A famous story that was turned into a highly successful Disney film.

part two of the little mermaid by hans christian anderson this librivox recording is in the public domain part two it was not long before one of the maidens came up to him at first she seemed quite frightened but only for a moment and then she fetched several others and the mermaids saw that the prince was coming to life and that he smiled at all those around him but he never smiled at her you see he did not know that she had saved him she felt so sad that when he was led away into the great building she died sorrowfully into the water and made her way home to her father's palace always silent and thoughtful she became more so now than ever her sisters often asked her what she had seen on her first visit to the surface but she never would tell them anything many an evening and many a morning she would rise to the place where she had left the prince she saw the fruit in the garden ripen and then gathered she saw the snow melt on the mountain tops but she never saw the prince so she always went home still sadder than before at home her only consolation was to sit in her little garden with her arms twined round the handsome marvel statue which reminded her of the prince it was all gloomy shade now as she had ceased to tend her flowers and the garden had become a neglected wilderness of long stalks and leaves entangled with the branches of the tree at last she could not bear it any longer so she told one of her sisters and from her it soon spread to the others but to no one else except to one or two other mermaids who only told their dearest friends one of these knew all about the prince she had also seen the festivities on the ship she knew where he came from and where his kingdom was situated come little sister said the other princesses and throwing their arms round each other's shoulders they rose from the water in a long line just in front of the prince's palace it was built of light yellow glistening stone with great marble staircases one of which led into the garden magnificent gilded cupolos rose above the roof and the spaces between the columns which encircled the building were filled with lifelike marble statues through the clear glass of the lofty windows you could see gorgeous halls adorned with costly silken hangings and the pictures on the walls were a sight worth seeing in the midst of the central hall a large fountain played throwing its jets of spray upwards to a glass dome in the roof through which the sunbeams lighted up the water and the beautiful plants which grew in the great basin she knew now where he lived and often used to go there in the evenings and by night over the water she swam much nearer the land than any of the others dared she even ventured right up to the narrow channel under the splendid marble terrace which threw a long shadow over the water she used to sit there looking at the young prince who thought he was quite alone in the clear moonlight she saw him many and evening sailing about in his beautiful boat with flags waving and music playing she used to peep through the green rushes and if the wind happened to catch her long silvery veil and anyone saw it they only thought it was a swan flapping its wings many a night she heard the fishermen who were fishing by torchlight talking over the good deeds of the young prince and she was happy to think that she had saved his life when he was drifting about on the waves half dead and she could not forget how closely his head had pressed her breast and how passionately she had kissed him but he knew nothing of all this and never saw her even in his dreams she became fonder and fonder of mankind and longed more and more to be able to live among them their world seemed so infinitely bigger than hers with their ships they could scour the ocean they could ascend the mountains high above the clouds and their wooded grass-grown lands extended further than her eye could reach...

A famous story that was turned into a highly successful Disney film.

part two of the little mermaid by hans christian anderson this librivox recording is in the public domain part two it was not long before one of the maidens came up to him at first she seemed quite frightened but only for a moment and then she fetched several others and the mermaids saw that the prince was coming to life and that he smiled at all those around him but he never smiled at her you see he did not know that she had saved him she felt so sad that when he was led away into the great building she died sorrowfully into the water and made her way home to her father's palace always silent and thoughtful she became more so now than ever her sisters often asked her what she had seen on her first visit to the surface but she never would tell them anything many an evening and many a morning she would rise to the place where she had left the prince she saw the fruit in the garden ripen and then gathered she saw the snow melt on the mountain tops but she never saw the prince so she always went home still sadder than before at home her only consolation was to sit in her little garden with her arms twined round the handsome marvel statue which reminded her of the prince it was all gloomy shade now as she had ceased to tend her flowers and the garden had become a neglected wilderness of long stalks and leaves entangled with the branches of the tree at last she could not bear it any longer so she told one of her sisters and from her it soon spread to the others but to no one else except to one or two other mermaids who only told their dearest friends one of these knew all about the prince she had also seen the festivities on the ship she knew where he came from and where his kingdom was situated come little sister said the other princesses and throwing their arms round each other's shoulders they rose from the water in a long line just in front of the prince's palace it was built of light yellow glistening stone with great marble staircases one of which led into the garden magnificent gilded cupolos rose above the roof and the spaces between the columns which encircled the building were filled with lifelike marble statues through the clear glass of the lofty windows you could see gorgeous halls adorned with costly silken hangings and the pictures on the walls were a sight worth seeing in the midst of the central hall a large fountain played throwing its jets of spray upwards to a glass dome in the roof through which the sunbeams lighted up the water and the beautiful plants which grew in the great basin she knew now where he lived and often used to go there in the evenings and by night over the water she swam much nearer the land than any of the others dared she even ventured right up to the narrow channel under the splendid marble terrace which threw a long shadow over the water she used to sit there looking at the young prince who thought he was quite alone in the clear moonlight she saw him many and evening sailing about in his beautiful boat with flags waving and music playing she used to peep through the green rushes and if the wind happened to catch her long silvery veil and anyone saw it they only thought it was a swan flapping its wings many a night she heard the fishermen who were fishing by torchlight talking over the good deeds of the young prince and she was happy to think that she had saved his life when he was drifting about on the waves half dead and she could not forget how closely his head had pressed her breast and how passionately she had kissed him but he knew nothing of all this and never saw her even in his dreams she became fonder and fonder of mankind and longed more and more to be able to live among them their world seemed so infinitely bigger than hers with their ships they could scour the ocean they could ascend the mountains high above the clouds and their wooded grass-grown lands extended further than her eye could reach...

Today we are featuring this little gem that you will know probably from Disney.
Here is the wonderful original in audio book form which is in the public domain and free to share, perform etc. I will pop the next episode up in a few hours....we are working on lots of music classes today so this is perfect for break time at the Performing Arts Free School.

Also, I have released some beautiful vintage children's nursery art to download from the merchandising centre.

part one of the little mermaid this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by phil shanover the little mermaid by hans christian anderson part one far out at sea the water is as blue as the bluest cornflower and as clear as the clearest crystal but it is very deep too deep for any cable to fathom and if many steeples were piled on the top of one another they would not reach from the bed of the sea to the surface of the water it is down there that the mermaid live now don't imagine that there are only bare white sands at the bottom oh no the most wonderful trees and plants grow there with such flexible stalks and leaves that at the slightest motion of the water they move just as if they were alive all the fish big and little glide among the branches just as up here birds glide through the air the palace of the merman king lies in the very deepest part its walls are of coral and the long pointed windows of the clearest amber but the roof is made of muscle shells which open and shut with the lapping of the water this has a lovely effect for there are gleaming pearls in every shell any one of which would be the pride of a queen's crown the merman king had been for many years a widower but his old mother kept house for him she was a clever woman but so proud of her noble birth that she wore twelve oysters on her tail while the other grandees were only allowed six otherwise she was worthy of all praise especially because she was so fond of the little mermaid princesses her grandchildren they were six beautiful children but the youngest was the prettiest of all her skin was as soft and delicate as a rose leaf her eyes as blue is the deepest sea but like all the others she had no feet and instead of legs she had a fish's tail all the live long day they used to play in the palace in the great halls where living flowers grew out of the walls when the great amber windows were thrown open the fish swam in just as the swallows fly into our rooms when we opened the windows but the fish swam right up to the little princesses ate out of their hands and allowed themselves to be petted outside the palace was a large garden with fiery red and deep blue trees the fruit of which shone like gold while the flowers glowed like fire on their ceaselessly waving stalks the ground was of the finest sand but it was of a blue phosphorescent tent everything was bathed in a wondrous blue light down there you might more readily have supposed yourself to be high up in the air with only the sky above and below you than that you were at the bottom of the ocean in a dead calm you could just catch a glimpse of the sun like a purple flower with streams of light radiating from its calyx each little princess had her own little plot of garden where she could dig and plant just as she liked one made her flower bed in the shape of a whale another thought it nice to have hers like a little mermaid but the youngest made hers quite round like the sun and she would only have flowers of a rosy hue like its beams she was a curious child quiet and thoughtful and while the other sisters decked out their gardens with all kinds of extraordinary objects which they got from rex she would have nothing beside the rosy flowers like the sun up above except a statue of a beautiful boy it was hewn out of the purest white marble and had gone to the bottom from some wreck by the statue she...

Today we are featuring this little gem that you will know probably from Disney.
Here is the wonderful original in audio book form which is in the public domain and free to share, perform etc. I will pop the next episode up in a few hours....we are working on lots of music classes today so this is perfect for break time at the Performing Arts Free School.

Also, I have released some beautiful vintage children's nursery art to download from the merchandising centre.

part one of the little mermaid this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by phil shanover the little mermaid by hans christian anderson part one far out at sea the water is as blue as the bluest cornflower and as clear as the clearest crystal but it is very deep too deep for any cable to fathom and if many steeples were piled on the top of one another they would not reach from the bed of the sea to the surface of the water it is down there that the mermaid live now don't imagine that there are only bare white sands at the bottom oh no the most wonderful trees and plants grow there with such flexible stalks and leaves that at the slightest motion of the water they move just as if they were alive all the fish big and little glide among the branches just as up here birds glide through the air the palace of the merman king lies in the very deepest part its walls are of coral and the long pointed windows of the clearest amber but the roof is made of muscle shells which open and shut with the lapping of the water this has a lovely effect for there are gleaming pearls in every shell any one of which would be the pride of a queen's crown the merman king had been for many years a widower but his old mother kept house for him she was a clever woman but so proud of her noble birth that she wore twelve oysters on her tail while the other grandees were only allowed six otherwise she was worthy of all praise especially because she was so fond of the little mermaid princesses her grandchildren they were six beautiful children but the youngest was the prettiest of all her skin was as soft and delicate as a rose leaf her eyes as blue is the deepest sea but like all the others she had no feet and instead of legs she had a fish's tail all the live long day they used to play in the palace in the great halls where living flowers grew out of the walls when the great amber windows were thrown open the fish swam in just as the swallows fly into our rooms when we opened the windows but the fish swam right up to the little princesses ate out of their hands and allowed themselves to be petted outside the palace was a large garden with fiery red and deep blue trees the fruit of which shone like gold while the flowers glowed like fire on their ceaselessly waving stalks the ground was of the finest sand but it was of a blue phosphorescent tent everything was bathed in a wondrous blue light down there you might more readily have supposed yourself to be high up in the air with only the sky above and below you than that you were at the bottom of the ocean in a dead calm you could just catch a glimpse of the sun like a purple flower with streams of light radiating from its calyx each little princess had her own little plot of garden where she could dig and plant just as she liked one made her flower bed in the shape of a whale another thought it nice to have hers like a little mermaid but the youngest made hers quite round like the sun and she would only have flowers of a rosy hue like its beams she was a curious child quiet and thoughtful and while the other sisters decked out their gardens with all kinds of extraordinary objects which they got from rex she would have nothing beside the rosy flowers like the sun up above except a statue of a beautiful boy it was hewn out of the purest white marble and had gone to the bottom from some wreck by the statue she...

First lesson of a series for young learners for ABRSM.

hi mini tail tellers welcome to bedford square blues by richard michael this is a lesson and we're going to this is the grade one piece by the way and it's by the uh for the abrsm uh examinations board and it's um it's cheerful and medium swing and i hope you've listened to the original recording um i'll pop some recordings up for us presently but you should really if you're doing the abrsm course you should really have that at your disposal and you can listen to it often i recommend listening to uh the bedford square blues every day if you're learning it at least twice okay and listen to it when you wake up in the morning when you're having breakfast you can listen to it at some time too now then what do we need to know well we're going to do the left hand today i'm going to play you a g7 chord that's what it sounds like let me play it as a chord there we go

now that's your g7 chord but if you look in this first bar we're not playing that f sharp so we're actually uh changing the sound a little let's find the g the bass g down here now if you can't reach the f natural which is there you you can miss it out that's why it's in bracket so you don't have to play it if your hands are too dinky okay but it really if you were playing a g7 chord you would need to play it because it's the seventh note but of course it's it's not the sharp ordinarily would play the sharp so let's play those two notes together if we can it sounds jazzy already really does doesn't it it's because it's quite often used in jazz repertoire now the next note i want you to keep your thumb and pinky there but lift obviously as you play the next two notes and now just move your thumb and play the c in the e now if your hands are very big you can actually play with three and two but the score suggests one and two so i think we'll follow that so we're going from g and f to c and d and then we're going back to g and f and back to c and d now that all seems very easy doesn't it but it's not i'll tell you why it's not because we're holding the first chord the g7 that g7 chord in the first bar for a count of four and then we're holding the c and e for a count of two and then the uh g and f again for two and then the c for one and a half and then we've got a quick a very quick uh g and f and then a rest and then a rather loud

and an accented d it's quite hard for you to hear it on my uh digital piano we've got a baby grand coming this afternoon uh so tomorrow's lessons are all going to be on a real piano proper baby ground so let's let's go back to the beginning and try and do some a little bit of counting if we can so you've got one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three and four okay it's tricky this is not going to be easy but i'll tell you what is easy when you put both hands together so when both hands are together it's actually much easier to keep it all going so hopefully that's laid the foundation of this first class tomorrow we're going to look at the right hand because the left hand in the next line is actually the same and if you look at the next line we're introducing one new new note so we'll have a little look at that okay but actually if you look through now you'll see that there's not too much to learn on the left hand until you get to the last line where we are going to be doing some shifting so actually this doesn't look as hard as one might have thought initially when one looked at it okay so come back tomorrow and nice and early and we'll do the right hand first line i'm going to pop up some versions of this on the podcast for you to listen to also so welcome to mini jazz and i'll be back later

First lesson of a series for young learners for ABRSM.

hi mini tail tellers welcome to bedford square blues by richard michael this is a lesson and we're going to this is the grade one piece by the way and it's by the uh for the abrsm uh examinations board and it's um it's cheerful and medium swing and i hope you've listened to the original recording um i'll pop some recordings up for us presently but you should really if you're doing the abrsm course you should really have that at your disposal and you can listen to it often i recommend listening to uh the bedford square blues every day if you're learning it at least twice okay and listen to it when you wake up in the morning when you're having breakfast you can listen to it at some time too now then what do we need to know well we're going to do the left hand today i'm going to play you a g7 chord that's what it sounds like let me play it as a chord there we go

now that's your g7 chord but if you look in this first bar we're not playing that f sharp so we're actually uh changing the sound a little let's find the g the bass g down here now if you can't reach the f natural which is there you you can miss it out that's why it's in bracket so you don't have to play it if your hands are too dinky okay but it really if you were playing a g7 chord you would need to play it because it's the seventh note but of course it's it's not the sharp ordinarily would play the sharp so let's play those two notes together if we can it sounds jazzy already really does doesn't it it's because it's quite often used in jazz repertoire now the next note i want you to keep your thumb and pinky there but lift obviously as you play the next two notes and now just move your thumb and play the c in the e now if your hands are very big you can actually play with three and two but the score suggests one and two so i think we'll follow that so we're going from g and f to c and d and then we're going back to g and f and back to c and d now that all seems very easy doesn't it but it's not i'll tell you why it's not because we're holding the first chord the g7 that g7 chord in the first bar for a count of four and then we're holding the c and e for a count of two and then the uh g and f again for two and then the c for one and a half and then we've got a quick a very quick uh g and f and then a rest and then a rather loud

and an accented d it's quite hard for you to hear it on my uh digital piano we've got a baby grand coming this afternoon uh so tomorrow's lessons are all going to be on a real piano proper baby ground so let's let's go back to the beginning and try and do some a little bit of counting if we can so you've got one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three and four okay it's tricky this is not going to be easy but i'll tell you what is easy when you put both hands together so when both hands are together it's actually much easier to keep it all going so hopefully that's laid the foundation of this first class tomorrow we're going to look at the right hand because the left hand in the next line is actually the same and if you look at the next line we're introducing one new new note so we'll have a little look at that okay but actually if you look through now you'll see that there's not too much to learn on the left hand until you get to the last line where we are going to be doing some shifting so actually this doesn't look as hard as one might have thought initially when one looked at it okay so come back tomorrow and nice and early and we'll do the right hand first line i'm going to pop up some versions of this on the podcast for you to listen to also so welcome to mini jazz and i'll be back later

Also available on my Baby Jazz podcast.

Also available on my Baby Jazz podcast.

hi Tale tellers welcome to our new book for piano for the suzuki method and we're going to skip right off with a scale exercise in c major i think we'll just do the right hand and we'll come back and do the left hand tomorrow i don't think anyone should do too much at one sitting i think we should do a little bit of theory and a lot of practice and good fun things but for today because we're starting a new book let's just start with the right hand and let's play it a few times so you're going to start on middle c

and then you're going to play d e and you're going to put your thumb under on the f right up to that top c and you're going to come back down again now look we've run out of fingers third finger over

let's do that again focusing on the fingering i'll call it out

one two three one two three four five four three two one over three two one now you try i'll do it slowly and see if you can join in

should we try it one more time

now it's very important that you hold the c's the thumb c and the pinky c for a count of two beats and that's because it's the keynote it's the name of the scale and it helps our ears understand the key that we should be playing in and we can really hear if we make a mistake so it's really important to do that it's important also that you practice your scales slowly they should never be rushed even when you get really good don't play them too fast we need to understand exactly what we're doing when we practice and that means slow practice is the best way to learn and to improve

well that's it for today i'll be back tomorrow with the left hand and oh yes some cello we're doing some suzuki cello in the music room today which is rather exciting bye

hi Tale tellers welcome to our new book for piano for the suzuki method and we're going to skip right off with a scale exercise in c major i think we'll just do the right hand and we'll come back and do the left hand tomorrow i don't think anyone should do too much at one sitting i think we should do a little bit of theory and a lot of practice and good fun things but for today because we're starting a new book let's just start with the right hand and let's play it a few times so you're going to start on middle c

and then you're going to play d e and you're going to put your thumb under on the f right up to that top c and you're going to come back down again now look we've run out of fingers third finger over

let's do that again focusing on the fingering i'll call it out

one two three one two three four five four three two one over three two one now you try i'll do it slowly and see if you can join in

should we try it one more time

now it's very important that you hold the c's the thumb c and the pinky c for a count of two beats and that's because it's the keynote it's the name of the scale and it helps our ears understand the key that we should be playing in and we can really hear if we make a mistake so it's really important to do that it's important also that you practice your scales slowly they should never be rushed even when you get really good don't play them too fast we need to understand exactly what we're doing when we practice and that means slow practice is the best way to learn and to improve

well that's it for today i'll be back tomorrow with the left hand and oh yes some cello we're doing some suzuki cello in the music room today which is rather exciting bye