Pan tunes 5

Pan tunes 5 is ready! I finally finished it over the break! the list of songs are as follows:
Sly Mongoose, Ride like the wind, sea jam, sugar boom boom, copacobana, come monday, corcovado, morning dance, just the two of us, watch what happens, funny valentine, this masqurade, caravan, weve got tonight, heres that rainy day, stand by me, i just called to say i love you, african marching song, and i love her, dock of the bay.

a small departure from the normal "island tunes" i grant you...but pretty good selection.
if you want one..i have a special offer going...$20 plus shipiing of $5 gets the book AND the newly rerecorded 10 easy fun songs book. the 10 easy fun songs are now recorded in music minus one style so you can use it on gigs if you want.

send me an e mail at brad@tropicalshores.net to order.

first Merry Christmas to all readers. I am truly blessed to have all that i have, deserving none.

next, i am a slug. i have not done very much on the book 5 project. I have plans to finish by jan 1 though. i have done some recording and writing but not as much as i wanted to.

Finally, I will try to be more deligent in posting stuff, I have just been distracted by concerts and other performances. It is very motivational (hint, hint) for me to have suggestions of topics that readers need help with or would at least like to discuss.

I hope you are all having the Christmas that you imagined it would be. It's kinda like the saying..."Lord, please help me to be the man my dog thinks i am"...

Home Stretch

It is the home stretch of the 1st half of the teaching year. Christmas time brings concerts, stress, and relief all in the same month. I have half of my concerts and performances over with but still have some to do.

In the break time, i hope to finish pan tunes 5, write a couple of steel drum band arrangements, and finish a concert band piece for one of my elementery bands.
AND i hope to tie down all the family members for a couple of days to record our newest CD. it has been 8 years since we recorded the previous 2 cds and it is just time. I have a new set of guitars pans for linda, mine is fresh from the tuner and my daughter will be home for break....now to think up some incentives for a less than enthusiastic band. hmmm.

I am trying to get out and golf today at carey park. it is always a treat to play at a golf course that has greens, not just sand greens. i played 3 times this week and it is december, so that is not bad. can't wait to get better clubs and play more often when it gets warmer. i have seen lots of imporvement in my game recently and i am keen to try it out today.

but it is extremely windy today. we'll see.

Edit: (3 hours after golf game). new math formula... windy+nervous/slice-bogie=new record high score for me. i DID pick up some tips about chipping and other skills. i will just keep practicing. the wind was around 30 mph with gust above 40. fun huh.

Sidetracked

got side tracked by a project that i have been putting off for a few years. in the book "10 easy fun songs", which is a collection of very easy "learning" tunes i wrote several years ago, the playalong tracks are only recorded once. Normally, i record all tracks 2 times....once with the melody being audible and once without. i had been meaning to rerecord all 10 tunes to make them play along friendly..

so i just finished that project and am back on the "pan tunes 5" train. got 6 songs left to finish. but they are the more difficult to record and write for pan. like "just the two of us". the chord changes are fairly difficult for me to record. anyway, i am making progress. part of the hold up is to decide which key is best for each song. for instance, "and i love her" by the beatles, is in the key of E major...hardly compatible with the average pan player.. so i rewrote it in the key of F, which is much beetter for steel drums.