These days, enthusiastic parents can sign their pre-schoolers up for classes in everything from French to cello. While encouraging your three year old to pluck away at an instrument may turn them into the next Yo-Yo Ma, studies have suggested that while musical education can have a positive effect on children’s development, the benefits only occur if it is an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
While other children’s performers tend to focus purely on entertainment, Lah-Lah’s Big Live Band mixes a lively and entertaining show with a robust musical education. Tina Harris is the musical educator best known as Lah-Lah, the stripy-socked, singing and dancing star of ABC KIDS TV show Lah-Lah’s Adventures. She told ArtsHub that the best place to begin a child’s musical education is by singing.
‘Sing, sing and then sing some more! With children in the preschool demographic and younger, singing is where it all starts,’ she said.
‘I always tell parents that singing with your child is one of the best things you can do. Next is percussion, whether that be simple body percussion or learning to tap, scrape and shake along with music. The best thing is these starting blocks are free and easy to do at home, in the car or at a concert!’
Harris is taking Lah-Lah on the road this year in a new live show touring nationally. Lah-Lah’s Having Fun tour will visit 50 venues across Australia and has been designed to be both interactive and educational. It features songs that have been cleverly written to include early childhood music concepts of high and low, loud and soft, and fast and slow.
‘There’s no backing tracks here; this is a live music show with a real band. Best of all, after every show, the whole band comes into the audience with their instruments and children are invited to touch and play the musical instruments,’ said Harris.
In conjunction with the national tour, Lah-Lah’s new CD Having Fun was released in April, featuring 19 original songs. Musically, the tracks span world music, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and a touch of classical, as well as a few Lah-Lah twists on some more traditional tunes.
‘Lah-Lah is all about introducing kids to music and musical instruments, so on stage we have five of Australia’s best musicians,’ said Harris. ‘Gary Daley who plays Squeezy Sneezy; Nic Cecire who plays Tom-Tom the drummer; Matt Ottignong who plays Mister Saxophone; Mark Harris who plays Buzz the Band Leader, and myself playing Lah-Lah.’ All the band members have years of experience as professional musicians and educators.
While visiting local childcare centres and kindergartens, Harris discovered that musical education opportunities for pre-schoolers were extremely varied. Some centres had few resources, while others were well resourced. Harris understands that musical education at a preschool level can lead to better outcomes later in life.
‘Music is the most important thing,’ she said. ‘Music is fun, it’s inclusive. Music stimulates the brain and helps with language development, it helps with spatial awareness and development, and it helps with emotional development.’
To make early childhood musical education accessible for everyone, Lah-Lah is launching the digital music program Lah-Lah’s Music Room later this year. Music Room was crowdfunded with the help of families and is designed to spread music into schools and childcare centre. For every program purchased by a parent, Lah-Lah will gift a program and accompanying teachers’ resources to the purchaser’s chosen school or childcare centre.
As an extension to this program, Harris and her husband Mark perform as a duo throughout the year in schools and daycares, working with children and educators on materials in the program. ‘Crawling around the floor with kids and singing and dancing is a very important way to see the educational materials we’ve created in action. It’s the best way to get teacher and student feedback and it’s a lot of fun,’ said Harris.
Tickets for the Lah-Lah Having Fun tour are on sale now. For complete tour and ticket information, visit www.lah-lah.com
