‘BRASHES’ was where it was at…
I remember the first time I went to go pick up something from a music store. The 80s had Brashes, 90s Sanity and 00s JB-HI FI or now it’s mostly streamed. But in the pursuit of going a little more analogue these days, I’m recalling that first visit to eBrashes with my Dad to pick out the newly released CD player! Whatta concept!!!
My older brother knew lots of artists and songs and so had an idea of what he thought would be good to have and my Dad said to me (because the whole trip was mega expensive) if I could sing the whole album of Peter Coombs Toffee Apple I could purchase it with our brand new CD player that day.
In the isles of the store, I stood CD in hand looking at the back list of tracks. And literally sung made up versions of ALL the songs. To this day, I don’t know that he knew I’d made them all up - I was confident and sure of myself. And really the only one I actually knew was Toffee Apple. LOL.
Either way, I went home with that CD and played it a lot in my childhood. I would’ve been about 7 or 8 and it started for me hearing tracks and making up songs of my own on the classic little casio mini keyboard.
Music was such a HUGE part of our childhood - whether it was records at Grandma’s house, singing in the kitchen or along with the CD player in the background - there was always music around us. It’s why I foster the love of music with my own kids, and my students.
Music plays a critical role in forming memories and emotions and creative expression. We often can sing the lyrics we can’t speak and being the emotional centre - it’s a great place to start releasing whatever we have pushed down in a moment - or over many years!
A few of my high school students have songwriting assessments and we are having fun creating lyrics, brain storming concepts and beautifully surprising themselves with the ability to produce a chorus and building the song from there.
It’s why I love working with kids of all ages and stages, equipping them with the life skills singing brings of expression, confidence, rising above doubts and your body showing up for you.
Last week we had Craft & Karaoke, it’s the perfect pathway for grades 6 - 8 to create with a tangible artform and have the tracks on in the background. Amongst all the chatting, songs wove in and out of their creativity. It’s definitely something I adore creating space for. So if you’re keen to explore song writing, creative expression or you just want to get more confident at singing - let’s explore this together.
