Blog Archives
Bayou Bend, Family Day Sunday May 19th
I’ll be at The Bayou Bend on Sunday May 19th for their Family Day, with a station offering interactive music-time demonstrations throughout the day, as families walk through. Hope to see you there! https://www.mfah.org/calendar/bayou-bend-family-day-musical-traditions/201905190100PM
BAYOU BEND FAMILY DAYS
Bayou Bend Family Day “Musical Traditions”
Sunday, May 19, 2019: –
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An amazing afternoon of fun and entertainment awaits at Bayou Bend Family Days! Find activities, demonstrations, and performances throughout Bayou Bend’s gardens and historic mansion. Enjoy tours of the first floor of the house, hosted by volunteers from Houston Junior Woman’s Club.
► Theme: Musical Traditions
Celebrate the history of music and musicians in the United States. Bayou Bend’s founder, Ima Hogg, was also a founder of the Houston Symphony and a great lover of music. Explore the wide variety of styles and influences on early American music through performances and activities.
This event is free! Drop in to participate. Last admission is at 4:30 p.m.
All You Need Is Love (Mister Bradley’s New Christmas has dropped!)
It’s here folks! And makes a great stocking stuffer! Click below to give the whole album it listen!
TRACKLIST:
Season’s Greetings!
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Jingle Bell Rock
The Christmas Song
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
50 Worlds For Snow
Frosty The Snowman
Feliz Navidad!
Twelve Ways To Say Merry Christmas
Mele Kalikimaka
Here Comes Santa Claus
Jingle Bells
You’ll Find What You Need
All You Need Is Love (Lennon/McCartney)
Walking In A Winter Wonderland
Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel
Have Yourself a Merry LIttle Christmas
Merry Christmas and Good Night
Midnight Clear
Jingle Bells [feat. Mike Roberts
Movin’ right along!!!
Mister Bradley customized Holiday CD update: I recorded the instrumentals today for “The Christmas Song” and “Jingle Bell Rock”. I’m so stoked! Also, here are some mock-ups for how the covers might look. In addition to a customized cover with your little one’s name in the title, I’ll be taking orders for favorite colors too! Who else would like to “Pledge-to-Order”? Email me! bradley@misterbradley.com . I’m looking for 12 more pledges before I really start cutting a rug over here. CDs will be 40 bucks.
Mister Bradley performing this Saturday & Sunday at Houston’s Children Museum
I hope your Thanksgiving was fantastic!
And I want to spread the word: Mister Bradley will be performing at the Houston Children’s Museum this Saturday and Sunday in the auditorium. 3:00pm on both days. Come on out! And make musical merriment with us!
Details here:
http://www.cmhouston.org/event/mister-bradley’s-musical-jam-childrens-museum
Love,
Bradley
TIME TO SIGN UP FOR SUMMER!
Summer Is Here, Rockstars!
As the Spring session wraps up, I wanted to update you all again on what kind of musical mahem we’ve been up to!
More awesome success with learning music theory: We’ve spent a lot of time practicing different note patterns using the “Do Re Mi” method of notation. However, I have also introduced the idea of the “musical alphabet” and we learned what the difference is between the ABC alphabet which has, “lets count them”, 26 letters and starts on “A.”
But the musical alphabet is weird and wonderful. It starts on the letter “C and when it gets to “G” it doesn’t go to “H” of course, but all the way back to A. There are only 7 letters in the musical alphabet but it can repeat going lower or higher.
So we practice singing our musical alphabet (singing a C Major scale)
Children took turns playing boomwackers and handbells, which took lots and lots of patience and listening.
We sang Jingle Bells, Farmer in the Dell, Old MacDonald, BINGO, Three Blind Mice, Row Row Row Your Boat.
Children also took turns playing different rhythm patterns lollypop drums and tested “Billy Bird” to see if he could play the same thing. So they had to listen to each other very closely.
We also, learn more about different instrument families, continuing on with what we began at the beginning of the session. We learned about the string family: Viola, Violin, Cello, and Double Bass.
We also enjoyed listening to the different Saxophones and The Pink Panther theme played on the baritone saxophone was very popular many of the students. Here is the version they heard (I ripped the sound from the youtube video and we listened on a blue tooth speaker). We talked about how the music sounded “suspensful” and “sneaky”.
Also, here is a video of my students at the Innovative School singing Do Ra Mi. I have the video in a post on the Mister Bradley’s Musical Jam Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/misterbradleymusic
They sound great and I’m so proud of them.
FINALLY, and the is very important, NOW is the time to enroll for Summer session. This is the LAST WEEK of SPRING SESSION and if your child attends RICE CHILDREN’S CAMPUS, THE CATHEDRAL HOUSE SCHOOL or HEARTSHOME BRIGHT HORIZONS, please don’t be late! Sign up today! You should all have had flyers in your child’s mailbox.
It’s easy to sign up online
https://opusonekids.com/register/houston/
Or, of course, you may leave a check at your child’s school.
If you are on a “Pay-as-You” plan, you’re already taken care of!
Thanks again for taking an interest in your child’s education. It’s an honor for me and it’s been a great Spring. Here’s to the SUMMERTIME!
-Mister Bradley
The Weeks of June 30 and July 7, 2014
Greetings Rock Stars!
What we’ve had with the “HATS” lessons. We had fun with with Independence Day songs and I wore my big, tall, fluffy American Flag hat.
We sang:
You’re a Grand Ol’ Flag
Fireworks, fireworks (to The Tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Fill the sky, shining on the fourth of July
See them shoot up, see them flare,
See them light up everywhere,
Fireworks, fireworks fill the sky,
Shining on the Fourth of July.
Bang! Snap! Whistle! Pop! (To the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat)
Fireworks fill the air.
See them lighting up the sky
On the Fourth of July.
We also passed out flags and practiced waving them… being careful to not drop them or hit anyone with them! Counting stripes, counting stars (all the way to 50!) was great fun. And rolling them back up, nice and tight was a new experience for many children.
Then last week, we talked about the early pioneers. I wore a raccoon skin hat and the Howdy Earl puppet shared stories about settling texas. Pioneers didn’t have restaurants or grocery stores and they to hunt for their own food. The also had to build their own homes and entertain themselves with music. I brought the dulcimer again and we sang Ol’ Susanna and The Bear went over the River ( making up new verses, imaging all the places a Bear might go). Some kids had ideas about the Bear going into caves, into homes, over the museum, and up to the moon! Imagination is a wonderful thing… :) We alas went on an imaginary Bear hunt, making sound effects along the way, and snapped a picture of the bear quickly before running back home!
On the video below, from 3:15 to 4:03, is some fun footage of a reenactment of early settlers entertaining themselves with music around a fire. There is a covered wagon in the background and someone is playing Ol’ Susanna on the violin. Might be an interesting thing to show your kids, to match an example with what we talked about in class:
I’m looking forward to the coming weeks and different hats to share. Up next: the Railroad Conductor hat.
Thank You for taking an interest in your child’s musical development.
Best,
Mister Bradley
P.S. I tried to find a good rendition of The Bear Went Over The Mountainto share, but most are a little too cheesy for my taste. I did find this which has a nice acoustic guitar in it.
The Weeks of June 16th and June 23rd.
Summer Time is here!
The kid’s have had the opportunity to strum my red Fender Stratocaster. And we also got to hear everyone sing hello into the microphone and amp. It’s always a strange thing to hear your own voice amplified or on a recording for the first time and I love to see the look in a child’s eyes when they bravely express themselves into the mic!
We also talked about The Blues and made up songs about things that are sad but we felt happy again when we got to turn them into music. (that’s my age-appropriate working definition of the Blues ;)
We also enjoyed demonstrations with the dulcimer and learned about the parts (head, neck, body, sound holes, frets, tuners) and children had the opportunity to take turns articulating the differences they saw between the acoustic guitar and the dulcimer. The guitar is a big “peanut” shape and the dulcimer is an “almond” shape. The dulcimer’s neck is right on top of the body but a guitars neck extends above and beyond the body, etc.
We also enjoyed using the dulcimer to accompany Ol’ Susanna, The Bear Went Over The Mountain, and Mary Had a Little Lamb.
Thanks for taking an interested in your child’s music education and, as always, thank you for choosing Opus One!
-Bradley
Mister Bradley in Houston!
Hey friends,
Laura and I have made the move to Houston! I’ll be working with an excellent business called “Opus One” which services numerous private pre-schools with a roster of very talented teaching artists. I’ve joined a team!
So, if you know of anyone in Houston that needs the perfect kids entertainment for a birthday party or family event, lemme know! If they mention the word “sunshine” they get a special discount.
I also have another phone number. It is 512-412-1117
MISTER BRADLEY'S MUSICAL JAM! 