One of the things I’m thinking of doing with my six year old nephew while he’s hear (hah — that was a typo, but appropriate!) is show him some YouTube videos of various genres of music (or that feature specific instruments) to give him an idea of the wide musical world out there, maybe get him interested in an instrument or genre.
Any good quintessential examples of either I should go out of my way to show him? Obviously, if there are lyrics, it should be age appropriate, and suggesting specific performances is OK.
Canadian Brass are fun to watch and listen to.
And here are the Raleigh Ringers doing the same song. (Start at :43, the rest is fluff.)
Or you could show him the Krono Quartet’s version of Purple Haze so that he learns that “classical music” doesn’t mean “stuffy music.”
Here’s a piece of music that’s kind of long (almost 10 minutes.) It’s a classical orchestra piece, but influenced by Latin American music. I think it’d be fun for a kid to listen to, and it shows all the different instruments of the orchestra.
So - what are “quintessential songs” for different genres?
Ideas:
Ramones - Rockaway Beach (better lyrics vs. Sedated)
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
Bob Marley - Stir it Up
Aretha Franklin - Respect
Bob Dylan - Blowin’ in the Wind
ZZ Top - LaGrange (the kid’s 6, he’ll never know it’s about a brothel and it freakin’ rocks as an example of boogie
Oh, and Louis Jordan - Saturday Night Fish Fry - if your nephew isn’t boogie-ing to this song, I will eat my hat. Also, Jordan’s classic Is You Is or Is you Ain’t My Baby has been featured in Tom n’ Jerry cartoons…
If you want to sneak in some classical music to the lad, buy or rent some of the Looney Toon collections. Carl Stalling was the musical director for them back in their best times, the Termite Terrace days.
