In a small sunlit room in a rowhome in East Falls, Bekki Schwartz and Noah Teachey, aka The Blumbellies, are working on their new album. Schwartz thought one of their tracks was a touch flat and needed some pep, so she pulls out a full-sized keyboard from a drawer in her desk and starts playing along as a vocal track of Schwartz flows from the speakers.

“What’s that sound? What’s that sound? Can you hear the world jammin' as it spins around?”  

She and Teachey, standing by, discuss what might be improved: more keyboard or soloing the guitar. All options are open at the moment. “I could add the amp. I'm very rock and roll,” laughs Schwartz.

While they are new to musical collaboration, they have been a couple for over nine years. This music-making project builds on what they love: helping children and their parents or caregivers learn about and appreciate music.

Schwartz is a public school music teacher who teaches mainly fifth grade at a New York Public School. She started working on family music classes for toddlers and their caregivers when she came up with the idea for The Blumbellies – a name provided by the story of a young Noah, who couldn't pronounce the word "blueberry" and called the fruit "blumbellies." And if you look closely at the cover art of their first album, “Midnight Dance,” it features a young Bekki.

This is where Teachey enters the project. A lapsed music teacher who is still passionate about music and education, he coaches rowing for a local organization. So, it was a natural fit for the couple to team up on an album that blends pedagogy and performance. They say it’s more fun than it sounds. Teaching and performing really do go together.

“You're performing to model for your students or share with your students whatever music you're sharing with them, right?” says Schwartz. “If you're in a pre-k music classroom, you're performing as a way of engaging students with sing-along-songs and movement songs.”

Their second EP, "Everybody Play," was released on Tuesday, March 4. Starring a bowl, a tennis ball, and the addition of the theremin, it will have the most fickle wanna-be musician digging through the cupboard in search of the perfect instrument. This follows their first album, “Midnight Dance”, which was released in early 2025 and featured three delightful dance-along songs.

“The music we're making as The Blumbellies is about, very specifically, singing or dancing, or playing along. So it's participatory,” says Teachey. “It's about removing that barrier between listening and actively participating, which I think is important for everyone enjoying music.”

At the end of 2024, Schwartz was booked to do an event at Rutabaga Toy Library and didn’t want to rely on the old standards of If You’re Happy and You Know It and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. She wanted something fresh – and thought there was a place for something original. 

So Schwartz set about writing new songs. “I was staying at my parents' house, and I wrote them, and then I came back, and I was like, I wrote these songs!”  But they wanted a third. “One of them we co-wrote using  a chord progression that I would never have thought to use.”

You quickly realize this is a higher-level conversation between two musicians. “It was more idiomatic for the bass,” added Teachey. 

“He wrote the bass part first. So we ended up with a progression that wouldn't have been my choice,” admits Schwartz. “But it ended up being the song I liked the best of those three.”

But where do you go after dance-along songs? Well, says Schwartz, “These are play-along songs. So now we're inviting the folks to pick up instruments and play along.”

This added a new layer of challenges for the collaborators to overcome. Schwartz says, “The challenge was to write lyrics and accompaniment in a way that makes you participate in the song using whatever instruments you might have sitting around at home.”

“A whisk, a ladle, an egg shaker,” adds Teachey.

“And a bowl,” adds Schwartz. 

The couple look at each other like they're about to let me in on a secret. “Noah loved the sound of this bowl. Which made me nervous because it's one of our nice bowls.” 

The bowl survived. “We mic'd a tennis ball bouncing. Noah was in that corner there, bouncing a tennis ball,” Schwartz points to a patch of hardwood floor. 

“And you'd be surprised at how kicky it sounds,” Teachey smiles proudly. 

Schwartz and Teachey have no plans to launch a Kids Lollapalooza. They want to stay local, and this is where they both think they can have the most impact. Schwartz sums up her musical philosophy like this.“If I'm teaching a toddler class or if I'm teaching a pre-k class, there's this phenomenon that I experience where if I'm leading them in a song, like, I just feel like I have this, direct access line from my heart to their heart. That's what I think music is: just my heart talking to your heart. This is an avenue for human connection; whether or not this kid grows up and wants to become a professional musician, sharing is essential. I want to equip students with the skills and knowledge to function independently as musicians as quickly as possible.”

The Blumbellies seem to be here to stay.