The Tuneables – I Love Music! 2-Disc Set (Review)

Meet The Tuneables, three friends who love to teach music to kids! In The Tuneables – I Love Music!, a 2-Disk CD/DVD set for ages 3 to 8, kids learn the “ABCs” of music learning – tonal and rhythmic patterns in music, developing their singing voice, a basic repertoire of music, and listening skills. Sponsored by The Music Intelligence Project, The Tuneables is the most comprehensive program on the market that teaches the fundamentals of music to children.

Okay, so now that you know what it is, why should you buy it? Because the characters are appealing to kids, the music is great, it’s a terrific value for what you get, and it’s fun!  The Tuneables: I Love Music! includes a 30 minute DVD, “Annie & Max and the Music Box”, an animated tale of two young kids arriving at the local music shop for their first music lesson. They see an unusual Music Box, Max reaches out to touch it, and suddenly the box springs open, the room transforms, and Annie and Max are in the magical world of Tuneville!

There, they meet Clara the clarinet, Pete the trumpet, Sunny the cymbal, Snare the drum, Gloria the piano, and Mo the violin. Along with some other special friends, this band of Tuneables help guide Annie and Max through their first music lesson!  Watching this DVD teaches children how to move to the beat in music, hear and sing tonal patterns in songs using three notes, expand the range of their singing voices, and learn the sounds and melodies of classical music.

The CD, which runs 30 minutes, sounds just like what I remember from elementary school music classes. For example the second song, “Patting the Beat”, reminds me of kids sitting cross-legged in a circle, patting their legs along with the teacher.

The 18 songs on the included CD might be designed to teach music fundamentals, but most of them are also fun to listen and sing along to! “Go, Giddy-Up, Go”  and Tuneville March will have your kids galloping and marching around the room, everyone can sing along to “ABC Medley”, and classical music fans will enjoy hearing “Eine Kleine Nacht Musik” and “Surprise Symphony”.

Visit The Tuneables Music Shop to purchase the 2-Disc set for $29.99, the I Love Music! CD by itself for $14.99, a teacher’s edition, a t-shirt, and more.  It’s sure to be a hit as a gift as well!

 

 

 

Melissa Etheridge ‘Fearless Love’ CD Review

I’ve been a fan of Melissa Etheridge’s music for a long time, so I was thrilled to get a chance to review her newest CD Fearless Love. Etheridge has gone back to her rocker roots with this one, and I can honestly say I not only enjoy every single track, but it’s one of thos CDs that I enjoy listening to from beginning to end.

The 12 tracks on Fearless Love are all available as MP3 downloads on Amazon.com. The tracks are:

1. Fearless Love
2. The Wanting of You
3. Company
4. Miss California
5. Drag Me Away
6. Indiana
7. Nervous
8. Heaven on Earth
9. We Are The Ones
10. Only Love
11. To Be Loved
12. Gently We Row

Watch the video for ‘Fearless Love’ here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid50902182001?bclid=0&bctid=65963943001

My favorites are ‘Fearless Love’ and ‘We Are The Ones’; the latter is destined to become one of those stadium sing-alongs on Etheridge’s next concert tour. I checked her Fearless Love Summer 2010 tour schedule and she’s making one stop in Michigan and it’s already sold out! bummer :(

Want more Melissa Etheridge? You can find her on Facebook and MySpace and on her personal website and record company website:

http://www.melissaetheridge.com

http://www.islanddefjam.com/fearlesslove

http://www.facebook.com/MelissaEtheridge

http://www.myspace.com/melissaetheridge

disclosure: I received the CD for review, all opinions are my own.

The Essential Carole King CD Set

The Essential Carole King CD Set is now available from Ode/Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.  If you were a kid in the 70s  like I was, the music of Carole King is ingrained in your childhood memories. Carole King’s album “Tapestry” was released in 1971 and quickly became a cornerstone of ’70s pop, an industry phenomenon, and introduced us to songs we’ve heard over and over again ever since- “It’s Too Late”, “I Feel the Earth Move,” “So Far Away”,“Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got A Friend”.

At the 14th annual Grammy Awards ceremonies in March 1972, Carole King became the first woman to win the “grand slam” – Record Of the Year (“It’s Too Late”), Album Of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal (both for Tapestry), and Song Of the Year (James Taylor’s version of “You’ve Got a Friend,” for which he won Best Male Pop Vocal). She held that record until 1995 when Alanis Morrisette became the second woman to win all of those honors in one year.

When asked to comment about the impact of Tapestry, Carole King said, “I feel honored that Tapestry has made a difference in small ways and large ways in people’s lives around the world. It’s been a major part of my life, too,” she adds. “As a songwriter, I’m so happy that the songs have held up for all of these years. As a performer, I’m still enjoying playing them live, most recently on my Living Room Tour.”

What many people, even Carole King fans, might not know is that in addition to writing her own music, King wrote some of the most famous pop songs on the charts, like Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” and The Chiffons’ “One Fine Day”.  Disc One of The Essential Carole King is King singing her own songs, and Disc Two is some of the songs King wrote for others.  I’m trying to educate my kids on these classic songs that have been part of American culture for so long!

You can learn more about Carole King and what she’s doing now (including her Reunion Tour with James Taylor!) on her personal website http://www.caroleking.com and on her Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/CaroleKing. And if you’ve ever heard your Mom listening to Carole King songs, buy her The Essential Carole King CD Set for Mother’s Day. She’ll love it!

DISC ONE/THE SINGER
1. It Might As Well Rain Until September
2. Child Of Mine
3. I Feel The Earth
4. So Far Away
5. It’s Too Late
6. You’ve Got A Friend
7. Sweet Seasons
8. Been To Canaan
9. Corazón
10. Jazzman
11. Nightingale
12. Only Love Is Real
13. Medley w/James Taylor: Will You Love Tomorrow/Some Kind Of Wonderful/Up On The Roof
14. Really Rosie
15. Pierre
16. You Can Do Anything w/Babyface
17. The Reason w/Celine Dion
18. Now And Forever

DISC TWO/THE SONGWRITER
1. Will You Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles
2. Take Good Care Of My Baby – Bobby Vee
3. Every Breath I Take – Gene Pitney
4. Crying In the Rain – Everly Brothers
5. The Loco-Motion – Little Eva
6. Up On the Roof – The Drifters
7. Chains – The Cookies
8. One Fine Day – The Chiffons
9. Oh No Not My Baby – Maxine Brown
10. Just Once In My Life – The Righteous Brothers
11. Pleasant Valley Sunday – The Monkees
12. (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman – Aretha Franklin
13. No Easy Way Down – Dusty Springfield
14. Wasn’t Born To Follow – The Byrds
15. Hey Girl – Billy Joel