Music guitar (Photo credit: @Doug88888)
In my first “5 Go To’s” post I shared blogs for intergenerational ideas, This post focuses on music resources.
Working with old, young and both together calls upon a wide variety of music. The diversity is great for me as it keeps me thinking. But, I do need help from time to time with music ideas. Here are my top 5 go to’s for music ideas.
1. Green Book of Songs: This is often a starting point when I am working on a theme for adults and wish to expand my list. It is well worth the low-cost membership to access this resource if you are a music therapist or an activity staff member working with older adults.
2. The Guitar Guy: This site helps speed me along in accompanying old classic tunes that older adults love. Plus the information on who recorded various songs adds a lot to our conversations.
3. King County Library has a nice L-O-N-G list of Fingerplays, Rhymes and Songs. There are so many children’s songs here. There is also a themes list.
4. The Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl is a family friendly podcast. It allows me to find some new songs and reminds me of golden oldies.
5. Spike’s Music Collection: This site has the music recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary which includes original works and many folk songs. For intergenerational groups, I often use a mix of music. Folk music is often user-friendly to this group.
Related articles
- Music Lasts a Lifetime (music2spark.com)
- Grandma Got a Drum (music2spark.com)
Another great artist for some extremely therapeutic music I found is Matthew C. Shuman. His piano music is very relaxing.
http://www.matthewcshuman.com
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/matthew-c.-shuman/id384778459
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B003XO036Q?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=digital-music&field-keywords=Matthew%20C.%20Shuman
It is always fun to learn about other artists, Chris. Is there a site you use to find a variety of artists/songs for relaxation?
Great post, JoAnn! I’ll have to check out The Guitar Guy. I love Green Book of Songs, too. Of course, my favorite helpful site these days is YouTube – someone can tell me a song they like, and I can almost always find a recording there. It makes learning the song well enough to sing it MUCH easier than tracking down sheet music through the public library.
It it easier to learn by listening. YouTube is a great resource.