Yo, Yo-yo Ma, Ma Man!

We use YouTube to expose the grandbabies to different kinds of music. It all started when we were reading The Hungry Caterpillar to Augie five times in a row every day. (Us: "The end." Augie: "Again?") At some point we livened up the list of Saturday foods (pictured) by asking "Do You Want a Pickle" and singing Arlo Guthrie's old Motorcycle Song. And then the Chordettes' Lollipop. As you can see, they are relevant to the story.

It snowballed from there. Via YouTube, we've watched opera, jazz, rock, endless productions of kids' songs ranging from inane to wonderful, and, of course, tons of Sesame Street. We limit our viewing to 30 minutes or less, and we always try to talk about what we're seeing and hearing. It's as delightful for Pa and me as for the children here at Wild Rumpus Daycare for Grandkids Only.

This week we discovered a whole set of Yo-Yo Ma appearances. This one is a particular favorite. The man can make his mellow cello sound a whole lot like a saxophone playing the blues...surely one of the greatest sounds in the world. And today we found this version of Mockingbird with Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, and a couple of others. That leads to a whole set of fabulous McFerrin performances. There are a couple that I'd heard often on public radio, but it's so much more powerful to see him making his one-man-orchestra sounds. Look up his Wizard of Oz, for example. I'm not embedding any more links; you're on your own. What a great time to be alive.