About
“Children’s Music With A Purpose” is how I describe the musical learning and growth content I create. Here’s what that means to me:
Pleasing song structure that captures both children’s AND adult’s attention.
– I take writing music very seriously. I write every one of my songs and perform all of the instruments and backing vocals. I want my music to spark a child’s interest right from the first notes. My songs are not familiar/recycled tunes with variations on the lyrics. While I don’t see anything wrong with songs like that, I do feel that exposing children to varying melodies, rhythms, percussion, sound effects and tempos paves new pathways in children’s developing minds, promoting flexiblility of thought. I also want adults to enjoy my music because If they like my style, they’ll enjoy listening to my songs along with children…and that’s a win-win for everyone!
Easy-to-remember song structure that promotes learning.
–Quite a few of my songs are built on a pattern known as “zipper songs”. This is a song that introduces one piece of information at a time, then backtracks to repeat previous verses’ information. This develops memory skills, problem-solving skills, anticipation skills and prediction/interpretation skills while promoting independent and creative thought. (Eg: “I Wrote This Song”, “Hello, Hello”, “Animal Farm”, “Horses”)
Lyrics that are meaningful, memorable and helpful in navigating childhood/child rearing.
We often hear “Parenthood doesn’t come with a manual”. Well…Childhood doesn’t, either, and children often find it helpful to have a meaningful reference point like a song’s lyrics when it comes to understanding socialization, expressive/receptive language, self-worth, patience, resilience and perseverance (just to name a few concepts young children are learning about). Challenging childhood experiences can be made a little easier with a song’s familiar lyrics about hard feelings, making mistakes, feeling frustrated about being little and even processing grief, and I have songs about these and other “real life” topics, like “Hard Feelings”, “It’s A Mistake”, “I Know I’ll Grow” and “You’re With Me”.
Music as a memory tool.
Learning a song or a poem that helps us memorize specific information in childhood is pretty much guaranteed to stick with a child throughout their lives. Think back to your childhood – which tunes helped you memorize the alphabet, the days of the week, the months of the year or even your phone number? A song always makes it easier to remember things like the names of the planets (“Planets, Planets”), the continents and oceans (“The 7 Continents, 5 Oceans”), the provinces and territories in Canada (“The Canada Song”) and the vowels (“The Vowels”), just to name a few of mine.
Songs that reinforce bonds and remind children of your connection.
Hearing a song that reminds you of a special person in your life and the feelings you have had for them is one of the greatest gifts of being alive, in my opinion. This is truly my overall purpose in my life’s work – beyond the learning, beyond the memorization of information – if my work is to be remembered for one thing only – I want it to be that it creates meaningful moments and feelings that stay with you forever. I hope my songs like “Wonderful You”, “I Feel Happy”, “Butterfly”, “We’ve Had A Lot Of Fun” and others will find their way into your hearts and make for happy childhood soundtracks for you and the little ones in your world!
“Every child has a song inside. Its up to us to turn up the volume.”
Nancy’s music has been featured on children’s TV and radio programs, in-flight family entertainment, digital interactive educational platforms and podcasts. Her work has been referenced in educational textbooks, parent and teachers guides, developmental psychology articles and various other online educational resources.
