Black Friday Deals

I hope everyone had a warm and womderful Thanksgiving. Today we’ll be caroling at the Town Park starting around 4:30. We’re meeting over at the All Arts Matter building around 4:00, and any current (or former) select choir members are encouraged to sing. If you’re like me you chose to stay home and sleep in on Black Friday, instead of waking up at 3AM to catch some bargains. To reward your good senses, and to give you that same feeling of an amazing bargain, I’ve found two MP3 Christmas music samplers that you can download for free. It’s 100% legal through Amazon.com, and the songs are a great way to ring in the Christmas season.

While you’re browsing Amazon, be sure to take advantage of the $3 credit you can get toward any MP3 purchase. Just follow this link for details. I used my $3 toward an MP3 album called ‘All I Want’. It’s a really interesting Christmas album by a Canadian treble group called Aliqua. They say this about their album:

“The eight independent and diverse young women that make up Aliqua form the core distinctive sound of the group. As a result, All I Want is not your typical holiday record. The disc embodies the group’s eclecticism both in the song choices and in the arrangements. Some are iconic songs and some are ones people may have never heard sung this way before.”

You can listen to the whole album streaming on Amazon. Happy listening, and I’ll see you at the gazebo!

Online Voice Lesson


Good news: I finally uploaded my very first voice lesson podcast! Just click ‘Lessons’ at the top of the page. If you missed your lesson (Cycle 3) then you can listen to the podcast and complete the online form to receive credit. I really couldn’t make this easier for you if I tried 🙂 I know some GCS alumni and international teachers check this site out, so feel free to listen to the lesson and give any feedback.

https://mrmeredith.edublogs.org/lessons/

Oh by the way, I’m announcing our 2010 Spring musical on Wednesday, so come to the meeting after school and be the first to know!

Copland will rock you

The following is an excerpt from Alex Ross’s blog: ‘The Rest is Noise’. He wrote a book on 20th century music with that same title, and it’s one of the best music guides I’ve read. I just had the urge to share the following:

Listening to the New York Phil play Copland at a Young People’s Concert the other night, I realized I’d omitted a favorite tidbit from the Audio Guide for my book: the derivation of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” from the Fanfare for the Common Man. The sonic evidence is, I believe, incontrovertible:



Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, Sony 63082.

That’s all… Happy Thursday!

Country Music Awards

On Wednesday night @ 8:00 on ABC you can watch the Country Music Awards. Here are the nominees in two categories of the CMA’s. I know that you probably don’t have time to hear all the songs in every category, but if you’re interested in taking part in the Greenville School vote, just click on the song title to hear each nominee and vote at the very end.

Best Single Nominees:

Music Video Nominees:

I’ve searched far and wide, and I’m pretty sure that mine is the only site on the internet that has all five video nominees embedded and streaming… thank you, thank you! Check ’em out.


Randy Houser – Boots On


Taylor Swift – Love Story

Brad Paisley – Start a Band

George Strait – Troubadour
OK, I hope you’ve found some cool new songs and formed some opinions, because here is the survey for sharing your thoughts. Let me know if any of the links or videos don’t work, and don’t forget to tune in Wedsnesday night at 8:00 on ABC for the CMA cermony!