
16. swinging tempos

GAMES

1. Blow Dragon Blow to strengthen lungs and build strong long tones
2. Call & Response to fine tune rhythms and techniques
3. Fix Your Leaky Tire to work on proper hand position
4. High to Low or Low to High? learning how to hear the differences in tones
5. Blowing Up Balloons to strengthen lungs and build strong long tones
6. The Stopwatch Challenge to strengthen lungs and build strong long tones