Skyline Residency Songs Now Available!

I just completed a songwriting residency at Skyline Elementary here in Stillwater. The fifth graders used their graduation theme for inspiration, so the songs are about transitioning to sixth grade with an outer space flavor. Have a listen! Enjoy!!

 

Songwriting Continues With Richmond 4th Graders!

I've been writing songs all month (one 40 minute session per day) with the 4th graders at Richmond Elementary. We are down to our last week together, and the three songs are finished - one for each class: "Technical Hamburger," "The Battle of the Green-eyed Potato," and "The Ancient Chinese Pickle." 

It may sound like frivolous fun, but students practiced many different skills in the process of writing, including brainstorming, organizing ideas, teamwork, language skills, music skills, and critical thinking.

AND visual art! Chris Ramsay from the OSU art department and his students Kris and Leslie visited each class twice to help incorporate visual art into the writing process. Our first art project helped the kids visualize and focus their song ideas. 

The second art project is happening now. The kids are creating pieces to go along with their songs at the final performance and online (see the photos below)! Chris, Kris and Leslie put an incredible amount of work into this and it's brought a whole new dimension to the residency. Thanks you guys!

Each class will perform their song with me at the final concert this Thursday March 8 at 6:00 PM at Richmond Elementary here in Stillwater. The public is invited.

Soon after that I will post the final songs and artwork for you to enjoy. Stay tuned!

Thanks to Marie Wilson for taking these photos:

Chris Ramsay, head of OSU Art Department, on the floor making pickle minions with the kids!

I sing "The Ancient Chinese Pickle," trying out last minute changes, as 4th graders create their pickle minions.

Finished minions posted to the dry erase board.

Another class created living food figures for their song "The Battle of the Green-Eyed Potato."

Songwriting Begins With Richmond 4th Graders

This week I began working with 4th graders during their music time at Richmond Elementary! I'll help each of the three classes complete their own song over the next six weeks. This year I'm working with the art department at OSU to integrate visual arts into my process. The students will be doing an art project to help inspire their songwriting! 

Yesterday the whole fourth grade had music together so we could talk about what to expect.

I met with my first class today and we broke into small groups to brainstorm.

The kids were fantastic - they were very excited and got right down to work on lots of great ideas!

This residency is funded in part by a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council. I'll post more as we progress!!

Birthday Musings

Howdy Friends, Fans, Family,

It's my birthday! Another year gone!

One year ago today I was having the time of my life celebrating my successful kickstarter.com campaign to raise the money to record Songs From the Science Frontier, having a cake smashed in my face live online! (Enjoy the video below!)

It's been a great, busy year for me, as you can see here on the blog.

I thought today might be a good day to post a preview of coming attractions...

Feedback from the CD so far is overwhelmingly positive and I hope to do more this year to get word out about it! I've created a live show around the songs, which I'm promoting to schools right now, and I also plan to tour regionally with it during Spring Break. I'm planning more songwriting residencies here in Stillwater, and I'll be performing again at the USA Science Festival in Washington, D.C. in April. I've put together a fantastic lineup of nine Born to Do Science programs for the library; one a month from September to May and I'm really looking forward to that!

Evalyn's first day of school was Friday and she's very excited to finally be a fifth grader!!

Many of you are wishing me happy birthday on my facebook page, and I appreciate it very much! Thanks!

If you'd like to do me a birthday solid, please make sure you've "liked" each of these facebook pages. It's a great way to keep up to date on what's going on with my performances, recordings, and Born to Do Science:

Monty Harper, Children's Musician
Songs From the Science Frontier
Born to Do Science


And here's that cake in the face video again from one year ago. Enjoy!

Two Round Rooms

I did two programs this week, and they had something unusual in common - both were in round rooms! (So of course I performed "Roundy Round.")

On Tuesday I was at the Kaiser library in Tulsa. Lisa stayed home that day, so it was just me and Evalyn. Thanks to Emily Tichenor from the Tulsa system who took these photos!

Quintessential Evalyn!

The second round program was Thursday at the metro library in downtown OKC, for their Noon Tunes series. That was a fun one because I got to perform a few songs I don't normally. The audience was quite a mix of whoever wandered by, plus a few fans who came just to see me! Ironically the large group of Y kids who were plainly visible eating their lunches right outside the glass walls never came in to enjoy the show. Ah, well!

Many thanks to Hal Swinhart for sending in these photos from the show. He also set up a recording rig and captured the performance on CD. I may some of that recording with you once I've had a chance to hear it...

Here are a couple more photos that Lisa took...

Tulsa - 6/22/11

This morning I performed for Charles Page library in Sand Springs. We had a very outgoing group of kids and I had fun interacting with them! 

After these photos I'll tell you about my afternoon show at Connor's Cove...

The Purple Horde! All the kids in purple came from the same daycare. They were looking for their daycare logo on my purple shirt!

These kids made "Silly Song" their own, suggesting verse ideas with no prompting from me. Here I'm being chased by a wolf.

"Loose Tooth"

On our way to Connor's Cove we got curious about the name of the library where we'd just been and Evalyn asked me to look up Charles Page on my iPhone. He was a really great guy and a founder of Sand Springs. You should look him up too, to find out why he has a library and a street named after him.

Connor's Cove is the most awesomest place to perform for families in Oklahoma, I think, even if awesomest isn't a word. It'd be worth a drive to go there and see any performer. They even put a quote from me on their website!

Down in front of the audience for "Howdy Song."

Acrocanthosaur Roars

"This is the sun shining down on Earth..."

In line for the sales table.

My buddy Adam here is a teen volunteer for the Hardesty Library (where Connor's Cove is). He told me he first saw me about ten years ago at a library in Kansas. And I remember him because he had a foam guitar that he was playing along with me on. He was about three years old then! Very cool to see him again!!

Tahlequah - 6/21/11

Yesterday we were at Tahlequah. We've been to the library there many times before but this year the program had outgrown the program room, so it was my first time in the adjoining building, which is the old Carnegie library. The building is on the historical registry, so they are limited in what they can do to renovate. It's a huge rectangular room with plaster walls, high ceiling, wooden floors, and no curtains. Needless to say the acoustics are - well, a challenge. But the kids were great, and even though it was tough to hear, we all had a good time!

The second show - even more full-up than the first!

Watonga - 6/20/2011

The Watonga library is another of those that has had me back nearly every year I've been doing summer reading programs! We always look forward to seeing what they've done to decorate, and this year they did not disappoint. There was a huge igloo in the program room, made out of empty milk jugs!

Evalyn is counting - trying to guess how many jugs for a drawing for a stuffed penguin.

Never mind that penguins are South Pole and igloos are North Pole, this is still the coolest thing ever!

I stood between a rain forest and an igloo for this program - and you thought the weather was weird where you are today!

This little guy fell asleep and was dead to the world while other kids did the "Acrocanthosaurus" dance.

Coming up - programs in Talequah, Tulsa, Hollis and Altus this week. See the full schedule here: http://www.montyharper.com/Schedule.html

Ada - 6/16/11

We always love to visit Ada! This time Lisa had to stay home, so Evalyn and I went on our own. Well, we did bring Evalyn's stuffed buddy, Purple Monkey. He was given to her by the Ada librarian the year she was born, so she makes sure he gets to have a little homecoming every summer.

We had a great group and lots of fun with the performance as always!

Evalyn took the photos for me during the show!

AND Evalyn ran the sales table for me. She did a great job all by herself - her first time!