"Pawpaw Patch," from this semester's Tambourine song collection, ends with Susie and her friends joyfully picking pawpaws together.  

Have YOU ever had this green-skinned, mango-like tropical fruit? The pawpaw is indigenous to twenty-six US states, extending from northern Florida to southern Ohio and as far west as eastern Nebraska. Surprised that a tropical fruit grows in so many parts of the United States? Pawpaw trees are the only tropical fruit trees that grow in temperate forests.

Though never commercially produced, the pawpaw has quite a tie to American history. Thomas Jefferson had them at Monticello, and Lewis and Clark snacked on them on their early nineteenth-century expeditions. The next time you are at the farmers' market, check to see if you can find one!  

• In this 2011 NPR piece, learn more about "America's forgotten fruit."
• Kentucky State University has a page devoted to pawpaws. Check out their Facebook Page for lots of photos.

Many Music Together families enjoy the convenience of converting their Music Together CDs to MP3s or iTunes files. We want you to be able to listen to the music in whatever ways works for you. As the owner of a song collection CD, you are entitled to make copies, digital or otherwise, for your own personal use. So if you want to play music files on your iPod, phone, tablet, laptop, or WiFi TV . . . go for it!  

We're making a music video for "One Little Owl,"---and your family can be part of it! All you have to do is film yourselves singing the song and submit it to us at: www.MusicTogether.com/OneLittleOwl.   

Everyone who uploads a video will have the chance to win prizes, including the grand prize: a gift certificate for a free semester of Music Together, a DonorsChoose.org gift card, and a gift for their Music Together teacher. Other lucky families will win copies of our Singalong Storybooks and instruments from our online store. Good luck and have fun!

The final music video will use as many clips as

by Kate Battenfeld

When Rachel Howe began classes at Willamette River Music Together near Portland, Oregon, in the spring of 2007 with one-year-old Marisa, she was apprehensive. She felt self-conscious: she didn't think she was a good singer and she wondered whether the other moms and dads would judge her. And dancing with scarves? Uh-oh!

Rachel Howe and her two children in class with "Teacher Craig"

Despite Rachel's hesitancy, she decided to "hang in there" for Marisa's sake. After all, her daughter was having fun, so why not? Little did Rachel know that her connection to Music Together would become an integral part of her life with Marisa, and also with her daughter Eva, now age five. In fact, Rachel's experience with Music Together affected her so deeply and so personally that she sat down and crafted a letter for her teacher, Craig Van Ness, prior to the start of the current spring semester---her last classes with Eva, after six years in the program.

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  PRINT ARTICLE (PDF)  

Did you know the chant "Hippity, Happity, Hoppity" was inspired by the  Dave Brubeck jazz standard, "Blue Rondo a la Turk"? Brubeck composed his piece after hearing the rhythm performed by Turkish street musicians and learning that the 9/8 meter---which was unusual to him---was part of the Turkish music tradition.

While western music tends to group either two or three beats together, creating what we call either duple meter (like a march) or triple meter (like a waltz), combining groups of different numbers of beats to form asymmetrical meters is common in the music of many other cultures.

In "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and "Hippity, Happity, Hoppity," the combination of groups of two and three beats together in one phrase gives the song a wonderful sense of drive.

Listen to "Blue Rondo a la Turk" in the video below---and then get out your CD and listen to "Hippity, Happity, Hoppity." Can you and your children hear the similarities?