Loving Music

Two failures

2010-07-19T19:02:00.004-06:00

We don't often dislike music we pick out since we do eliminate left and right at the library before we even walk out. However, we bombed on these two albums.

Songs from the Neighborhood: The Music of Mister Rogers

We haven't seen the show (since we don't watch television) but from all I've heard it's very low-key. Mister Rogers even spoke at my college graduation -- he seemed well-loved by my fellow graduating students!

But this album was so not for us. Perhaps it was the interpretation of the songs that didn't sit right. But we were bummed and only listened once.

Awful. I've seen the name of Dan Zanes around in the music area so we finally thought we'd try one. All the songs merged into one mish-mash. This is one of the few albums that we couldn't even bring ourselves to listen all the way through.

Isn't it funny how our tastes can be so different? I know he has a number of albums so is obviously enjoyed by many other families.

In the meantime, Tiger is listening to The Moody Blues and is moving further and further away from children's music! (Alas and woe. They grow up too quickly.)

Splish Splash review

2010-06-21T20:16:00.002-06:00

Splish Splash: Bath Time Fun

Yes, another Sesame Street album. The boys are on a roll, apparently. This one was loads of fun even if a bit repetitive. All the songs involve getting clean, taking a bath, brushing your teeth, etc. They were all upbeat, cheerful songs.

We really really disliked the fifth song on the album, "How Do They Get That Toothpaste in the Tube?". We just skip it each time and move on. The "Bathtub of Seville" was laughed at heartily by our oldest as he's familiar with "Barber of Seville" from various opera albums.

We've never seen the show but definitely do enjoy the music they put out! The boys often cycle through all three of the Sesame Street albums we have, back to back. Good thing I enjoyed the Muppets as a child!

Nicky's Jazz for Kids review

2010-06-06T19:38:00.002-06:00

Nicky's Jazz for Kids

Another jazz album aimed at kids... but still worth it even though we've listened to half a dozen of them now. Some of the songs were familiar to the boys but most weren't. They were mostly familiar to us parents though! I hadn't realized the kids hadn't heard "Jeepers Creepers" yet, which is a song I certainly remember singing as a child, so I sure enjoyed having this one on there.

I wouldn't say this is the jazziest jazz album we've listened to but the boys are both loving it. Hearing The King Cole Trio and Ella Fitzgerald makes the album worthwhile to me even if some of the songs seem less than stellar. Tiger is running around singing "Key-mo Kye-mo" to us and Panda, who normally doesn't sing at all, is belting out "The Jungle King" in his best Cab Calloway voice.

This is a definite kid choice even if it's the least inspired of the jazz albums we've tried.

Animal Songs review

2010-05-24T21:31:00.003-06:00

Animal Songs by Raffi

What a sweet album! It's way too young for our oldest (age 9) and just on the edge of too young for our youngest (age 5).

This is a great collection of songs that I wish I had found about seven years ago, when our oldest was 2. Then I could have enjoyed it for many years before they outgrew it!

Somehow it wouldn't be a Raffi album without "Baby Beluga" on there, which it is. It was fun to hear a version of "Octopus's Garden" and I always love "Over in the Meadow". We've checked out half a dozen books over the years with the words from the song because we like it so much.

This is definitely a two thumbs up but with the qualification that it's for a younger crowd... up to age 5 perhaps. I wouldn't mind listening to this in the background every day for some time if I could wind back the clock and have my boys be little again!

Edmund Stone's "The Score"

2010-05-13T15:16:00.000-06:00

We are among the few, the re-fined, the cultured and the cool (if those can even go together in one sentence).

Why, you may ask? Because we have access to The Score with Edmund Stone, a musical show - no, a weekly celebration of symphonic music in film. That may not sound exciting or exclusive, but listen carefully: The Score is only available on nine stations nationwide (as of this writing), and was only on four when we started listening a few months ago. So there: see how few we are that taste the delights of The Score? Rarefied atmosphere we're in! (They have a map of all their stations too.)

My family and I ran across this weekly celebration quite by accident a short time ago and enjoyed it immensely. It was nicely presented in the mellifluous tones of Mr. Stone's voice. The topic was the music of Star Trek in the movies. What a great introduction to our sons to that whole range of music.

The Score with Edmund Stone has a facebook page too, which gives helpful info about recent and coming shows, along with enthusements from various fan types. Their recently-added sponsor, Bob's Red Mill, is a family favorite also. Go BRM. Go The Score!

We don't watch television, and see movies only rarely (mainly because there's so much other living to do, not to mention how much those things can suck you in if you let them, thus cutting down on the aforementioned "other living to do");- but we do listen to a great deal of music, classical and otherwise. The Score is an excellent way to expose our family to culture without the down side.

Thank you Mr. Stone, and thank you The Score!

Sing Songs for Children by Carly & Lucy Simon

2010-04-16T20:44:00.003-06:00

Sing Songs for Children

This album was a random choice as we perused the shelves of CDs at the library. Something about the cover struck us and noticing it was Carly Simon I thought it might be interesting. And it was!

After a good wrestle and some classic boy rowdiness they seem to want quieter activities (reading, drawing, building with Legos) and this album gets played. It's quiet and calming. Carly and her sister, Lucy, have voices that blend so wonderfully together. In fact, the boys mentioned that as one of the reasons they like the album. "They sing so well together, Mama!"

They love the poems and the song "Lamb" is amazingly sweet. "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" is a huge favorite and "Lobster Quadrille" makes Tiger laugh (he's a huge Alice in Wonderland fan... the book not the new movie).

A surprise hit for us. Two thumbs-up from the boys and Mama enjoys it as well.

Sing Along Travel Songs review

2010-04-04T20:50:00.005-06:00

Sing-Along Travel Songs

First, a caveat: neither boy has seen Sesame Street. We just don't watch all that much (well, any) television.

With that in mind, the boys loved this album. Still love it. I've had a hard time convincing them to listen to much else for the last few weeks, including other new music. They enjoy all the voices, the silliness, the upbeat music, and especially The Count.

We picked it up on a whim from the library but this one is definitely worth a purchase around here.

The grown-ups love "Are We There Yet?" as sung by Elmo. The boys may actually get away with saying "I'm bored out of my gourd!" in the future. (Being bored isn't really allowed around here... you're young! What's to be bored about?) And Elmo's version of "Drive My Car" is hilarious. A good introduction to the Beatles. The boys may never hear that song now without thinking of that high-pitched voice singing instead.

Another child's album that the parents don't mind listening to. Considering how much we're listening to it lately, that's a definite bonus. Two thumbs-up from the boys.

Jazz for Juniors review

2010-03-10T20:59:00.003-07:00

Jazz for Juniors
by Randy Sandke

What a wonderful album! Right off the starting gate we're going to give this one two thumbs up all around.

It's a wonderfully creative album. We start with a Tiger who loves jazz and then start adding animals (elephant, hippo, giraffe, etc.) who each specialize in some instrument -- and feature them for a song so the kiddos hear the music being played. These animal musicians travel around the world meeting various animals and having them join up into the band.

Then, at the end, they play variations on a couple of songs including "This Little Light of Mine". We discovered that our Tiger loves Dixieland and Swing. Absolutely loves it. But he's always been partial to horns (and the trumpet in particular).

We have listened to other jazz albums for kids and enjoyed them quite a bit (Jazz for Kids being a big winner). But this one tops them all. Both boys were enchanted and are singing right along. It's getting a ton of playtime which of course is an easy indicator of enjoyment!

Beethoven's Wig 3 by Richard Perlmutter

2010-02-21T19:05:00.004-07:00

Beethoven's Wig 3: Many More Sing Along Symphonies

Tiger loves this series! We've been listening to the first album (Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies) since he was about 2 years old. He was already enjoying all sorts of music but this one just lit his fire. (He has a strong silly streak in him.)

This third album was almost as good as the first one for us. Favorite songs include "Manly Man" and "Take Me to Your Leader". Definitely a great collection of songs. (We weren't as happy with Beethoven's Wig 2 and the music choices for some reason.)

I like that after all the silly songs are over just the instrumental music is played. It makes for a nice calm after the storm of words. It's so pleasant to be exposed to classical music in such an easy way.

This third album has a focus on individual instruments. Lots of children's music seems to, now that I think of it. I know at least one of our jazz albums does and of course Ella Jenkins albums do.

Tiger gives this one two thumbs up himself. Panda enjoys it okay but the words are quick and he doesn't always get the joke of the lyrics. Mama (and Papa) laugh often enough to make this one tolerable to even daily playing by our young disk jockey.

Family Time won the Grammy

2010-02-04T19:00:00.002-07:00

Well! We thought it might happen since we loved the album but we're just a regular family -- one who doesn't, as it turns out, watch the Grammy award shows.

Family Time indeed did win for Best Musical Album for Children. Congratulations Ziggy! Our family is still enjoying the music.

Little Cowpoke review

2010-01-24T20:38:00.005-07:00

Little Cowpoke
by the Nickel Creek Band

While browsing the stack of albums at the library this one popped out at us. This one had a bunch of fun songs on it and with kids singing it so I figured it would appeal. It's been a while, apparently, as the kids in the group are all grown-up now and won a Grammy in the meantime.

I was amused to see that Richard Perlmutter was listed on the album as extra vocals. It took me a few minutes to remember why I recognized the name... he's the songwriter and lead vocalist for the Beethoven's Wig albums. We've loved those for years; Tiger especially fell in love with them when he was just a little guy.

The boys have both enjoyed Little Cowpoke and it's been getting some play time. It didn't bowl us over but we've all enjoyed it. Well, except when the boys hid when Mama sang along to "Happy Trails". (Do all kids do that? Hide when their parents sing? Hmmm...)

Not sure how to rate this one. It gets a "nice to listen to" and "good for variety" but not necessarily "buy it now!" or "fantastic!".

Sesame Street Playground review

2010-01-18T11:06:00.003-07:00

Sesame Street Playground

This was a huge hit! We've never seen the television show so I gave the boys a brief run down based on what I've gleaned just living life in America. They find the idea of monster puppets to be really, really funny. The boys saw this on one of those Putumayo displays we keep seeing in various health food stores and asked for it.

A cheerful variety of songs. Both boys loved "Elmo's Song" and "En Den Dino". And I recognized the song "Sing" from my youth. No idea where I heard it but we did have albums to play on the record player in the living room... maybe it was on one of those.

Two big thumbs up from the boys and enough variety to get a thumbs up from the Mama.

Baby Loves Jazz Greatest Hits review

2010-01-10T20:00:00.002-07:00

Baby Loves Jazz, Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 & 2

We've really enjoyed this two CD set the last few weeks. It's so upbeat and cheerful! It definitely does have that "greatest hits" sense, though, in that the music doesn't have any direction like the Go Baby Go album did.

There are remakes of standard children's songs such as "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Skip to My Lou". And then there are completely new songs (to us at least!) like "Hello Green" and "Four Funky Fish".

We seemed to listen to at least one of the two albums every day recently and nobody is tired of it yet. Two thumbs-up from the boys and another from the Mom.

About Drama and Christian Singing

2009-12-26T20:37:00.003-07:00

We had our Cantata just over a week ago (more about that here).

It didn't have drama, which was good by me, since I have hesitations about its use.

Not that I am trying to stop all drama in this context. No, I've even allowed a couple of presentations which included drama, though with misgivings.

I see a problem in these areas (and probably more I can't think of right now):

People already get drama far in excess of what's healthy;
Those who like to be involved in drama tend to be those who like getting attention; and
Drama can easily move to the center, pushing everything else aside.

1 - People already get drama far in excess of what's healthy

Consider this: most people in the US today get much more drama in a month or two of TV and movie watching than almost anybody in history (before the appearance of radio) were exposed to in their entire lives.

A coworker told me last month that he bought a terabyte hard drive for his home recorder and it was one third full (over 300 Gigabytes of broadcast tv) in 2 weeks. Now I may be off a little, but I think I recall reading somewhere that you could put all the written works of ancient history (up to some reasonable cutoff of, say, the advent of the printing press) on a few CDs, if not less. Be generous and call it a couple of Gigabytes. This person recorded, in a few weeks, over 100 times as much data in the form of drama (and some sports and news I suppose) as the combined written record of pre-printing press history!

Surely there's a disconnect here, an imbalance. It's too much, too fast, too often, and we never ask what we sacrificed to get it.

2 - Drama can attract the wrong kind of people

People who like to perform tend to like the attention and the applause. That's no surprise. But in a situation where the goal is to direct the viewer's attention to God and to spiritual truths, that can be a huge problem. Those two things don't work well together:

emphasis on the content of the message, and on eternal truths; and
emphasis on applause and attention.
The same can be said, to a lesser degree, with singing, and I've worked hard to avoid those who focus on self and performance rather than on message and truth. Drama is, to me, the next level of risk.

3 - Drama can easily move to the center, pushing everything else aside

Like anything that is more intense, more glitzy, with a stronger visceral thrust, drama carries with it the risk of moving directly to the center of attention and pushing other stuff out. Like the message. I struggle against that in choral work, and know that the struggle is even harder with drama.

I know that Jesus used story in, for example, his parables. Fair enough. On the other hand,

all of Jesus' parables had a point that related to reality (which cannot be said of much of today's drama), and
I would venture to say that Jesus' ratio of parables to everything else he said was fairly strong in favor of everything else (which cannot be said of today's drama either).

Maybe if we were getting an hour or two a month of drama, then it would all fit nicely and I wouldn't feel so hesitant about using it in combination with Cantatas. But we aren't, and I still do!

Ziggy Marley and Grammy nomination

2009-12-24T20:30:00.004-07:00

We don't tend to follow awards much (we're not television watchers, quite honestly) but I noticed this a day or two ago and thought it was interesting.

Ziggy Marley's Family Time album was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Musical Album for Children. We've really been enjoying this one still. I reviewed it here but it's still played every few days. Still upbeat and enjoyed by all of us.

Interestingly enough, Laurie Berkner sang a duet with Ziggy Marley on the album: "Future Man, Future Lady". We just finished listening to one of her albums a week or two ago and reviewed it yesterday.

Definitely going to see if we can listen to some of the other nominees in the near future!

Best Musical Album for Children nominees:

Rocketship Run review

2009-12-23T20:24:00.003-07:00

Rocketship Run by Laurie Berkner

We've listened to a number of Berkner's albums over the years. Victor Vito and Buzz, Buzz were both liked well enough at the time we listened. Not "wow!" but definitely liked.

The same could be said for this latest album we've been listening too. It was indeed on the top of the list for a few days of listening and then it dropped off quickly enough. It's cheerful but the songs tend to run together for us. They sound a lot like her other albums which isn't bad, but it isn't amazing either.

Tiger gives it a so-so and Panda could care less but also gave it a so-so since he's still in the "me too" phase of life. If we never heard it again it wouldn't be terrible. But then, if we do hear it again, nobody would mind. I think it's safe to describe this one as lukewarm!

The Cantata for Jesus' Birth, sans Drama!

2009-12-14T19:34:00.014-07:00

We survived and even did well.

Last night I led my choir in "the Cantata". (I know the period goes inside the quotation mark, in US usage, but the English put it outside. Makes more sense to me, so I'm trying it, in a desultory manner).

Twice a year, for Christmas and Resurrection day, we set aside some time to put together a sort of musical event, sometimes with drama, often with narration. We keep up a weekly rehearsal/singing schedule leading up to each event, so the pieces of the Cantata make things a bit hectic, with rehearsals getting longer as the day grows near.

This year we had more than the usual obstacles. My schedule was up in the air, so I had prepared a backup director. Several of our choir members had family emergencies which took them away at awkward times, including one on the day of the presentation. Work - a blessing for many at this time when so many others are unemployed - also intervened.

We presented Touched By a Child, Touched By a King by Lloyd Larson. After almost not having done it, partly due to one of the songs ("Run, Shepherds, Run" - struck me as a tad silly on first reading), it ended up working out very well, and let me express my curmudgeonly tendencies in the process.

What curmudgeonly aspects? Well, for example, the emphasis was almost exclusively on love, healing, and the like. That's all good, but not a single mention of sin in the entire Cantata. Seems funny to leave the idea out entirely, since it was the reason we needed the incarnation of Jesus in the first place. So I worked it in in a few spots.

In its favor, it didn't have drama, which was fine by me! I'll write on drama more later. For now, let's just say that I have reservations in a curmudgeonly sort of way!

We did do well in the singing - on the notes, good energy, positive delivery, and I think (most importantly) keeping focus on God and the message.

We prayed for people to think about God, and the miracle of Jesus's birth. We asked the congregation to sing along from time to time, when proper. It all came out pretty well.

New Music - a Walkman MP3

2009-12-08T18:51:00.006-07:00

That's our home stereo now!

It was a double funeral: our home stereo and our car radio/cd player.

We knew this was coming. The home stereo was the cheapest thing we could find, and it was some years old. For months it had been laboring with certain CDs, unwilling to admit it just couldn't do it. So it'd spin a while, and spin some more, and then stop. And it wasn't really made to do that anyhow. We used it as a CD player but it was primarily intended to play DVDs.

When our car radio/cd player started giving us trouble, we tried coaxing it along too. That worked for a few months till we discovered that it was heating the CDs it was playing. Then we thought we'd best stop before we melted our precious music into harmonic slag.

What to do?

iPods are apparently all the rage, but they are also very pricey. Even the tiny ones are more than most other MP3 players, though the gap seems to be narrowing. We ended up with this Sony Walkman, the NWZ-S545. 16GB of memory, which can hold probably thousands of cuts. We also got a very simple speaker set - the kind you'd hang off of a computer that needed, well, speakers.

It's been great! It even has a voice recording option, and can play FM radio. We got a skin/cover for it, to protect it, and made sure that the new car stereo we got could handle AUX in, so we could play it there too. The new stereo also has a USB port, which looked good, but was not really helpful. More on that another day.

I should mention that the first Walkman never worked, so we swapped it the next day. The second one has given us no troubles.

You can either connect it to your Mac or PC and treat it sort of like a thumb/flash drive - just copy files onto it as you would any other flash drive. Or you can use Windows Media Player to synch music and pictures and play lists onto it. This has been an appealing option since it also sends along the album art. The art displays on the screen of the walkman which makes picking music more pleasant.

Now we have music at home and in the car and no need to cart around CDs. It's good!

Baby Loves Jazz Review

2009-11-29T20:33:00.006-07:00

Baby Loves Jazz: Go Baby Go

We've been busy with the holiday season and have started listening to our regular Christmas music. We're definitely on the hunt for some suggestions for this year, however!

In the meantime, we picked this little album up at the library and both boys immediately took to it. Tiger even stated, "I think I like jazz more than blues!" Panda danced right at the beginning -- a sure sign he liked it. He tends to like really upbeat and silly songs.

This album was neat in that every few songs they'd have a small mini-song that highlighted just one of the instruments that is often used in jazz music. Both boys are familiar with them already having listened to music for so long (and Ella Jenkins albums didn't hurt either).

A wonderful album! Both boys give it a thumbs up. We'll be looking for more in the series in the near future.

Reggae Playground review

2009-11-18T20:17:00.002-07:00

Reggae Playground

Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Three votes for boring! We sure have been hit or miss with this series of albums. Some we absolutely love and sing along with and others nobody can bother to put into the machine a second time. This was one of those.

We've listened to a couple of other reggae albums lately: Reggae for Kids (reviewed in September) and Family Time (reviewed in September as well).

So we're one for three! (Family Time was a hit.) We'll probably pause on reggae music for a while and try something else. In fact, this week we're listening to some more jazz. Fun!

Picnic Playground review

2009-11-14T20:00:00.001-07:00

Picnic Playground

Yawn. What a boring album! Neither boy engaged this one at all. (Mama didn't either. I was completely underwhelmed by this one.)

It has all the elements we've come to expect from Putumayo Kids: a variety of musical styles, different languages, a fair amount of silly songs. But for some reason this one didn't click at all for us. They only played it twice all week and nobody danced or laughed. Go figure!

Sadly, two thumbs down here.

Time for a Gift

2009-11-13T20:01:00.005-07:00

Several things have been pulling at me, at least in this context:

wanting to have the choir present a favorite of my beloved's: "This is My Father's World" by Maltbie Babcock;
wanting to avoid the standard hymn-book arrangement and lyrics; and
wanting to get the choir prepared for presenting our cantata - "Touched by a Child, Touched by a King" - on 13 December (we're running out of time!).

I've asked a pianist/composer I know if he might arrange This is My Father's World, and I think he will, but it has not happened yet.

I did find three more verses for the song - three new to me anyhow. That helped.

This is my Father's world, dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, "The Lord is in this place."
This is my Father's world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.

This is my Father's world, should my heart be ever sad?
The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.
This is my Father's world. Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.

This is my Father's world. I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known.
This is my Father's world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate'er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.

I was not entirely satisfied with the rhythms, so I amended a bit:

This is my Father's world. In dreams I see his face.
And when I rise, hear my happy cries: "The Lord is in this place!"
This is my Father's world: from shining courts above
Jesus who came, that most blessed name: God's pledge of deathless love.

Now I can resolve so many things! Presenting a song that my dear one loves, doing it with words new to me (though not a new arrangement), and saving a bit of rehearsal time since the tune and parts are well known.

May the Lord bless the singing of the words so that people think about him and his son.

French Playground review

2009-10-31T19:53:00.004-06:00

French Playground

Another super cheerful album that both boys loved. This one had a wide variety of music on it. I definitely found myself humming along to many of the songs. It's probably just as well that we don't know the language so have no idea what tragedy is actually being sung about.

We were especially surprised to find ourselves listening to it while at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We were in the Discovery Zone section and Tiger perked up his ears and said "I hear French Playground!" We followed it and sure enough it was the music being played in the dancing area. What a hoot! And of course it was the song ("Clic-Clac Oh C'est Beau!") I find myself singing randomly throughout the day.

Two thumbs up this week!

My Father, and I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

2009-10-30T19:08:00.016-06:00

Here is great beauty. Here is the bright loveliness of the Savior in a moving piece:

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

I heard the voice of Jesus say, "Come unto me and rest;
lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast."
I came to Jesus as I was, so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, "Behold, I freely give
the living water; thirsty one, stoop down and drink, and live."
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, "I am this dark world's light;
look unto me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy day be bright."
I looked to Jesus, and I found in him my Star, my Sun;
and in that light of life I'll walk till traveling days are done.

(I know the tune "Kingsfold" best for this one. Oremus Hymnal has it here; Hymnary.org has reference to the song and its author, whose name is variously given as Horatio or Horatius Bonar - about whom see this beautiful site.)

Some time in the 1980s I heard of a headstone somewhere in the northeast of the United States which read "I found in him a resting place and he has made me glad." That intrigued me, all the more so when I connected it to the hymn from which it had doubtless been taken.

The hymn moved me deeply. I ended up memorizing it, not so much intentionally as spontaneously, as a side effect of singing it to myself many times and thinking over the words.

It was near the top of my mind, along with "Come, Ye Sinners" (which I should write about some time soon) when I was in some very deep waters.

It was 1990, and in that year my mother, stepmother, grandfather, and father died, in separate incidents, spread across the year.

My father was dying. I did not know it for sure at the time, but I did fear it. I was living in East Los Angeles at the time when I heard. I came to him in St. Bernardine's hospital in San Bernardino, California, where I was raised, along with Redlands. My brother Tod was born there at St. Bernardine's in 1960, as well I remember (how I miss Tod, though I fear the worst).

I sat by my father's side. He could not communicate and was in some sort of state like a coma. I figured he might hear me or be able to feel my presence so I talked to him and held his hand. I also sang to him both of these songs. They meant so much to me, as he did.

Of all the people in the world that I knew at the time, he was the one I most wanted to be sure I'd see again after he died.

Was he a Christian? That was the question, to me. He attended church, though attending church makes you a Christian about like being in McDonalds makes you a hamburger. In other words, it's not all that closely correlated.

His mother, my grandmother Lucille, was a godly woman who had been a member of Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis. Both of them were so well known to the pastor of that time, Robert G. Lee, that even at a remove of some twenty years since they had last met, he recognized them, from behind, in a place over a thousand miles from Memphis, and called out their names!

Father's favorite sermon was "Payday Someday" by that illustrious pastor of Bellevue Baptist. Father read his Bible, and he prayed. He had memorized some of the Bible too. And he would tell you he was a Christian if you were to ask him.

Still, for all that, it's not the same as trusting Jesus, which I think is the best short way of describing what a Christian is. And so I worried if father had trusted Jesus. I didn't beat him up about it, I just wanted to be sure, for me and him, that things were as they should be in his spiritual condition.

Although I could be pretty raw in those days, and sharp, I don't think I made my concerns known in an unkind manner. I just told him, and prayed for him, and loved him.

And finally I sang these songs to him as he died: the only time I've witnessed that in person.

Oh, I cry now as I type. My beloved father. I miss you so! And although it is comforting to have these beautiful songs as a memento, what I really want is to see you and be near you again.

There's a Chicken on My Head review

2009-10-26T10:29:00.004-06:00

There's a Chicken on My Head
by Lucas Miller

What an amazingly silly album! Both boys laughed and laughed when they first heard it. It was so fun watching them with open-mouthed and big-eyed faces listening to the first song. What is this music?

All the songs are about animals, with many imparting some tidbit of actual information. Two songs are about snakes, one about butterflies, another about the food chain, and so on. The music is mostly upbeat and uses a variety of styles from reggae to pop. Mr. Miller uses great voices and actually seems to be having fun as he sings.

This one gets two thumbs-up from two amused boys! He has three albums out and this is the only one the library has. With so many gift-giving holidays coming up, we may find a way to sneak a CD or two into the boys' hands.

Neil Sedaka Waking Up is Hard to Do review

2009-10-24T20:46:00.005-06:00

Waking Up Is Hard to Do

What a fun and cheerful album! This is probably the first one in quite a while where Panda, age 5, was more interested than Tiger, age 8.5. It shouldn't be a surprise that his two five-year old granddaughters sing on the album.

Many of the songs (perhaps all... I'm not up on all of Sedaka's catalog of songs by any means!) are reworks of his earlier songs with revised lyrics. For example, "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" was reworked as "Happy Birthday Number Three" about being a toddler. Neither boy liked the song "Little Devil" (track # 9) so we do skip that one.

I was surprised at how well his voice has held all these years. He is 70 years old after all!

This one definitely got an "okay" from Tiger and a "great" from Panda. Since the boys take turns in picking music, usually, we'll probably be hearing a lot more of this one.

Finding the Music of William Morgan Ramsey

2009-10-17T19:18:00.009-06:00

A descendant of William Morgan Ramsey attends our congregation. She plays the flute.

Why does this matter? Mr. Ramsey wrote hymns and edited collections of hymns, at least two of which were in the teens - 1917 or so. Sometimes old hymns can be interesting, inspiring, even tending toward the cultivation of godliness, and so I do like to read them, sing them, and consider their significance.

Mr. Ramsey, who also went by Will Ramsey, has another interesting aspect: he is an inductee in the Southern Gospel Music Association's hall of fame, as both the SGMA's site and GMA's site demonstrate (both have a mini biography of Mr. Ramsey). Metro Lyrics says that he was given the Dove Award in 1990. Singing News mentions his induction into their hall of fame in 2002.

I like the Southern Gospel Music Association, whose yearly special day for inductions into the hall of fame is held at Dollywood - a place my family and I would like to visit, should finances and time and everything else permit!

"All Winning Songs" was a hymnal edited by William Morgan Ramsey, as was "Sweetest Praises" - little facts I unearthed thanks to the Christian Classics Ethereal Library in their Hymnary.

His descendant asked me if I knew where she could get any of his music in printed form. I did not, though I poked around in some of the usual places just in case, like Sheet Music Digital (to which I acquired a membership some time ago).

I did find the lyrics to "He Whispers Sweet Peace to Me" here at hymnlyrics.org.

Success! The sheet music for one of his songs can be bound in this book published by Brentwood-Benson: Great Gospel Songs and Hymns. This is only one of his songs, so the search has only just begun!

Hawaiian Playground Review

2009-10-13T20:09:00.006-06:00

Hawaiian Playground

A wonderful album! Both boys immediately liked it. It is so amazingly cheerful and upbeat. We are playing it frequently and often find both boys (and Mama!) dancing along. Who can resist the sound of ukuleles?

Tiger especially found "The Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai" (track 4) and "The Toad Song" (track 10) fascinating. One because the words are so silly but her voice is so serious (The Cockeyed Mayor) and the other because the harmony of the deep voices and the one-two rhythm tickled his ears (The Toad Song).

I know around February that the song "Come to Hawaii" is going to be a siren call for us. Yes, yes, let's go someplace warm and eat pineapple out of a can. Cardboard palm trees aren't going to cut it, though.

The album is another offering from Putumayo Kids. Tiger has asked to hear as many of these albums as we can. He's anxiously waiting for Picnic Playground to be processed at the library. He's examined the display of CDs at our local health food store and has put in his requests!

Diversity of Music

2009-10-08T19:00:00.005-06:00

Thinking about our responses to Blues Around the World reminded me that this was a big part of why we play music for the boys so much. And such a variety of music from hymns to blues, silly children's music to broadway musicals, jazz and opera and Irish and instrumental, and on and on. It's just part of our life to expose them to a wide range of music. You never know what you will fall in love with and enjoy if you are never aware it even exists.

We do the same thing with books. Silly rhyming books, serious poetry books, classic stories, non-fiction books, longer chapter books, modern adventures, and on and on. We'll read series because there is joy in the familiar and pleasure in meeting old friends again. But we'll also continue to find books that look interesting and engaging. We'll pop into the bookstore regularly just to browse the new selections. What jumps out at us and looks good? What title screams at us to be thumbed through?

And experiences. Trips to the zoo, to the park, to museums, to concerts, to the state fair, to rural areas and cities, to other countries. We try to expose them to life outside of suburbia. I'd love to say we do the same with food but with so many food allergies we're more limited on our adventures there! Someday, we hope!

It's taken me much longer to enjoy some of the music we choose to listen to. The boys just reach out and embrace it and make it their own. They comment on the voices, on the background music, on the words, on the rhythm, on the emotions they feel while listening, on the words and even the language.

I find it amazing that music can both draw us closer together as a family and broaden their experience of the world at the same time. Sort of a contraction and expansion thing going on at the same time. It becomes part of the language of our lives.

Does music speak to your family as much as to ours?

Blues Around the World Review

2009-10-07T18:59:00.006-06:00

Blues Around the World

Another offering from Putumayo Presents! Our library seems to have a nice collection of these so they've been easy to find and borrow. This one was not targeted as children's music so it's been a nice change of pace on that front.

This one was received with mixed opinions. Tiger loved it right off the bat. Panda liked the songs that had a familiar feel to them, such as "Don't Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down" and "I Got a Feeling". I was mixed on it but Tiger has played it so often that many of the songs are becoming comfortable and more pleasant to my ear.

I definitely appreciate some of the lyrics to "Don't Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down":

Well I might say things
Sound strange to you
And I might preach the gospel I believe it's true
I won't let nobody
Drag your spirit down
Yes I'm walkin' up to heaven
Won't let nobody turn me round

This one gets one thumbs up and one "eh" from the boys. We'll be listening to it much more, I think!

"Made In India" by Alisha Chinai

2009-10-04T19:26:00.016-06:00

Made In India

Every time I travel overseas I look for some local music, usually pop, and bring it home with me. India was my favorite destination. In 1995, some people from Tata Elxsi and a couple of other leading Indian companies wanted some 'train the trainer' classes for SQR and I got to deliver them. Being the founder and head of worldwide training had its perks.

I remember the people with great fondness. I felt welcomed, cared for, honored - as I think was formerly the standard of hospitality in most parts of the world, but isn't much any more. Perhaps it was that my contacts in India were less focused on things and more focused on other people. Perhaps I was just such an astonishingly cool guy that everyone went out of his way to treat me right. It's hard to say for sure, but my bet is on the first of those options.

Electrical power was a problem. We had five or ten power outages daily, which can make computer presentations awkward. Not that the outages were necessarily long, but they could be, say, up to a couple of hours. My hosts resolved the classroom problem on day two by bringing in a huge grey block with two wires coming out of the side: one red, one black. It was basically a fancied up car battery. It did the job.

One night my hosts took me to a local pub. I don't drink, but I wanted to be polite, so I went along and made the best of it. The music was loud, the crowding high, and the lighting inadequate. About a hundred men and two women there. The women were with their husbands in the 'family section' and only there (or so I was told is the rule in Bangalore).

The power went out. We sat there a couple of hours afraid to get up to leave. We couldn't see a thing anyway, and none of those other hundred guys made a move to go either. That night, bellowing at my hosts in order to be heard, sitting in the dark with a bunch of sweaty Indian men and listening to far-too-loud music, I encountered Made In India by Alisha (I later learned she is Alisha Chinai, or Alisha Chinoy, or Alisha Chinnoi).

I found the music CD for sale in the city a few days later and brought it home with me to America, along with some very fond recollections of the kindness and hospitality of the many Indians I met. Made In India is still on my play list today.

PS - a song that stuck with me, not on that CD, was called Gopala Gopala. I'd love to find that one again. So far, no luck.

PPS - the link you see above, the first picture of the CD, says it was released in 1996. That can't be true, since I know I got it in 1995. It has been released at least a couple of times more, though I don't know if it has been much changed. Here's the latest:

Made In India (2006)

Ojala Que Llueva Cafe Lyrics and Translation

2009-10-01T07:31:00.013-06:00

Just a few days ago I posted about Ojala Que Llueva Cafe. After some research, I unearthed a pretty accurate set of lyrics with a fairly good translation, so here they are!

The lyrics for Ojala Que Llueva Cafe are really fun! The best place I've seen them is here, from which I am quoting, with some edits and comments below. My motivation for copying and amending here is that that page could go away, and I'd hate to lose access to the excellent work, with translations by Jon Aske.

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
que caiga un aguacero de yuca y té
del cielo una jarina de queso blanco
y al sur una montaña de berro y miel
oh, oh, oh-oh-oh, ojalá que llueva café

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
peinar un alto cerro de trigo y mapuey
bajar por la colina de arroz graneado
y continuar el arado con tu querer
oh, oh, oh-oh-oh...

Ojalá el otoño en vez de hojas secas
vista mi cosecha de pitisalé
sembrar una llanura de batata y fresas
ojalá que llueva café

Pa' que en el conuco no se sufra tanto, ay ombe
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
pa que en Villa Vásquez oigan este canto
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
ojalá que llueva, ojalá que llueva, ay ombe
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
ojalá que llueva café

Oh....

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
sembrar un alto cerro e trigo y mapuey
bajar por la colina de arroz graneado
y continuar el arado con tu querer
oh, oh, oh-oh-oh...

Ojalá el otoño en vez de hojas secas
vista mi cosecha e pitisalé
sembrar una llanura de batata y fresas
ojalá que llueva café

Pa que en el conuco no se sufra tanto, oye
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
pa que en Los Montones oigan este canto
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
ojalá que llueva, ojalá que llueva, ay ombe
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
ojalá que llueva café

Pa que to(dos) los niños canten en el campo
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
pa que en La Romana oigan este canto
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
ay, ojalá que llueva, ojalá que llueva, ay ombe
ojalá que llueva café en el campo
ojalá que llueva café

Now for Ojala Que Llueva Cafe in English/Inglés, which is well done, despite the few terms that are left untranslated. I should note that I prefer "If only it would..." instead of "May it", though I admit that "May it" is a lot shorter!

This is founded on my extensive, but not at all complete, background in street Spanish, gained by a decade or two living in East Los Angeles and being part of a Spanish/English bilingual organization. I never learned any grammar really, nor anything from books, but I did eventually pick up a lot of stuff from just listening, and sometimes from hearing translations.

May it rain coffee in the country,
may a downpour of yuca* and tea fall down
from heaven, a light rain of white cheese
and to the south a mountain of watercress and honey
oh, oh, oh-oh-oh, may it rain coffee.

May it rain coffee in the country,
and comb a high hill of wheat and mapuey*
and go down the hill of grained rice
and continue the ploughing with your love
oh, oh, oh-oh-oh ...

May the fall instead of dry leaves
dress my harvest with bacon
sow a prairie with batatas* and strawberries
may it rain coffee.

So that there isn't so much suffering in the small plots of land, oh man,
May it rain coffee in the country,
So that they hear this song in Villa Vasquez
May it rain coffee in the country,
May it rain, may it rain, oh man,
May it rain coffee in the country,
May it rain coffee.

Oh, ...

May it rain coffee in the country,
and sow a high hill of wheat and mapuey*
and go down the hill of grained rice
and continue the ploughing with your love
oh, oh, oh-oh-oh

May the fall instead of dry leaves
dress my harvest with bacon
sow a prairie with batatas and strawberries
may it rain coffee

So that there isn't so much suffering in the small plots of land, oh man,
May it rain coffee in the country,
So that they hear this song in Los Montones
May it rain coffee in the country,
May it rain, may it rain, oh man,
May it rain coffee in the country,
May it rain coffee

Oh, ...

So that all the children sing in the country
May it rain coffee in the country
So that they hear this song in La Romana
May it rain coffee in the country,
Oh, may it rain, may it rain, oh man,
May it rain coffee in the country.
May it rain coffee.

These terms are local to the Dominican Republic and probably won't show up in a Spanish/English Dictionary:

Yuca - edible root of the Yuca plant, also known as cassava or manioc, or casabe in Venezuela where it's made into flatbread or boiled or fried in the same way as potatoes in the US;
Jarina - a 'flour rain/drizzle' as when flour is shaken through a sieve;
Mapuey - a root used in making Sancocho, which is a sort of gumbo;
Pitisalé - a sort of sun-dried bacon;
Batata - a sweet root, not to be confused with 'patata'; and
Conuco - small parcel of usually agricultural land.

Thanks to the comment from 'hello-there' we now know that 'La Romana' is the name of a 'lovely, touristy' part of the Dominican Republic.

Update on Ombé, from another kind commenter: it just means 'man', colloquially, as in 'hombre.' Translation updated to fill it out. Thanks, A3nun!

Update on Los Montones: also a place, possibly a farm, in the Dominican Republic. Thanks to PedroPereiraenVermont for that one.

Thanks to tww1fa for the help on Yuca!

Reggae for Kids Review

2009-09-29T19:52:00.007-06:00

Reggae for Kids

Another week of less than inspiring! Reggae for Kids wasn't nearly as fun as the boys had hoped it would be. It got a "tolerable" vote from Tiger and a "forget it" vote from Panda. Tiger did adore the sound of Gregory Isaac's voice singing "Puff the Magic Dragon." We've heard this song half a dozen different ways over the years. It does seem to be a favorite among singers for children.

We played the album every day we had it this week but nobody was upset when it was returned to the library. A definite lukewarm for us.

We found Family Time by Ziggy Marley (reviewed earlier) to be a much more engaging and exciting album.

Ojala Que Llueva CafeIf only it would rain coffee!

2009-09-25T20:48:00.020-06:00

I don't like coffee. Never touch the stuff. This song (Ojala Que Llueva Cafe), the first track on one of my all-time favorite cds -

Antologia Del Merengue, Vol. 1- makes me almost want to (like coffee). Or maybe it was just Seattle's weather.

When I discovered this lovely collection of Merengue music, I was living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, near both Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. The weather was gorgeous for about a hundred days every year, and then the rest of the time it misted, drizzled, or one of the many other clever names the local meteorologists came up with for rain. I never heard the term 'sun breaks' till I had lived there, though now I think I understand.

Starbucks coffee started around there, and we sometimes visited the Starbucks store where they started their cafe (at least, that's where we remember it as being) where, as we heard it, the store was nearest to the then-owner's residence, and he wanted to eat a hot meal in one of his own stores. It was also close to the homes of the richer families in the area such as one I visited without having a clear idea of who they were till later - oops! - the Bill Ackerley home. Bill is son of Barry Ackerley, former owner of the Seattle Supersonics.

So this great cut - Ojala Que Llueva Cafe by Juan Luis Guerra (listen to it here in imeem) - seems perfect as a sort of theme song for the rainy, coffee laden realm of Seattle and its neighbors. Don't you agree?

Postscript: The lyrics for Ojala Que Llueva Cafe are really fun! The best place I've seen them is here, which has both the Spanish lyrics and a translation into English. That's worth another post, which I've ended up doing here.

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

2009-09-25T10:58:00.010-06:00

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, a lovely solo I found a few years ago at Worship Today

I believe we have Isaac Watts to thank for the lyrics:

My Shepherd will supply my need, Jehovah is his name.
In pastures fresh he makes me feed beside the living stream.
He brings my wand’ring spirit back when I forsake his ways.
And leads me for his mercy’s sake, in paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death, thy presence is my stay;
One word of thy supporting breath drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes, doth still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows, thy oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days;
Oh may thy house be mine abode, and all my works be praise.
There would I find a settled rest, while others go and come;
No more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.

I had wanted to sing Look and Live, which I mentioned a few posts ago, but reviewed my notes and saw that I had sung it fairly recently - about a year past.

That same review of my notes led me back to My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, which is essentially a Metrical Psalm. Good solid meaning, very simple presentation, and though I have sung it before also, it's been two years. If I were to repeat all the solos I like only once every other year, I'd be eighty before I ran out, so I think a two-year break will do. I'll sing it! May the Lord cause those who hear to think of him.

The Johnny Cash Children's Album Review

2009-09-19T21:30:00.003-06:00

The Johnny Cash Children's Album

Well, this one was mostly a bust. We listened to it three times through and by the third time the boys were asking to skip most of the songs.

They liked the country music feel and "One and One Makes Two" which was very sweet. They immediately didn't like "Nasty Dan" or "Miss Tara" since that one made Mama and Papa cry. (Any parent who can listen to "Miss Tara" with dry eyes has a stouter heart than we do!)

So for us this one turned out to be two thumbs down. On to reggae music this next week!

Our Father, Our King (Avinu Malkeinu)

2009-09-18T19:37:00.002-06:00

Listened to any good lyre recently? I have:

The tune is for Avinu Malkeinu, which is a Hebrew prayer sung around Jewish New Year, aka Rosh Hashana (Rosh = head; ha = the; shana = year).

Avinu Malkeinu, Chaneinu V'aneinu, ki ein banu ma'asim.
Assei imanu ts'dakah vachesed, vehoshiyeinu.

Lovely in the original Hebrew, and fairly nice (with annotation) in English:

Our Father, our King, be gracious unto us and hear us, for lo, we are unworthy.
Deal with us in charity and loving-kindness (Chesed - mercy) and redeem us.

I sang it tonight at home for the first night of Rosh Hashana and it was well received. Then again, it's just my family and they'd better receive it well! Overlooking the usual lovingkindness and mercy shown by my remarkable and precious family, I do think they really did like it.

There's plenty about it on the web, much centering on Barbra Streisand and Phish, who apparently both performed the work. It's quite difficult to avoid the whole celebrity world, but keep at it. It can be done, and to great benefit.

Mary Travers has passed away...

2009-09-16T21:15:00.006-06:00

I was saddened to read this tonight: Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary has died at age 72.

Our boys love the Peter, Paul and Mommy and Peter, Paul and Mommy Too albums. We listen to them often! Of course, they haven't been a group since 1971 but it's interesting how music from 35 years ago is still fresh and new to our children.

Family Time Review

2009-09-11T19:30:00.004-06:00

Family Time

Our new music this last week was Family Time by Ziggy Marley. It's a fairly new release this May so we were glad our library had it -- we often have to wait a while for newer items.

This CD was a huge, smashing success. Tiger listened to it every day, often twice a day if he could get away with it. I like to suggest each CD only get one play per day for Mama's sanity usually. He started this one first thing in the morning around 6:30 am to get us going for the day. Too funny.

Tiger loved just about every song on the CD. Panda thought "Ziggy Says" was funny and "I Love You Too" was sweet (it is!). It was fun hearing Willie Nelson singing on "This Train" since we'd just listened to some of his music recently. The boys didn't notice Paul Simon on "Walk Tall" but I certainly recall listening to "Bridge Over Trouble Water" about a million times a few decades ago! So that was neat for ol' Mama.

This one got two thumbs up from the boys so I expect to be listening to it a lot, lot more often.

Look and Live - a Solo, and The Way

2009-09-08T06:23:00.008-06:00

Another lovely hymn came to mind unsummoned a few weeks ago. It's one I think of as having the title "Look and Live" though apparently the true title is "I've a Message from the Lord." It's worth singing.

Great content! It's the theme of a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon based on Isaiah 45:22, which I read some years ago, and which recalls the story of Moses and the fiery serpent in Numbers 21:5-9.

Look to him! Just look. That's all it takes.

In other places throughout the Scriptures, Jewish and Christian, it's trust, lean on, cling to, rely on, or put your confidence in.

I think I'll sing this one soon. Look and Live!

Currently listening to... Week of August 31st

2009-09-06T21:00:00.001-06:00

Animal Playground, two times
Cada Nino
Blue Moo
Beethoven's Wig
Lullaby Classics, two times
Creation Musical Adventures, Vol. 1 and 2
Singing Bible, Vol. 1
Family Time by Ziggy Marley, four times

zComposer: is Google Adwords Enough?

2009-09-05T21:05:00.004-06:00

zComposer is the US distributor for Music Publisher Software. It's our baby. We're having modest success with keyword advertising through the Google AdWords process, so we're casting about for other venues.

A Bit On Keyword Advertising

Keyword advertising is simple enough. Pick some search keywords that people are likely to use if they might like your product, and select how much you are willing to bid for your position (more on that in a moment). For zComposer's Music Publisher, that would be things having to do with writing or composing music, music notation, transposing music, sheet music, and the like.

When people do a search with those keywords, then your ad will show up either on the top or side of the page. Position depends on your bid compared to all the other bids for that keyword. When your ad shows up, that's called an impression - somebody at least could have seen your ad.

The ultimate goal is to get a person to visit your site and, hopefully, buy your product. A visit is called something like a click or a click through, and when that happens, you will pay the search provider (Google, Yahoo, etc.) for the click.

We Tried Google and Yahoo and Microsoft

Of these three, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google, the results were much better with Google, for a much lower price, so we have continued to advertise with them and cut off our ad campaigns with the others.

The click through rate seems good enough at around two percent.

Radio?

We're thinking that maybe some other mode of advertising might help. Our favorite local classical music station is KCME and they do sell sponsorships. On the plus side, it'd support something we use often, and it has a nice demographic. And how could we go wrong with a group that has this as the main graphic on its site?

On the minus side, it's sort of a scattershot, in that a lot of people will hear about us that have not the slightest interest in musical writing, composition, and notation software.

We're considering other radio options, but are uncertain at this point.

Print?

Magazines can be a tad more focused, so we're considering them too. For example, Singing News might work, though again, this is not obviously a place where composers hang out. Not that it just has to be composers! Our customers also include musicians, vocalists, music students, music teachers, choir directors, arrangers, conductors, and song writers/composers. Still, it's not clear that those groups are well represented even on Singing News (or any magazine we've found to date - though we're still looking and open to suggestions).

What's Next?

It's all still up in the air. Our budget is not that large anyhow. Then again, budgets don't get larger unless there are more sales!

Cada Nino (Every Child) by Tish Hinojosa

2009-09-04T20:45:00.003-06:00

Last week we had a CD by Tish Hinojosa geared for kids: Cada Nino (Every Child). It was filled with sweet melodies but it faded quickly into the background. Neither Tiger nor Panda was enthralled at all. I found that interesting since we listen to loads of instrumental music but one never can tell what a child will like!

This week our new CD is Family Time by Ziggy Marley. Haven't listened yet so the jury is definitely out!

Currently listening to... week of August 24th

2009-08-30T20:01:00.004-06:00

What we listened to this week with the boys...

Bob and Larry's Campfire Songs by VeggieTales
Peter, Paul and Mommy Too
Blue Moo
Song School Latin
Veggie Tales misc
Beethoven's Wig 2
This Little Piggy
Fun with Playtime
Lullaby Classics
Children's Favorite Songs by Disney, Vol. 1
Children's Favorite Songs by Disney, Vol. 2
Children's Favorite Songs by Disney, Vol. 4
Singin' in the Bathtub by John Lithgow, three times
Animal Playground, six times

Animal Playground Review

2009-08-29T19:12:00.007-06:00

Animal Playground is one of the series of children's CDs put out by Putumayo Kids. We enjoy a number of their other soundtracks (Latin Playground, Sing Along with Putumayo) so it was no surprise that we'd see this one and want to try it.

This CD has songs sung in a number of languages: English, Portugese, Spanish, French, Sarang Tongo, and Italian. It also contains a wide variety of styles. We've listened to it half a dozen times in the last week so I'm going to hazard a guess that the boys are enjoying listening. (They get to pick most of the music they listen to; I randomly throw CDs in but Tiger is old enough to pick out what they want and pop it in himself.)

I particularly like the first song, "Animal Crackers", with lyrics such as:

I got ants in my pants
I got butterflies
I’m crying crocodile tears
From my puppy dog eyes
I’ve been monkeying around
I’m a dog for you
I’m animal crackers
I’m the human zoo

Tiger especially likes "Don't Ever Step on a Snake" with it's Aussie accent.

Don't ever step on a snake
Or you're making a big mistake
For the sake of your protection
I suggest you change direction
Get out of there for good, for goodness sake

And the whole CD ends with a song that every child should hear often... "Mbube". I never knew the title before this CD but the lyrics give the song away fairly quickly...

Auimamaue…

In the jungle,
The mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle
The mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

Putamayo Kids made a video of the song "No More Monkeys!" which is very catchy. It's the classic children's rhyme with an enchanting twist. I find myself singing it while ironing... always a good thing.

Asheba - No More Monkeys.

Melech Ozeir Revisited

2009-08-24T20:55:00.009-06:00

In an earlier post about Melech Ozeir (written by Stuart Dauermann in the 1970s) I wrote that I thought it might be nice to sing as a solo. I did go ahead with that decision.

Using Music Publisher I created a score, which made it easier to review and transpose and pick the right key. It also meant I had one (a score) in case a pianist happened to turn up and was willing to ad lib some sort of accompaniment.

Here's the result.

The image is only a portion of the score. Click on it to see the whole score, more or less at full size.

No pianist turned up, but the transposition did help with picking the key I wanted, which ended up with a C# initial note, and the key was three sharps. The presentation was given a capella with both Hebrew and English words. It was well received, and caused this author to think perhaps his own singing might still be of service to the Holy One - a question always open to review and re-evaluation.

Currently listening to... Week of August 17th

2009-08-23T06:40:00.003-06:00

Old (and newer!) favorites for the boys...

Broadway Kids Sing America
Campfire Songs by VeggieTales
Peter, Paul and Mommy
Beethoven's Wig 2
Music from Our Lord's Holy Heaven
Heart & Soul by B.B. King
An Irish Evening by the Chieftans
Jewish Odyssey
The Singing Bible, Vol. 1 and 2
Sunny Side of the Street by John Lithgow
Singin' in the Bathtub by John Lithgow, five times

And listening to our new CD...

Animal Playground, three times

Heart and Soul Review

2009-08-20T21:03:00.008-06:00

Heart and Soul

We've been listening to our new CD, Heart and Soul, by B.B. King this week. We've enjoyed it immensely but I've noticed that none of us has really found a favorite song. In fact, most of the songs sort of smoothly roll into the next one without much to distinguish that we're on a new track.

I wouldn't say it's a winner but it's not a loser either. Definitely has been great background music when we're all busy with other things (drawing, knitting, Legos). We have less music time in the summer because we'll spend chunks of our free time outside in the yard and don't bring the CD player with us.

We love his singing of "One Shoe Blues" on the album Blue Moo. It's Panda's favorite there! And listening to that led to reading his website to find out what "B.B." stands for which then led to checking out more of his music. A fantastic rabbit trail!

Tish Hinojosa and Taos to Tennessee

2009-08-18T16:03:00.012-06:00

About twenty years ago I discovered the music of Tish Hinojosa in the specific form of the album Taos to Tennessee. It has remained one of my favorites.

It's at least partly Frontera Music, as in, from the frontier of the United States of America and Mexico. The focal points are wind, sun, moonlight, rivers, prairie, fire, daybreak, hearts, and dreams - to name a few. It's happy, romantic, poignant, and quite often lovely.

My favorite song is probably "Amanecer" (Daybreak) - sung in Spanish (though with an interesting and subtle variation from the pronunciation I learned in the streets of East Los Angeles where I lived for a decade or two). I can understand most of the lyrics without resorting to a Spanish-English dictionary, which makes it somewhat easier to back up my contention that Spanish is an especially beautiful language, especially for song.

Te cantare un verso, llenando el silencio de to soledad;
Un simple melodia deseando a tu vida felicidad.

I will sing you a verse to fill the silence of your loneliness;
A simple melody - desiring happiness in your life.

-and-

Este regalo te doy; Mi corazon siempre estara junto a ti.

This gift I give you; My heart will always be with you.

Honorable and beautiful sentiments for anyone that loves. Almost as good in their own way as "My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives." or "Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his friends."

My wife loved Taos to Tennessee the first she heard it, and took it into her life as readily as I had some time before. The entire family enjoys it greatly as we listen to it all together, and my wife and I tear up for some of these songs even now, just for their sheer loveliness.

Currently listening to... week of August 10th

2009-08-16T18:50:00.004-06:00

Old (and newer!) favorites for the boys...

Fun with Playtime (classical music)
Blue Moo
Taos to Tennessee
This Little Piggy (a book with CD), twice
The Nutcracker
Fun with Playtime (classical music)
Songs by Willie Nelson
Jewish Odyssey
Sunny Side of the Street by John Lithgow
Singin' in the Bathtub by John Lithgow, six times (!)

And listening to our new CD...

Heart & Soul by B.B. King

We pick up new music and books on Friday afternoons from the library so we've only had the chance to hear the new CD once through but we all enjoyed it. (We've been building a side fence next to our garage... it's amazing how long it takes to find the right things at Lowe's and actually leave the building in order to start your project.)

Long drive tomorrow so hopefully we get to try it again when we're all doing nothing but sitting still for four hours!

Music Writing Software - Composition, Notation, Scanning

2009-08-13T12:47:00.008-06:00

How does a non-piano-playing choir director select music?

I was stuck on this question. I could single-finger plink out tunes, but it takes forever, so that's not really an option. I could ask a pianist to play a piece for me. Awkward, since we have no pianist in the family - yet!

So I went with a third option for a while. I only evaluated music that came with a full recording of the piece, choir and accompaniment. That worked fine if you allow for the limitation, which is that a lot of music isn't available that way, especially old hymn books. I needed another approach.

I decided to try scanning and playback. I planned to buy some software and use it to scan sheet music then play it back on my computer. Thus began my hunt for the ideal software to scan, play back, and compose/notate music.

I found and played with Finale and Sibelius, which are often the only names you hear in relation to music software. I looked at Pizzicato, Noteworthy, and Music Publisher. And that's where I stopped: Music Publisher (version 5 at the time; now it's up to version 7).

Music Publisher, by Braeburn Software in Scotland, got the nod for several reasons. Most significant is ease of use. I'm technical enough to handle most of the tough stuff, but still smart enough not to equate 'hard to use' with 'must be good!' When I nearly mastered note entry in a few minutes, I was feeling good about Music Publisher. When I got scanning working in not much more time, I was sure I had a winner.

My Music Publisher note-entry skills improved so much that I could almost go as fast as scanning. That's fast! I still scan, but some shorter pieces I just hand enter, with great results.

Only later did I uncover some of the fine points. For example, reading others' forum and blog posts comparing music writing/notation/composition software, I saw that some packages suffered from rigidity. That is, the software knows best, and will put (for example) the stems of notes the way it wants, no matter what you want. Sounded frustrating to me.

After using the product a while, I suggested to the publisher Braeburn Software that they focus on getting a US distributor to allow for quicker delivery of product in the states. Not long thereafter, the new distributor came online - my wife, at zComposer.com!

Interesting side-effect: now I know even better how excellent the product is, because we also provide technical support for US customers who have purchased through zComposer. We get very few problem reports, and can handle the vast majority of them without help. On the few that we need to send to Braeburn Software, on a very tiny minority are actual problems with the product, and the greater part of those are resolved by a special bug fix within a day or three. It's really a reliable product with an excellent development team.

And of course I am happy continuing to overcome my weakness (choir director who doesn't play piano) by use of my favorite Music Writing (and Scanning) Software - Music Publisher!

Christmas in July, and Five Priorities for Picking Choir Music

2009-08-11T15:08:00.017-06:00

I know it's August, so I'm posting a bit late. But it was Christmas for me just a few weeks ago in July as I decided on Christmas music for the choir.

My favorite for week-by-week music is Worship Today, though I have used their stuff for one Resurrection Day presentation, with good results. I generally go to Lorenz Music for Christmas and Resurrection Day (Easter) pieces of a grander nature, though I have looked at offerings from most of the others I mentioned earlier (Bible Truth Music, Brentwood-Benson, Majesty Music, etc).

The things I look for are a bit subjective and hard to quantify. I'll try just to give you an idea in my five points:

Meaning. The words must be meaningful, significant, and something that people could sing while meaning it and while thinking on the meaning of the words. That alone eliminates a lot of music (usually, but not always, the more modern pieces).

Repetition. Well, lack of excessive repetition anyhow! If prayers are supposed to not use empty repetition (Matthew 6:7) then that shouldn't be a bad standard for singing. Almost all songs repeat a little, so it's just the excessive and/or empty repetition I try to avoid.

Rhythm. I avoid heavy beats and rock-and-roll approaches to music. Some of the more notable Greek philosophers made a big deal about rhythm having moral implications. Even Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mindnotes that his students all knew that the rhythms of their music were the rhythms of highly charged acts of intimacy (if you get my drift).

Sincerity. If it sounds like a group of paid performers like, say, a Disney choir, then it doesn't work. The singers have to engage the words, and deliver them as though they were themselves saying them (which they are)!

Emphasis. If it emphasizes the choir, or brings attention to a soloist or the director, then that's the wrong emphasis. My favorite story that illustrates this:
Now that is a difference in emphasis! So if it's not centered on God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Christian life, or something reasonably related to those, then it's probably a wrong emphasis.

I'll expand on that list at some later point I'm sure.

So I spent July looking through various offerings - usually called cantatas - to find the one I'd like us to sing this year around Christmas time, and came to a decision in time to order and get it in for rehearsals beginning in August.

We don't generally start with the Christmas cantata in August, but we do have the option to do that if needed. Even if we begin in September, that doesn't give much time - say, 13 weeks of Sept/Oct/Nov, less some possible gaps around Thanksgiving - to rehearse for the season's weekly music plus the cantata to cap off the year.

I've made the decision and the deed is done, so now Christmas can go back to a bit later in the year. And for that I am very glad.

Currently Listening to... week of August 3rd

2009-08-09T20:48:00.006-06:00

Old favorites...

Hymns for a Kid's Heart, Vol. 1
Hymns for a Kid's Heart, Vol. 2
Games, Games, Games by Wee Sing
This Little Piggy (a book with CD)
Bob & Larry's Campfire Songs by VeggieTales
Fun with Playtime (classical music)
Latin Playground by Putumayo
Sunny Side of the Street by John Lithgow

And listening, multiple times, to some new CDs...

Songs by Willie Nelson
Singin' in the Bathtub by John Lithgow

So far the new CDs have been popular!

In the Lithgow set we're skipping two songs right from the get-go: "Triplets" and "Big Kids". Triplets has a strange set of lines near the end of the song that make it a song we'll never listen to:

"Big Kids" uses the word heck all throughout it. We hear it often enough but it seemed to use it so much that we dropped the song. Both boys love "Inchworm" which we've heard on other CDs before. Tiger is still laughing at "Everybody Eats When They Come to My House" and "The Gnu Song". Panda likes "A -- You're Adorable". And I like "The Hippopotumus Song" which includes the fun chorus:

The Songs CD by Willie Nelson features a bunch of slower ballads and a couple of upbeat songs to break it all up. A few favorites include "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", "Good Hearted Woman", "Pancho and Lefty" (me only... the boys are unconvinced so far), and "On the Road Again".

We ran across this CD mostly because B.B. King sings a duet with Nelson ("Night Life") and we were hunting for more King music. But, he's an old favorite of mine and has me humming along. I remember quite clearly singing "On the Road Again" thirty years ago as we left our home in California on another military move.

The boys all enjoy country but especially Tiger who used to kick his sturdy baby legs in time to the country music on the radio when we'd run errands together. (Good times!)

Worship Today

2009-08-06T20:14:00.010-06:00

Today I hit the panic button.

Our choir is starting again in a few weeks - whenever I decide I'm ready - and then we'll be presenting for the next thirty-odd weeks, including major presentations for Christmas and Resurrection Day (aka Easter). The decision of when to start again has a lot to do with feeling ready, and I definitely wasn't!

So I rolled up my sleeves and reviewed my candidate list of music. Since I hadn't picked anything but the Christmas presentation, I was feeling a tad behind. Which brings me to my favorite music resource: Worship Today.

I love Worship Today. It is my primary resource for choral sheet music for the 20-voice choir I direct (at Rustic Hills Baptist Church).

I've tried Bible Truth Music, Majesty Music, Brentwood Benson, Lillenas, Lorenz, and several others, looking for music that has the right approach. Worship Today has become tops in my book. I can use a fair percentage of what Worship Today offers, and at a very reasonable price: once you have access to a piece, you have unlimited right to copy for your organization.

This helps reduce the temptation to illegally copy music.

Probably the largest group of copyright violators in the world is choir directors, especially of smaller congregations. Sheet music is not cheap, so the temptation can be great to cut corners. Worship Today's licensing policy works around that very nicely.

They're also pretty pleasant to deal with. I've written to them and spoken with them many times. Randy Cox, the publisher, has been particularly helpful, always giving personal responses to my queries and feedback.

My current project is to review every single piece on the Worship Today web site, and to catalog and rate it. Title, Issue, Voicing, Tempo, and Theme are already there on the site. Then I add in my own notes, the difficulty of the piece, and my sense of how much I'd like to use it.

The exercise has been very educational. I would estimate there are over a thousand pieces in the Worship Today catalog. I've reviewed and rated about three hundred so far, which has left me with enough music for about three years of presentations.

The panic can subside. The alarms can stop wailing. I've got it covered. Now all I have to do is pick precisely which ones to present, and in which order.

The Sunny Side of the Street Review

2009-08-03T20:30:00.011-06:00

The Sunny Side of the Streetby John Lithgow

What a hoot! We've been loving this CD for about two months now. It's energetic, peppy, and fun with a good variety in music unlike some children's CDs which all sound the same song after song. I like to have it on when I'm ironing as it definitely passes the time quickly. We listen to it once or twice a week, depending partly on how much ironing I have to do!

Tiger does a soft-shoe mime act to "Pick Yourself Up" including falling (in time to the music no less). The "Laughing Policeman" has both boys laughing -- and Jay leaving the room (it is a lot of laughing). And finding oneself humming "be human it's easy if you try" is always amusing.

I listened to an interesting interview with John Lithgow over on NPR. It's less then ten minutes but it gives some insight into why he loves doing children's music.

Any CD that makes it into that much of our regular rotation is definitely a winner around here. And how can one lose with songs like "Song of the Sewer" and "Inka Dinka Doo"?

Musings on Cheap Stereos and MP3 Players

2009-07-31T21:42:00.012-06:00

We've managed to burn out three or four stereos over the years. True, they were mostly pretty low quality and cheap. But part of it I'm sure is how much we use them. We do expect things in our lives to wear out, like tires and socks, but it's always a surprise when something electronic wears out. And a bit of a bummer, really, to have to haul off to the store and try to understand all the options and gasp at how the prices have risen in the last six months.

The boys and I have music playing via a CD player for hours a day. Jay plays stuff off of his computer -- sometimes with earphones and sometimes just blasting it along to compete with whatever we've got going upstairs. And of course in the car we have the radio going playing classical music from our local station KCME or more CDs.

It seems it might be time to jump into the modern era with MP3 players. We've held off so far as they seem so... personal and private. And music to us is such a family together kind of thing that MP3 players seem foreign. We listen to kid's music and hymns and Scottish bagpipe music and old James Taylor all on the same day. We enjoy the running commentary, singing along (some of us off-key), and even dancing. We throw in books on CD all the time and enjoy the rhythms of familiar tales told with a different voice. (As an aside, we highly recommend Winnie-the-Poohas read by Jim Broadbent. You'll gain a whole new level of respect for Pooh Bear!)

I was reading over on Robin Sampson's blog about MP3 players and homeschoolers and she makes a good argument for the purchase. Buying some cheap speakers would solve the never-ending round of buying new cheap stereos. Probably cost less too! And I would love to listen to music or books while I was pulling weeds. I might move into a trance like state and move past counting how many dandelions I've pulled that afternoon.

Sometime in the near future we'll have to research the whole MP3 world. For now, I'm hoping that our stereo which is starting to hiccup and cough will make it for another month or two!

Melech Ozeir

2009-07-30T10:29:00.009-06:00

A few days ago I started singing to myself, as I so often do, part of a song I didn't know I remembered:

Melech, ozeir u moshiah u magen.
Melech, ozeir u moshiah u magen.
Baruch atah adonai, baruch atah adonai. Magen Avraham.
Baruch atah adonai, baruch atah adonai. Magen Avraham.

After a while I remembered more (an english translation of the above):

King, redeemer, savior and shield.
King, redeemer, savior and shield.
Blessed art thou, o Lord. Blessed art thou, o Lord. Shield of Abraham.
Blessed art thou, o Lord. Blessed art thou, o Lord. Shield of Abraham.

And finally I found what appear to be the full lyrics (including a second verse I don't think I had ever heard).

Atah gibor le-olam,Adonai
Atah gibor le-olam,Adonai
M'chayay may-tim M'chayay may-tim Atah rav l'hoshia
M'chayay may-tim M'chayay may-tim Atah rav l'hoshia

You are the mighty one forever, O Lord.
You are the mighty one forever, O Lord!
You raise the dead, sleeping in their graves: you are mighty to save!
You raise the dead, sleeping in their graves: you are mighty to save!

The author was Stuart Dauermann, with whom I had corresponded a few decades ago. The song is even on CCLI (as Melech Ozair) and for sale at Amazonin a recording by Messianic Heart on their Olive Tree album. How about that?

It's probably worth singing a capella as a solo.