[birds chirping] [doorbell ringing] (children) ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Won't you be my friend?♪ ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Let's say it again.♪ ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Won't you be my friend?♪ ♪Hello!

Hello!♪ ♪Now you are my friend.♪ ♪♪♪ ♪H-E-L-L-O♪ ♪That's a word we all should know.♪ ♪H-E-L-L-O♪ ♪You can say it.♪ ♪Just say hello.♪ ♪♪♪ Hey!

There's Mr. Chuck!

Well, hello, friend!

Hello, Mr. Chuck!

Hello, friends.

Did you know you can make music with your body?

Sure you can.

Let me show you how.

All you need to do is clap your hands.

Sure.

Let me hear you clap.

Snap your fingers.

Try it.

And finally, tap your knee.

Can you do that?

Okay.

Here we go.

♪Can you clap?♪ ♪It takes two hands.♪ ♪Clap, clap, clap.♪ ♪Clap your hands.♪ [clapping] ♪Can you snap?♪ ♪It sounds like this.♪ ♪Snap, snap, snap.♪ ♪Snap like this.♪ [snapping] ♪Snap, snap, snap.♪ ♪Can you tap?♪ ♪Put your hands on your knees.♪ ♪Tap, tap, tap.♪ ♪Tap your knees.♪ [tapping] ♪Clap, snap, tap.♪ [applause] Clapping, snapping and tapping are three ways you can use your body to make music.

It's also three ways you can make rhythm.

Rhythm is when you repeat a series of sounds over and over again.

Like this.

Clap, clap, tap.

Clap, clap, tap.

Clap, clap, tap.

Clap, clap...what comes next?

Tap.

That's right.

When I go clap, clap, tap over and over again, I'm making rhythm and the pattern is clap, clap, tap.

Let's try a different one.

Snap, snap, clap.

Snap, snap, clap.

Snap, snap, clap.

Got it?

I'll bet you have.

Snap, snap, clap.

You try it.

Snap, snap, clap.

Snap, snap...what comes next?

Did you say clap?

You're right.

Good.

You've got rhythm, and rhythm is an important part of making music.

(female #1) What comes next?

Did you say X?

You're right.

[applause] You can make all kinds of musical instruments using things you may already have around the house.

Did you know that?

Sure.

You can make a guitar with a box and some rubber bands.

[strumming rubber bands] Or you can make a tambourine like this one.

[rattling tambourine] Let me show you.

Here's what you'll need.

A couple of paper plates, some dried beans or peas.

Oh, I'm using popcorn and that's not a bad sound is it?

Crepe paper streamers or ribbon... a stapler, some crayons.

And here's what you do.

First you decorate the backs of tw o plates.

See, I've used different shapes.

Circles, triangles and squares.

But you can decorate yours any way you'd like.

Then you put the plates together and staple around the edge.

♪♪♪ To start with you only want to staple half way around.

You may want an adult to help you with this one.

♪♪♪ There.

Now here is where you put the popcorn or whatever you're using.

♪♪♪ Small pebbles will work just as well.

Now we'll put in a few more staples.

♪♪♪ You want to make sure your staples are close enough together so your beans or popcorn or whatever you're using won't fall out through the sides.

♪♪♪ Now, I've left a slot here for the streamers.

I'll lay them in flat like this th en carefully staple the rest of the way around, making sure to get plenty of staples through the streamers to hold them in place.

♪♪♪ There.

Okay, my tambourine is finished.

Now I can shake it.

[tambourine rattling] What do you think?

Is this loud or soft?

[tambourine rattling] That sounds pretty loud to me.

[tambourine rattling] Yeah, that's loud alright.

So this must be soft.

[tambourine rattling] Loud.

[tambourine rattling] Soft.

[tambourine rattling] And it's fun to put some music on and shake your tambourine.

♪♪♪ Friends, that was fun.

Try it yourself sometime.

[drum roll] [applause] Have you ever heard this before?

Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the kind's men couldn't put Humpty together again.

How about this?

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider and sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away.

One thing that makes these little poems easy to remember is the way they rhyme.

Muffet, tuffet, spider, beside her.

Do you notice how the ends of the words sound alike?

Wall, fall, men, again.

Can you think of other words that rhyme?

Can you think of a word that rhymes with big?

How about pig.

Big pig.

The ends of these words sound alike.

They rhyme.

So by thinking about words that rhyme, you can make up your own poems.

(child) Hey there's a rhyme guy.

♪♪♪ (Rhyme Guy) Now let's see.

♪♪♪ Yeah, now that's the way it's supposed to be.

Make 'em rhyme every time.

Friends, did you know that not all stories come from a book?

For thousands of years stories have been told over and over and passed down from one generation to the next without ever being written down.

The story that we're about to hear is a story like that.

It's the story of Awongalima told by our friend Mrs. Isha.

This is a story of community, of sharing and what can happen when people forget the importance of these things.

Now let's hear the story of Awongalima.

I'm so glad to be able to share with you a story.

My story begins before you were born.

My story begins even before I was born.

This story starts when the earth was almost spank brand new and the animals could stand right up and talk like human beings.

And the human beings, oh they were full of compliments all the time just praising and pleasing one another.

There was plenty to eat and plenty to drink and lots of things to do and nobody was bored.

And you know what?

Sometimes on a Saturday those animals and human beings would get together and have the best time complimenting, planning, just doing things.

One day somebody said, "we should have a party."

Well party, yeah, great idea but we have to get permission and we have to get permission from the king.

So all of the animals went together to the king to ask permission and when they got there they [knock, knock, knock] knocked at the door and King Lion opened the door and said, "Hello, hello, hello."

"How are you."

What can I do for you?"

(as the animals) And They said, "we would like, King Lion, we'd very much like - we'd very much like, King Lion, to have a party next Saturday."

(as King Lion) "Party?"

(as the animals) "Party, party, party."

(as King Lion) "That's a stupendous idea.

I'm so glad you thought of it.

I think we should have a party Saturday."

But..." (as King Lion) "Not just a party for those of us here.

Oh no, no, no.

"We have to be more sharing, more loving more creative "than that.

"Let's have a party and invite all the people here but also "all the people from over on the other side of the mountain.

"Well, somebody must get ready and fix a banner "and someone must fix picnic tables and someone must "get the bar-b-q pits out and everyone get dressed up."

And before you know it people were arriving as early as Friday night to get everything in spic and span order and do you know what?

Early that Saturday morning the first one out and about was King Lion.

Oh my.

He had put on all his royal stuff you know and he had a pencil and paper and he was walking around counting and taking note of everything that had been prepared so well.

And he was counting his subjects and all of his friends from over on the other side of the mountain and he began counting and he said, "oh my, my, my, I see here "did you not get - did you not call - did you not send "a message, did someone not beat the drum?

"For Miss Queenie's not here.

"Oh this won't do.

This won't do.

"You know she's a very old lady and you know she's all alone "by herself there and Mr. Queenie, that's her husband, he's visiting another country.

"She'll feel terrible.

"Someone must go.

"Someone must fetch her.

Someone must have her come here with us."

Everyone was so polite, everyone was so willing, everyone wanted to be the one to go.

But when the earth was brand new and people were full of compliments, everyone gave privilege to one another and so the one who was chosen was the one who knew the way for he had been there before when he was just a little bitty bird learning to fly.

Sure, he knew his way because Miss Queenie had taught at the high school with his grandmother who had taught - I think grandmother taught woodshop and Miss Queenie, they say she taught - I think it was home economics.

Well, about that time the king said "go bird."

And off on the wing, bird flew without stopping to eat, to drink or to rest for he had to get Miss Queenie back to the party.

It was Saturday and everyone was waiting.

Children love to sing and listen to music and whether or not the child realizes it, singing creates a pleasurable experience.

You may have observed your little one making up his or her own words to a familiar tune or even an entirely new song altogether.

As a parent, you can do a lot to encourage your child's love of music.

Singing nursery rhymes, listening to music and playing instruments provide a springboard for beginning music education.

Our guest today on Parent's Corner is Pak Chung Cheng, a Suzuki violin instructor.

I'm very happy to be here.

What is the Suzuki method of learning music?

The Suzuki method is very much like learning to speak the mother tongue.

We notice that the Japanese kids speak Japanese.

American kids speak English and German kids speak German and so on.

Is it because they have a special talent in learning that particular language?

We know that's not true.

We know that it is the environment because that's what they hear all the time.

That's why they learn it so easily and we use the same approach to teach them music.

If we have the good violin music all the time at home, they'll pick up and learn the violin very easily and effortlessly.

So how old should a child be to learn the Suzuki method?

We emphasize early child development because we notice that if somebody - for example there's a three-year-old right here and there's a thirty- year-old right here and they start to learn a new language at the same time, who do you think will learn it better in two years or three years?

The answer is obvious.

So we want to teach them very early as soon as we notice that they have some basic coordination and skill.

Usually it's around three years old or four years old we're starting the Suzuki method.

Does that mean that any child can learn music using the Suzuki method?

Oh yes.

We believe everybody can learn to play a musical instrument because everybody has the ability to learn how to play that musical instrument.

But many people never have a chance to develop that ability so in the Suzuki method we want to develop that ability so that everybody can do it.

I'm sure many parents would like to know the answer to this one.

How can parents encourage children to practice in ways that make it fun and not drudgery?

That is a very good question.

We in the Suzuki method require the parents to come to the lesson so that they come to the lesson take notes and maybe bring a tape recorder so that when they go home they know exactly what to practice with their children because many times I think children when they start practicing on their own, they don't know what they're doing.

They don't know what to work for so we as a teacher, we let the parents know clearly what we want them to practice at home so that they have a very focused goal to practice and it makes it much much more interesting.

And they also feel like they can achieve that goal and then the child will feel oh, I have done something great.

So it makes it more enjoyable and also through the positive encouragement, like if the child is working very hard on one place, it is difficult and he is not doing perfectly yet, we encourage him.

Wow, that's doing pretty good.

But can you do a little better?

Put it that way.

The effort at practice is much better.

(Mr. Chuck) Li ke in most things that you're tr ying to teach children, the more and the closer the parent works with the child, the better the results.

Absolutely.

If we're not expecting our child to grow up to be a professional musician, why should I be interested as a parent in having my child learn to play music at all?

We don't particularly encourage students to become professional musicians.

But lots of Suzuki students do become professional musicians.

But what we believe is, like Dr. Suzuki says, if you can play beautiful music, you have to have a beautiful heart.

If you have a beautiful heart, if everybody has a beautiful heart, there's a whole world that's going to be beautiful.

Mr. Cheng, does that mean that learning to play a musical in strument can improve quality of life and help us in many other studies - math, or science, or whatever?

Yes.

Through learning a piece of music, we have to learn how to break it down into different parts.

For example, there's big problem but we break it down into small problems and we'll analyze what is the problem.

And so we find out, analyze what the problem is.

Also, we use our creative mind to figure out new ways to solve that problem.

So through this approach we learn how to deal with problems later on in our lives.

♪♪♪ We certainly appreciate your information.

Our guest today has been Mr. Pak Chung Cheng who is an instructor in violin using the Suzuki method.

♪♪♪ [tambourine rattling] Well, friends, we've had lots of fun with rhythm and rhyme.

We sang a song.

♪Can you clap?♪ ♪It takes two hands.♪ ♪Clap, clap, clap.♪ ♪Clap your hands.♪ [clapping] We made a tambourine and made music to it.

And we'll have lots more fun if you'll join me next time.

But right now we've got to go.

Until next time, keep the rhythm going and have fun doing it.

♪♪♪