Monty's Children's Music Blog

Songwriting Begins With Richmond 4th Graders

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:18:18 PST

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

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:21:16 PST

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

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:21:02 PST

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

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:20:38 PST

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

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:20:11 PST

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

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:19:40 PST

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

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:19:30 PST

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!

SE Oklahoma Trip

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:19:00 PST

These past two days we've been in Southeastern Oklahoma. I did four library shows - Hugo, Valiant, Poteau, and Heavener.

Hugo is a circus city - three different circuses overwinter there. The library is decorated with a circus theme.

Evalyn with her new worm buddy.

The program room in Hugo was decked out with a world travel theme, including the giant colorful hot air balloon in the corner.

"Pop!"

Must've been something I said. ;-)

"Back off!"

At Valiant we had a small but fun group.

It's been years since we visited Poteau! Great to be back!

Evalyn on Poptropica.

Heavener has a new program room - a renovated stone building with a wooden ceiling that Evalyn says looks like an upside down boat.

We had a great audience in Heavener - the boys and girls club, which included quite a few older kids. They were super attentive and great singers!

Next up: Ada! See you soon!

Kansas Trip

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:18:40 PST

Can I really be two weeks into summer shows already?!?

So sorry I haven't been keeping up, but here are some photos from our trip to Kansas last week. More to come!

The first set are from the library in McPherson. I did two shows there, with two fantastic audiences. We met some big-time fans who knew my music from checking it out at the library, and we ended up going to lunch with them!

The second set of photos are from the Junction City library. We had a very small group, and sometimes it's tough to get small groups to participate. But as you can see, that was not a problem in Junction City!

We took advantage of the space and moved around a lot, especially during "Roundy Round."

We've got a very early morning tomorrow as we head for SE Oklahoma. Stay tuned for more photos and video as I try to play catch up.

My schedule is here:

http://www.montyharper.com/Schedule.html

I'll be in Ada, Stillwater, Wichita, Norman, Tahlequah, and many other places. I hope to see you soon!

Silly silly silly...

Signing autographs for our new friends,

who had lunch with us between shows.

Back off!

Roundy Round in Junction City

Roundy Round!

Big Red Fire Truck

Everybody got a kazoo after the show!

A Song Is Born - the Making of "Super Scientist"

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:18:31 PST

This week I've been working with 4th and 5th graders at Richmond here in Stillwater, getting started on a songwriting residency. During our first session I gave them an overview of my writing process, using the song "Super Scientist" as an example. Below is the Prezi I've been using (with some improvements).

Check it out! Have fun!

A Song Is Born on Prezi

More Photos From the Science Frontier

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:18:13 PST

More from last week's Songs From the Science Frontier shows. They all went really really well! I am excited to have this program on my hands!

Love this photo Lisa took of the cool shadow guitar dude, whoever he may be...

My audience at the South Broken Arrow library, following along with the "Wind Energy" song. Check out the artwork - it covers every wall in the room!

Here they're doing the "Roundy Round!"

This is after the show at Brookside Library. We had a very small crowd there - this is most of them!

This is a drawing of wheat aphids 3 year old Caroline made for me during the show:

Songs From the Science Frontier Shows!

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:17:53 PST

I performed at two Tulsa branch libraries today, and this was the first time I presented my full-fledged "Songs From the Science Frontier" program with visuals all the way through. This show represents the culmination of about three years of work getting into the topic of science, and figuring out how I want to present it for kids. It's also just the tip of the ice burg - much more to come!

Both programs went very well!! I have some tweaking still to do but I'm incredibly happy with this new program. Each song is connected to a real scientist and an aspect of science that I want kids to learn about. The whole thing hangs together really well, and I love having the lyrics up on the big screen so kids can read and sing along. I really enjoyed interacting with the kids between songs, talking about science. Both librarians were very positive about the show. There's a lot of depth to it, and I'm excited about bringing it to schools in the Fall!!

I have two more Tulsa programs tomorrow, and a fifth program Friday at the Sam Noble museum in Norman. If they all go as well as today I'll be on cloud nine!

Here I am posing before the morning show at Rudisill. The colorful background is my home slide, which shows the entire program laid out over my CD cover. This slide launches the program and from here we go to lyrics and images for each song.

This is from the afternoon show at Nathan Hale. I'm just chatting with the kids before we got started.

Here we are doing "Wind Energy" - a human wind farm!

Tomorrow:

South Broken Arrow, 11:00 AM

Brookside, 2:30 PM

:-)

Classroom Visit at Richmond

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:17:36 PST

Today I got to visit Mrs. Brown's 2nd grade at Richmond here in Stillwater; one of her students won one of ten visits I donate each summer to the Stillwater Public Library for summer reading prizes.

What a great group! We had a good time singing, laughing, and chatting. We did "Take Me to Your Library," "Silly Song," "Lisa Lee Elizabeth," and "The Cat Came Back."

Many thanks to Mrs. Brown for taking and sending these photos!

Cedar Ridge in Tulsa

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:17:20 PST

Thanks to Lori Mecke for sending in this photo of me with Principal Crager at Cedar Ridge Elementary Friday afternoon after the show! It was good for me to get out and perform, getting back into the swing of things after basically taking a semester off to make and release the new science CD. I've got another school show coming up later this month, and a bunch more stuff in the works, so you'll hear more from me soon. Also the new season of Born to Do Science starts this Saturday. I hope to see you there!

Evan and Tom Paul

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:17:07 PST

Here is a fantastic photo of a fan, Evan, with his cat, Tom Paul. The cat was named after the Tom Paul from my song, "Lisa Lee Elizabeth!" How cool is that?

And a drawing Evan made of Tom Paul (the cat)...

I promised long ago to post these up on my website! I've been excavating my office this week and I just unearthed the folder that contained them. So, up they go. Sorry to take so ridiculously long at it, Evan!

Now back to the pile - I wonder what else I might come across!

Skyline Visit

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:16:53 PST

On Dec 10 I visited Mrs. McDonald's 1st grade at Skyline Elementary here in Stillwater; just now getting around to posting photos! This was another of the classroom visits I donated to the Stillwater Library to give as prizes for their summer reading program. We had a fun time, as always!

Here we're doing the Wind Energy song:

Posed together after the singing:

Happy holidays!

Delivering Donated CDs to Schools

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:16:31 PST

As part of the fundraising campaign to record my new Songs From the Science Frontier CD I gave my backers the option of purchasing CDs to be donated to schools or other institutions where lots of kids would get to hear them.

Eighty-one CDs were purchased as donations!

Over the past two weeks I've been hand delivering and mailing CDs to schools all over the country. Not all of my backers specified recipients for their donations, so I had the fun and surprisingly time-consuming task of choosing where about 2/3 of them would go.

I made sure all the schools here in Stillwater got a copy, as well as schools in surrounding communities. I also sent them to far-flung places such as science magnet schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Durham, and Los Angeles.

For anyone who's curious beyond reason, here is a list of all the CD recipients.

Last week I visited each of the Stillwater schools to deliver their CDs in person. Lisa came along and took a few photos.

Here I am handing off CDs to the librarians at Westwood, Highland Park, and Sangre Ridge...

To all the CD recipients: May they inspire and challenge your students to explore the science frontier!

Signing and Mailing CDs

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:16:09 PST

I signed and mailed out about 170 Songs From the Science Frontier CDs this weekend! Thanks to all who ordered one.

Here's an epic film of the process. Watch to find out how (and why) I signed one CD in American Sign Language!

The Day After Turkey

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:15:54 PST

Twas the morn after Turkey Day. All through the house

Not a creature was stirring, save this eager mouse!

Through the darkness I tiptoed to start up my sleigh

In the early A.M. of this famed shopping day.

I tore across town with a gleam in my eye,

Pulled into a spot right in front of Best Buy,

And zipping my coat up to fend off the cold

Sought the end of the line...

As it lengthened ten fold!

Soon I and these legions of fellow deal-seekers

Hopped forward a bit on the balls of our sneakers,

And into the aisles of the store we all flooded.

Merchandise flew as the shelves were all gutted!

That's when this poor wretched mousey was told

That the two reduced netbooks they'd offered were sold.

Yes, I had been lured to that store with a story

Then slapped with excuses of low inventory.

The mice who had snatched up the netbooks I'd sought

Had camped for three days in the south parking lot!

So I turned on my heels and went back to my ride,

Empty handed, downhearted, defeated inside.

As I tumbled my poor mousey soul back to bed,

Visions of empty shelves danced in my head.

I tossed and I turned and I tried to dismiss this

Foreboding that Santa might skip us this Christmas.

But when I awoke I felt rested and fine,

And resigned to complete all my shopping...

Online!

- Monty Harper

My friends,

If you take advantage of my Thanksgiving sale,

You will get a free CD with the purchase of my new CD,

I guarantee that I'll not run out of free CDs,

There is no parking, no line, no cold,

No shipping, no tax, no kidding!

And what better gift than the gift of music?

Please check it out at MontyHarper.com!

Songs From the Science Frontier is Here!

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:15:37 PST

Songs From the Science Frontier is now available to order or download!

This week only: Order the new CD and get one of my older titles free! This offer is available through my website at MontyHarper.com, and expires next Monday Nov 29.

CDs will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas!
If you are one of my Kickstarter.com backers, your CDs will be first to ship, and they'll be going out very soon!

I'm excited, people! I've been working on this for months, and I'm very proud of it. Can't wait for you to hear it!

Our Washington D.C. Trip

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:15:09 PST

We are safely home and recovering from our trip to Washington, D.C.! It was fantastic. I performed in a planetarium, on the national mall, at a science cafe, and in an elementary school. We got to visit friends, some of whom we'd never met face to face before, and we made many new friends as well. And we wore ourselves out!

Here I am on stage, first act in the morning on Saturday at the USA Science Festival.

Here Evalyn and I are posing with Ben Franklin, who was thankfully willing to "sit for a portrait" (not knowing much about digital photography). We explored a lot of the booths on the mall - they seemed to stretch for miles! Evalyn made a foil boat and a solar powered car, and she foiled me at a math game that involved jumping skulls and pumpkins.

We spent a lot of time also in the Smithsonian museums - mainly the art gallery, the natural history museum, and the American history museum where we got to see the actual flag that inspired the words to "The Star Spangled Banner!" Here is Evalyn in the butterfly pavilion in the natural history museum, where she refused to leave until a butterfly landed on her.

We also got to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the WWII Memorial.

Evalyn bought herself a new buddy, whom she named "Washington." Here they are on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the spot where Dr. King gave his famous speech.

We stopped in Cincinnati on the way home. Here I'm introducing a song at the science cafe in Slatt's Pub.

At North College Hill Elementary the next day I did my music and movement program for kindergarten and 1st grade. Here the kids are making sirens during "Big Red Fire Truck."

Classroom Visit in Perkins

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:14:59 PST

The past three summers I've donated free classroom visits to the Stillwater Public library. They give them out as prizes to kids in the summer reading program. Last Friday I visited a 4th grade classroom in Perkins. Mrs. Ebers just sent me some of the photos that were taken.

Here I'm singing "Hard to Love a Reptile" by request. I always bring my lyrics binder in case I need to sing one I haven't done in a while.

These kids were fantastic singers! They really got into every song. We had a great time together.

Posing with the class.

Posing with the prize winner!

Thanks to Mrs. Eber's students for a great visit! I hope to see you again soon!

Playing With Silly Bandz

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:14:46 PST

Please let me know what you think!

But first, thanks to everyone who offered their input on the new CD cover so far. It looks like Evalyn has been out-voted, as most of you liked the Silly Bandz option. That's right, my 9-year-old actually prefers the photos. Go figure.

For those who say the Silly Bandz will go out of style, and where would that leave me, I'll ask - If you didn't know they were supposed to look like Silly Bandz would the figures still be colorful, interesting, and represent the content of the CD? I'm hoping the charm lies more in the figures themselves than in the fact they are "Silly Bandz" look-a-likes and thus the cover art would outlast the craze. Do I have a point, or am I just talking myself into foolishness?

Anyhow, I'm not totally sold on this approach, but I've been playing with the silly bandz idea and here are some possibilities...

Please let me know if you have a preference! Thanks!!

A. Similar to the original idea:

B. Has a built in balloon for clever signing options:

C. Dino playing guitar:

D. Silly Bandz in a bag; on the back they would be all spilled out. This one depends more on recognizing the figures as Silly Bandz, I guess.

Silly Bandz or Swirly Photos?

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:14:34 PST

Howdy Friends!

I'm nearing completion of my Songs From the Science Frontier CD!! The songs are all recorded and mixed. Next they go to be mastered and then manufactured.

You can pre-order your copies now on my website at www.montyharper.com.

And you can help me out if you like - I'm trying to settle on a concept for the cover. These are just rough sketches to show a couple of ideas. Which do you like best? Any other ideas?
Thanks!

We Did It! Songs From the Science Frontier is In Production!

monty@montyharper.com (Monty Harper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:14:07 PST

Many thanks to all my backers and supporters! We passed the $9,000 funding goal on kickstarter.com early Friday morning - a day and a half before the deadline! The last $1K or so just seemed to melt away overnight! So now I have a CD of science songs to record! Our first studio date is a week from today.

I spent Saturday celebrating with friends and supporters via a live video feed online! It was also my birthday, and as promised, I got a chocolate cake smooshed in my face! I know you are anxious to see that, so here you go...