Thursday, November 11, 2010

Accidental Fun with Classical Music

"Why must Reese listen to classical music in order to stimulate his brain power? Why can't he listen to Rock music? " said Daddy

My dear hubby is a perfectionist when it comes to music. He thinks all music can stimulate the brain. He loves rock music, emo music and some other kinds but not classical. He exposed Reese to HIS kind of music only.

As for me... I am very much the DBKL of music. I listen to all kinds of music. And classical music is proven to stimulate the brain according to research! So every now and then I will try to put some classical music for Reese to listen. What do you know? He is interested and even recognized a few composer's master pieces by listening to them.

Just last weekend, while relaxing in the play room, I played some classical music and Reese asked me about Bach and Mozart.... Asking why they are dead and why they composed music and bla...bla..bla... I got tired of it and while thinking of a way to distract him... I begin to imagine buildings collapsing following the music, then people begin to rebuild the buildings narrating my make-up story with lots of expression putting emphasis on using the music as part of my story telling tool and the rest was history! We had a great time imagining things according to the rhythm and tune of the classical music... it was really fun. We were climbing up and down the sofa, a little bit of dancing and lots of hands movement with exaggerated facial expression. Reese was having alot of fun and started to tell his own story!At the moment our imagination is confined to destruction of buildings and rebuilding them, people became sad and then happy, mouse/person being chased, plants, flower and fungi growing. Need to work on my imagination... As you can see... it's quite limited! Today we had another great session in the car imagining things while listening to the music.

Reese likes and knows the composer of the following pieces:

1787 Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st movement- Mozart (We pretended

1709 Toccata in D minor - Bach

Water Music, Suite No. 2 in D - Handel

1808 Symphony No. 5, 1st movement - Beethoven

Hallelujah (from Messiah) - Handel

I need to gather more information about these composers suitable for a 4 year old to know. So far, Reese only knew they are all dead! :)

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