#sopercussion

One day I was playing with my son, when he started to sing an unusual melody... It was the chorus from "Strange Steps" by Sō Percussion and Grey McMurray, from the album "Where (we) Live", which I used to play a lot at home. 

My son calls it "whatsee song", because of the lyrics:

Strange steps take long to stop WHAT SEEMS overdone and false for fun

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The other day we were bored on a long distance bus trip. I suggested we listen to the "Whatsee song". Staś was singing his favourite chorus, which reminded me of "Koyaanisqatsi" - qatsi sounds quite similar to "whatsee", so why don't give it a shot... 

The first part had begun, it was already dark outside, so Staś was pretty scared of the low tone voices, but somehow he remembered the title and that the piece was written by Philip Glass. 

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Couple of days ago Staś asked again about "Koyaanisqatsi". It was daytime, so we gave it a second chance. He liked the piece - or maybe only likes the fact that I enjoy it. So we dug deeper - I offered him "The Hours" soundtrack, after the good-night reading. He liked it a lot. He took his toy guitar and started to follow the rhythm. Now he wants my to play him some Philip Glass each night as a lullaby. 

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So you like Philip Glass? Maybe you'd enjoy some Steve Reich? And there came "Clapping music".  - Do you know this guy in a hat wrote a piece of music just for clapping hands? Sounds easy, right? So take a look!

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So maybe it's time for some Terry Riley? He looks a bit like Santa, doesn't he?

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And this is how our story begins. Is it even a story? I don't think so. I thought I'd share a route I've found to have fun with my 4 year old son in the field, which for some seems to be reserved for highly intellectual elite. But to be honest - what I like the most about most exciting pieces of contemporary classical music is the curiosity of it's creators - same curiosity that my 4 year old son has as a a given... :-) That's why they get together so well! 

I will try to post here pieces of music that my son enjoyed and that have let us to have some fun with it afterwards. If you have any tips - please post a comment or do whatever you do on tumblr.