Sharing is caring!
As you may have guessed, All Together Singing is all about how to become a musical family. And the Nield Sisters, although musicians themselves, are very down to earth when they say you don’t have to have any musical experience at all to appreciate music as a family.
The book begins with a foreword by children’s music icon, Dan Zanes, and I was immediately drawn into the transformative power of music. In Zanes’ own words:
When we play music with each other and for each other the world begins to look like a different place. Petty cares and fears fall away. Priorities become shaken and realigned, jokes become funnier and there are more of them, food tastes better and more people are willing to help clean up, differences fade away and similarities appear in unexpected ways, and we begin to experience a new sense of life’s best possibilities–musically, socially, creatively, and spiritually. Music remains the best deal in town.
Who couldn’t use a little more music in their lives?
The Nield Sisters start the book off with simple tips on finding your own singing voice, keeping beat on small percussion instruments, and move all the way through dancing, playing musical games, writing your own family songs, and also include different methods of musical education, learning to play instruments, and creating your own musical family traditions.
One of my favorite chapters is Everyday Songs. In it, Nerissa and Katryna talk about how they grew up with and used music to get through everyday tasks and emotions, from bath time, to clean-up time, to cheering-up songs and how to choose the perfect lullaby for you and your baby (you’re the one who’ll be singing it ten thousand times, after all!).
Sprinkled throughout the book are songs (both classic folk and originals) and personal stories of their own childhood and experience in creating music with their children. Katryna and Nerissa are musical mothers, and as such, know just how to inspire parents to make music themselves in the midst of diapers and dishes, as well as how to help you bring out the music that’s just waiting to bubble up out of your own little ones.
The book has not only inspired us to create our own musical renditions of songs like Do You Know the Muffin Man? and Row, Row, Row Your Boat (Skyler came up with Do You Know the Cyclops Mama? just this afternoon), but it’s also encouraged me to pick up the guitar and try a little music-making myself. I briefly attempted to play the guitar during high school, but never felt as motivated as I do now. The kids love hearing me play (no matter how terrible the player or simple the song), and it’s been great to practice with my son who’s also learning, and even enjoy a late-night “jam session” with my hubby.
This book will be a long-time inspiration in creating our own family music, and to make it even better, it includes a CD in the back with 30 songs all talked about in the book. You can listen to all the songs
here, or purchase your own copy of the book and CD at
Roost Books or on
Amazon. There is also a wonderful
interview with Nerissa and Katryna on the Shambhala website (Shambhala is the publishing house that oversees Roost Books).
A big thanks to Roost Books for their generosity and such an inspiring book!
Two lucky Maker Mama readers will each receive a copy of All Together Singing in the Kitchen!
How to Enter:
Leave a comment telling me how you share music with your family.
Extra Entries: (You must complete the first entry before the extras, and leave a separate comment for each entry.)
- Preview the book on the Roost website and tell me which chapter you’d most like to read.
- Follow Maker Mama publicly through Google Friend Connect (leave a comment if you already follow).
- Leave a comment for following Maker Mama on Facebook.
- Share this post on your Facebook page and leave the link.
- Follow @makermama on Twitter and tweet this giveaway, leaving a link to your tweet in the comments.
The giveaway is open worldwide, and only one winner per household. You must complete the first entry in order to enter (“I want to win comments” will not be considered). And be sure to include your email in the comments if it’s not on your profile.
Comments will be open until Friday, January 13 at 11:59pm. The winners will be chosen randomly and announced on Saturday. If I don’t hear back from the winners within 72 hours I’ll choose another.
Good luck!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for review purposes.
All text and book images
“Excerpted from ALL TOGETHER SINGING IN THE KITCHEN by Nerissa Nields and Katryna Nields, (c) 2011. Published by arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.
http://www.roostbooks.com.”
