Parents' Pick Nominee 2008

The Elliott Music Studio has been nominated for a Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks Award! Several months ago I listed the Elliott Music Studio on GoCityKids.com . This web site reaches hundreds of thousands of parents and covers resources and events in over 50 cities in the US. As a parent, I have enjoyed GoCityKids' weekly emails that update me on activities in the community that I otherwise would have missed.

It turns out that GoCityKids is also part of Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect.com. So, from May 19 to June 30, ParentsConnect has launched their first annual Parents' Pick Awards and are inviting parents all over the US to tell them what's best in their city. Categories include: best kids' museum; best toy store; best playground/park; best green space; and many more. Vote for nominees online at http://www.parentsconnect.com/parentspicks until June 30 to help determine which become are "top picks" in their city.

On July 15, the ParentsConnect.com site will publish the Parents' Picks winners and the winning venues' information will remain featured on the site for a year. All Parents' Picks businesses are nominated based on recommendations from ParentsConnect.com local city editors that live and work in the cities they cover, in conjunction with ParentsConnect users' feedback. Users' votes and rankings ultimately determine which venues are selected as winners in their respective categories.

The Elliott Music Studio has been nominated for an award in best artsy class for big kids in Kansas City. So check out the ParentsConnect site and cast your vote!

Quote of the Week

"All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls!"

~Thomas Carlyle

Glass Armonica

One of my Husband's passions in life is technology, especially computers. So he is always finding all sorts of neat and unusual things related to music from the world wide web to share with me. This week's is the Glass Armonica. This instrument was the brainchild of one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. The sound it produces is quite clear and crisp. It has an ethereal quality that was said to make people go mad or enter into a state of melancholy. All of the dangers from playing this instrument have been proven false unless you are playing one made of lead glass. There is a small chance you might get lead poisoning. For more on the Glass Armonica check out Wikipedia.

Quote of the Week

“I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.”

-Henry Emerson Fosdick American clergyman (1878-1969)

Free Music on the Web

I haven't bought a new CD in quite some time and here's the reason why, free online music. I am especially drawn to the free radio stations. They broaden my musical horizons and introduce me to new artists that I would have never thought of listening to before. So for this post I thought I would share with you some of my favorite places to listen to and download free music on the web.

• http://www.accuradio.com

Accuradio is definitely one of my favorites. It's the first online radio that I found that lets you customize your listening. My favorite station is Modern Rock Classics with the sub-station Alternative 90's. You can customize your listening even further by telling it what bands or groups you don't want to hear. Pausing live streaming radio is also a perk and if you just don't like the song that's currently playing you can skip it and try the next one. By clicking on the cover art of the song album you can learn more about the artist and purchase if you so desire. They do take time out every once in awhile to share an ad or two but I have never found them to be as intrusive as traditional radio. Swinging Pop Standards is another Fav. Check out the sub-station Cole Porter Songbook.

• http://musicovery.com

Musicovery is an interactive webRadio that lets you customize your listening based on your mood. You can then take it further by choosing genre and decade. The music is then mapped out on your screen so you can hop from song to song if you like. Register as a user to save your music history.

• http://finetune.com

Finetune lets you create play lists that can be shared. You have to register with this site, but it's free. They call themselves "the 'mixed tape' evolved." Once you sign up and create your first play list they will offer you artist recommendations.

• http://pandora.com

Pandora is free internet radio that is based on the Music Genome Project. Once you register, you create stations based on favorite songs or artists. Then you listen to the selections that are offered and tell them if they have chosen wisely for you or if they missed on that selection, further customizing your station and making it your own. Pandora will remember your choices and try to offer you songs that fit more closely to your preferences in the future.

• http://songza.com/

Songza is another neat online music search engine and internet Jukebox. Let's say you have a sudden urge to listen to Green Day. You type Green Day into the search box and click search. It will pull up a list of songs by that artist and you can pick and choose what you want to listen to. This site is newer to me so I haven't had a chance to try out all of its other cool features. Let me know what you think.

• http://freekidsmusic.com

This is a really cool kids music site. You can download free mp3's from quality, independent kids music artists. I love the fact that they have so many choices to choose from. As a parent of a young child, I appreciate being able to find quality kids music that I can stand to hear over and over again.

These next 2 sites are free online music tools that I just couldn't not add to this list. The first one is Metronome Online. This site makes it so easy for me to set tempos while I score read at my desk. It also beats spending tons of money on fancy metronomes. The other site is an extremely comprehensive music dictionary that all musicians should have bookmarked somewhere.

• http://www.metronomeonline.com/

• http://www.dolmetsch.com/defsa.htm Music Dictionary

Quote of the Week

“The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist.”

-Julia Cameron

Quote of the Week

"My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require."

— Edward Elgar

Hope for Africa Children's Choir

I couldn't help but feel hope when I heard about the Hope for Africa Children's Choir from Uganda. The children's choir performed at this years 2008 United Methodist General Conference that concluded last week. I first heard of them from the posts on this week's United Methodist musician list serv. Several enthusiastic posts were made, so I had to check it out for myself. If you would like more information about the Hope for Africa Children's Choir, Check out the links below. Enjoy!


United Methodist General Conference 2008 News Archive
Choir opens world to children with 'hard lives'
Uganda children’s choir awes General Conference