Montessori – Mark Galasso

Created deep down in Louisiana bayou country, these catchy children’s songs are imbued with Montessori Method. Delightfully fun, yet sophisticated songs built to last with ethical lyric themes woven into playful tapestries of ear candy enjoyed by adults and children.

Big Backyard was created by Mark Galasso during his tenure teaching music to pre-school children at Montessori Children’s House (Circa 1968), the oldest private Montessori School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The songs bloomed naturally from direct experiences working with the children in a joyful and productive environment. Having been affiliated with Montessori since childhood, the songs are imbued with educational and ethical principles of the Montessori Method. Many of them are quite short by design as they were written with pre-school aged children in mind. But, they are also sophisticated enough that adults will like them too.

Lyrically, the songs are infused with linguistic aspects that deal with rhyme, diction and verbal/melodic memory training. For example, in the up tempo song “Armadillo”, the lyric requires rapid enunciation and diction: “There’s a kitten with a mitten in my big backyard. The thing about a mitten is it won’t get far. It needs the right hand to be comfy all day, an armadillo’s mitten is his shell by the way.”

With consideration given to preserve the timeless nature of these special songs, the instrumentation on Big Backyard was performed with real instruments: Voice, acoustic guitar, brushes/drums, bass, chromatic & bass harmonica, Dobro, Trumpet, Trombone, Flute, Strings, Bassoon, Slide Whistle, Juice Harp and Percussion (Tambourine, Maracas, Shakers, Woodblock, Cowbell, Castanets, Hand Bells).

Big Backyard’s production and orchestration is manifest with cohesive and intricate parts woven into playful tapestries of ear candy for children.

Montessori students have performed all of these songs for music class and graduations for the past five years. It is safe to say the songs have been put to the test; they are a hit with children and parents alike.

The goal with “Big Backyard” was to create some new “standard” children’s songs that would endure the test of time and empower children through the liberating philosophical principals of Montessori.

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Lyrics for “Big Backyard” -Montessori Songs for Children

Songs/Tracks List