Hey! That's My Kind of Music!

Kevin Olson's note from the beginning of this book matches the sentiment behind the blog.  I wanted to share it here.

"Isn't it great when you find a piece of music that perfectly captures who you are, what you like, and how you think?  Maybe you really like the title, or the melody stays in your head all day, or maybe it's just simply a blast to play!  When you feel that special connection with a musical work, you want to play it and hear it over and over again.  I created these compositions with you in mind, hoping that some of them would connect with you in that exciting way.  Best wishes in your discovery of pieces about which you could exclaim, "Hey!  That's my kind of music!"

I appreciate very much Mr. Olson's desire to help students find their kind of music.

Inside My Kind of Music Book 1 you will find:
Making Faces
Dragon's Breath
Stepping on the Cracks
Kokopelli's Flute
Spider vs. Fly
Tiger Tracks
The Cry of the Lone Wolf
Rock, Rock, Rock the Boat
Cristofori's Blues
After the Rain

Each song has a comment from the composer regarding the piece.  For instance, about the song "Stepping on the Cracks" he writes "When I was younger, someone told me that it was bad luck to step on cracks in the sidewalk.  I appreciated the advice, but it made walking down the street a lot of hard work!  This piece portrays someone avoiding every sidewalk crack-- can you hear the jumps?"  Kokopelli's Flute has a Native American sound to it.  Spider vs. Fly was selected by the National Federation of Music Clubs, and it uses different octaves to portray a spider stalking a fly.  Rock, Rock, Rock the Boat takes a familiar favorite and adds a little rock to it.  There's a great variety of songs in this book with many different sounds.  There are slow and smooth songs, blues, rock, fast and staccato, Native American, suspenseful, and just plain fun!

Quick Look

4/4

Quarter, half, whole notes and rests

Middle C Position

Staccato, accidentals, 8va, 15 ma, slur, fermata, accent

 melodic 2nd, third, fifth, 

p-ff crescendo, diminuendo

Here's a video of the first song in this book.

You can find this book at Sheet Music Plus for $5.50.