Children's Books

One of the more interesting paths my music career has followed is a collaboration with author/educator Carol Cummings, who has developed teaching programs with the University of Washington and Seattle Pacific University, and who travels around the globe teaching educators and students alike. She has written a series of books focusing on social/emotional and reading skills, and since she writes the books in verse, she thought it would enhance the impact of the texts to set them to music.

Carol Cummings

That, of course, is where I came in. Since each book had not only its own theme but its own set of characters and settings, I had to find a unique sound for each book. And since none of the books had middle-aged white men for characters, I had to think of ways to sound like owls, kitties, elephants, possums, frogs, and even a young black girl who is a tattle-tale. In addition, each book had several different sections that needed different sounds, but the whole thing had to be a continuous piece lasting sometimes 10 or 12 minutes, a challenge for a writer and musician, but even more for the engineer who had to mix the whole thing down. (That would be me as well.)

You can judge for yourself how well I succeeded simply by clicking on one of the book covers below to hear a brief excerpt. (It may take a minute or two to load the audio file onto your computer.) More information about this series of books and their author is available at cummings11.home.mindspring.com.

Tattlin' Madeline, as you might expect, is a snitch, and, as you might also expect, isn't very well liked. With the help of her teacher, she learns the difference between ratting out her brother and her friends and reporting when there's really something that an adult should know about. This is the first of the projects I did with Carol Cummings, and the only time I've ever tried to sing as a young black girl.

The protagonist of this story is a young fellow who doesn't think through the consequences of his actions. (Is it a coincidence that he also apparently happens to be a musician? Perhaps not.) Anyway, aided by that oh-so-helpful voice in his head (complete with plenty of reverb to indicate plenty of space in there) he begins to understand that the choices he makes determine how his day goes. I took the idea for the climbing diminished chords from the old song "Along Came Jones."

Stomper, a young elephant, and his giraffe buddy Stretch ignore the warnings given by Stomper's mom and get into a variety of fixes. Mom, of course, patiently lectures him after each one, but it takes some time before Stomper gets the message. I used some African themes for this story, with unusual time signatures and rhythms, including a track of an African finger drum I'd owned for years but had found very few opportunities to play it.

Sing-Along Phonics Fun consists of a series of brief lessons on phonics, set to such children's tunes as "Three Blind Mice," "Are You Sleeping?" and "The Wheels On The Bus." The audio clip for this one introduces one fat cat, who sits on a mat with a rat and a baseball bat. The meowing is done on my electric guitar with a metal slide.