ALL THE ANIMALS IN THE ZOO: Wow, what a wonderful path was taken to get to this song. My wife would, on occasion, sing parts of a song she recalled from her childhood having to do with zoos, animals, and keys. After some research I discovered that the song was associated with a zoo experience that featured “zoo keys” that unlocked talking boxes about the animals. I found the Detroit Zoo Key animation on “YouTube” and constructed my own arrangement. What fun! BTW. Zoo keys are back at several zoos.
SAN FRANCISCO WINTER: When I was teaching, I was the musical director of the school’s annual Service o Lessons and Carols. After a while I realized that the cold winter weather references made no sense for many in the world, including those who live in the San Francisco Bay area. The song became quite the hit with the students who sang it…and it has a cool recorder break!
SHEPHERDS’ SONG: This is probably the first song I wrote for the school I taught at. Upon reflection, it is clearly based (perhaps too much) on a song by Todd Rundgren (Remember Me). It still sounds pretty nice.
GARY THE GHOST: This is my first effort at writing a song specifically for kindergarteners. I’m not sure it works. The story doesn’t quite make sense, but they loved it anyway. The recording is really old. I probably used a Roland MT-32 and a TESCAM 4-track. I think (I know) I need to re-record it, and soon!
THE BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUNTAIN: I don’t often do cover versions of popular children’s songs, however, I thought this would sound good at a nice brisk tempo, and with recorders! (Upon reflection I realized that the recorder idea came from a song by Tom Newman called “Penny Whistle Boogie).
AL CITRON: What a lovely song! The song is usually sung while playing an excellent game, however I decided to change it up by adding a few instruments and a whistle. The chords are also changed to give it a more song-like feel.
SHOO TURKEY: What a great song! Another from Bessie Jones.
BLACK SNAKE: What a cool song, and game. I never had a grade that did not love to play the game, and because they loved the game, they sang with a lot of enthusiasm. This recording was inspired by some of Led Zeppelin’s acoustic pieces.
BINGO: Kodály music education emphasizes the use of authentic folk songs. BINGO probably does not fit the bill. However, I had a lot of un singing it. I would occasionally do it in reverse order, that is, leaving off the last letter so you get “B-I-N-G- clap…and Bing was his name,” and so forth.
Sean Breen 