Looking for a tune that will stay in your head all day long?
Feeling a little blah and looking for some Lah (Lah)?
Staring down the barrel of some looooonggg April holidays (and then the dreaded winter break) and wildly googling for activities for the kids?
Sick of concerts where you are trying to keep the kids still, quiet and well behaved (and mummy is in meltdown by the time she makes it home)?
Well; I may have just found the answer for you.
I have had the absolute pleasure recently of chatting to another Sydney Mum, Tina (aka Lah-Lah). She is an all singing, all dancing, stage performer, musician, TV star and mummy to her two gorgeous daughters.
AND she is heading on TOUR!!!
See dates and places here.
TIME WITH TINA : Lah-Lah’s Big Noise Band
Who is Tina when she is not Lah-Lah? (tell us a little about yourself and your lovely family)
Well; I have 2 beautiful girls who are getting to the user friendly, but big and smelly age. I know it’s a cliché but they really do grow up too quickly. Lily is 13 and Emily is 11. I’m married to Buzz the Band Leader in real life and we have a dog, Bindi, and a cat Tasha. So I’m a mum who tries to juggle a very full on work life and a family.
How did Lah-Lah originate?
It all started 9 years ago. I had opened a music class after working with the Opera company for many years. The class turned into a school and the school into 4! It was all so crazy but I just loved working with kids and families in general. At the end of every term, Mark would come into class with the double bass (who we actually called Lola back then) and we’d do a little concert. It was the families who said, “hey you guys are great you should do a show” and off we went, recorded a CD with our friends and self-produced the first Lah-Lah show.
As a mum, how do you keep it all together? Juggling tours, TV, rehearsals, family time and Tina time? (& all the rest?)
Keep it together? Are you kidding! I feel like I’m totally out of control all the time. I think Mark and I are a good team. I’m big picture and he’s Mr Detail. We tend to share most tasks except the shopping. I always get Woollies. The girls are great and are now at an age where they help around the house folding washing and tidying up. When we tour, the kids come on the road with us, so for now that is kind of balanced, but as they get older I know it will get trickier.
The one thing I do for me that keeps me sane is I meditate every morning for 20 minutes. That’s my ‘me’ time.
Share a secret…what are your best (or worst) Mummy Muckups?
Ok so I hate making school lunch. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just that every morning is so crazy. I’m always trying to find something healthy to put in their lunch box but I often give up. Mark is worse than me. He puts lollies in sometimes…. grrrrr
Do you wear stripes when not ‘working’? Do you all sing and dance around the lounge room? Are your own children musical?
Yes. Stripy socks are long and great under boots. There is a lot of singing at home. Both kids are musical but we don’t force it. Lily plays piano and Emily violin. They both get lessons outside of school and it’s just part of their education. When they whinge about practice the argument is, Music is the same as Math, English and science, it’s just part of your schooling.
Why are you so passionate about sharing music with kids? How are your shows ‘different’?
Lah-Lah is all about introducing kids to music and musical instruments. There has been so much research now on how beneficial music is for kids. I am constantly baffled at how little musical education there is in our schools and I’m not just talking about big schools, the little ones too. Every Preschool should have access to music, singing and dancing and not all do. When you take that one step further, every kindy and infants kid should be able to get their hands on a musical instrument. We should be encouraging kids to sing and learn rhythm. Amazing research has been done into the connections between steady beat and reading. For example, there is a really interesting study that discovered the connection between being able to tap a steady beat and being ready to learn to read.
At our concerts, we write educational values into our songs. For example, our very popular, “Brush your teeth” song is fast and slow and features stop and go. We also go out into the audience with our instruments after every show so the children can touch and play the instruments. Making that musical instrument connection is one of the most important things Lah-Lah does.
What is the best live show you’ve ever been to and why?
Oh that question is too hard. All the shows are the best! One of my career highlights was late last year when Mark and I got to perform 5 shows with The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. We did look at each other back stage and go, “Wow! That was super cool!”
What song (song title by any performer) best sums up who Lah-Lah is?
You know, I don’t know. I’d like to open that up to your audience. What song title do you think best describes Lah-Lah?
Mmmmm….what do you all think?
A huge thank you to Tina for sharing her life with us, and if you haven’t already checked out her shows, click below.
…and pop over to my Insta page and enter the competition to WIN tickets to any show in her Australian Tour for 2017!!! Ends THURSDAY (March 30th), so hurry up!!!
Mummy Muckups : Lah-Lah Instagram Competition
Picture credit to @lahlahsbigliveband (Instagram)
