Bonus Post!

Hello! I am writing, out of character, at the BEGINNING of the Month, and in the MIDDLE of the day. Shocking! But I had some thoughts I wanted to get down here, and I have a rare quiet moment, as Jerry is doing home maintenance and Zephyr is helping my mom at her jewelry show. SO.

I already have an idea for November's song, and I had a slight epiphany. I realized I can brainstorm and keep song ideas on Garageband -- I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I just recorded a vocal snippet of something that came to me as I was driving home from a women's retreat at Rocky Gap. It's just an idea, not even a complete thought, really, but now it is on there and I can let my muse percolate on it without fearing to lose it. I don't know if that will be a good or bad thing, but I thought I'd give it a try. I don't know how many ideas I have lost over the years because after I had the initial impulse, I had no way to record it, so I forgot it. Now maybe that will not happen!

In other news, Frankenstorm, I am glad to say, didn't do much damage around here. All my friends and family seem to have made it through relatively unscathed. And at school, some of my students and I have been writing songs together. They want to make music videos to go along with them. I don't think I will be able to put those on here, but I am hoping to get permission to post the final versions of the songs as bonus Song of the Month Club offerings. We tend to write rather wordy songs that are meant to help my students remember tough concepts. In past years, we already made two videos: one is about the verb "to be", and the other is about capacity. I don't have much video technology (no I-pads at my school, unfortunately), but the videos were cutely kitsch. The recordings were done live at school, so aren't very polished. I keep thinking it would be fun to re-record them with Garageband.

So these new ones, one about moods of verbs (indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and so on), and the other about constellations that one student could find in the summer sky, are going to be Garageband creations. I used pre-set loops of drumbeats and basslines, and then supplemented them with some chords. The kids seem excited by how they are turning out. I've been bringing my laptop to school to show them the progress and to make sure the track fits the lyrics. Next will be to record their voices on a new track, and then we will try figure out how to film. Two years ago, I used the school's flip video camera for the other videos, but I am pretty sure that camera is broken now. So I don't know how we will film, but hopefully we can figure it out. So, you can look forward to hopefully hearing THREE songs this month, if all goes well. Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, and please comment about my latest song! I really value your feedback. Also, if you have any ideas about future song topics, please feel free to let me know. I am open to all suggestions! Hugs, Zoe