Spotlight on Ladybug Music, and a Tutorial on uploading MP3 files to your posts

Every Tuesday Maya and Finn groove, wiggle, shake, play, sing, and dance their little hearts out at Ladybug Music. Ladybug is hands-down the BEST music program around. All of the songs are either original or original remakes (if that makes sense) of many well-known classics. They are the hippest tunes out there—tunes even Mom can love! I caught Wes singing one of the songs while doing the dishes the other night. Every time we get into the car Wes starts looking for the ladybug CDs because the kids love them, and he doesn't want to throw them out the window (like so many other hard-to-stomach kid CDs out there). Every week the kids get to sing and dance along to live guitar music. They know all the songs, and act them out. They get get to play with instruments, play silks, and shakers. And the teachers are wonderful and really believe in what they are doing (in fact, my friend Beth is one of these talented ladies). It's a blast. If you live in the L.A. area, you have to check it out! You can find class information HERE.

And if you happen to live a little farther away, no worries! You can still get all of their great music, HERE. In their shop, you'll find links to CD Baby and iTunes (they are also available on Amazon). It's so easy to grab some fun tunes for summer! 

Have a listen to Two Little Blackbirds:

A little more about Ladybug:

"Ladybug Music offers a research based, mixed age (infant to 5 years) class that embraces and celebrates the rich, eclectic and diverse musical styles of our time and culture. Families are welcomed into a non-performance learning environment where everyone is able to experience their style of learning at their own pace with no expectations – just play!

In a fun and informal setting, we sing, play percussive instruments, dance, get silly, sing lullabies and so much more. Together using Ladybug’s original music collections we explore all spectrums of music including but not limited to sounds, words, pitch, tempo, melody, tone, meter, rhythm, dynamics, beat, movement and dance. Our mixed aged format allows older children to take on leadership roles, while younger ones can learn by example."

So shake things up with Ladybug! Your kids will thank you. :)

*****

Want to know how I uploaded that little song into this blog? I searched for a while to figure it out. But in the end it was SO simple. I just uploaded my MP3 file to the free MP3 hosting site, Kiwi6. When I  uploaded the file, I did a search for the song name on my computer until I saw the MP3 file. I clicked upload and it was all set! Then I clicked on their "Embed" option, and it gave me the code I needed to insert the song into my post. It's an awesome way to share just one song, instead of the larger playlist in the sidebar that is often a bit overwhelming for some people. And this player doesn't start on autoplay, which is also nice.

NOTE! The latest version of iTunes uses M4A files, which are not MP3s. I did quite a bit of research. And I did have to convert my file to an MP3. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Burn a CD of the song(s) you would like to convert to MP3. Eject the CD.
2. Go into your iTunes Preferences (found under "iTunes" in the menu).
3. Under "General" select "Import Settings"
4. Under Import Using, select "MP3 Encoder" from the drop-down list. Click OK, then OK.
5. Re-insert your CD and click Yes when it asks you to import the songs.

They will now be saved as MP3s in your iTunes Library. Your original M4A files will also be there. But now you can upload an MP3. Not everyone will have this issue. But if there is a special song or recording you want to share, this is a great way to do it! It took me about 15 minutes total. Not bad at all!