“In The Sky” Jam Session

I was working in a family care room, where grown-ups and kids hang out during the day. I arrived with a bag of simple instruments and my guitar, prepared for uncertainty. The kids came and went, their attention wandering to superhero toys or Lincoln logs, and then coming back to the music. They wanted familiar songs, so I did Old McDonald, Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, and Ring Around the Rosie. I was glad to see they knew those songs. Somewhere in the middle of what turned out to be an hour-and-a-half session, I came up with a little zipper song about the sky. I don’t remember what led to it, but suddenly we were singing this song. And we sang it for probably ten minutes. We clapped it, we stomped it, and we came up with a list that went on and on what might be in the sky, including bananas, monkeys, and trees, as well as more traditional kinds of answers like rainbows, clouds, stars, and angels. Put in your own words. Full moons. Mountains. Airplanes.

My friend Barbara Chusid and I recorded it today. She plays melodica. It was a blast recording in my little upstairs studio.

One thing that is interesting to me about this song is that it’s in a minor key. In my experience, kids really like to sing in minor keys, but most songs they do are in major. It lends a certain emotional heft to music, hopefully without being foreboding. I think Plato said that what we call our major key is one mode (Ionian) to be avoided in music, especially by soldiers. But it’s our most common mode. Think regular major scale. I guess times have changed.

In the Sky

There are rainbows.

There are rainbows.

There are rainbows.

In the sky.

Eagles. Dragons. Mountains. Angels. Rainbows. etc

© Stuart Stotts 2018