Finally, after many weeks of preparation with kids from grade 3 to grade 8, we’ve got several songs to share. This is the first post of many that I hope to finish before the semester is out, but I’m learning that there are an awful lot of variables to keep track of in doing these projects, and it’s often quite challenging to get set up, get warmed up, practice, then pull off a good recording - all in a mere forty five minutes once or twice a week.

That said, however, these kids are amazing.

The songs we’re recording now actually have very little to do with me, which is wonderful because I can see the kids standing on their own and organizing themselves. I typically split a class into two or three subgroups, appoint a “director” to each group, and give them a basic structure to fulfill in their composition. Then they haul their drums to wherever I’ve assigned them and get started (the weather’s been nice so we’ve gotten a lot of nice playing outside in a eucalyptus grove - the school is in a very pretty location). Soon I check in with them, give a little direction, and give them the five minute warning. After that they try to nail a recording.

This is a recording from last Monday by the 8th graders:

Download Free

And this one is from last Wednesday by 6th and 7th graders, two songs in one:

Download Free

And finally, this is the 5th grade, which I seem to have organized into a choir. This song is partially scripted and partially improvised, involves a lot of call-and-response singing, and requires a serious amount of concentration and coordination for 17 kids to perform all at once:

Download Free

Click on a thumbnail below to see a bigger picture, and stay tuned: there are more Raskob tunes coming very soon! We’ve got some great stuff in the pipeline…