Supriya's Singing

Supriya has always been a very good singer; she just does not like to stand still and sing. When she does, she is just dynamite. Tonight I was "playing" the piano (banging out chords basically) and singing, and she decided to join me. She sang "Wouldn't it be loverly" and it was wonderful -- going beyond just notes & words, nice tone production and all. We had not worked on that song before, but she knew all the words and the notes.

Next we sang Cole Porter's "Who want so be a millionaire" from High Society (a very good movie that we all enjoy watching). I had to correct her notes a couple of times (for example the second notes of the first two "I don't"s are not the same), and this time she got and retained the corrections (which she could not at earlier times). Supriya made me go through the song ten times until she was satisfied!

We also sang Irving Berlin's "Play a simple melody" with her singing the slow part & I the fast part. She has that one under her belt and knows exactly when to come in and at what pitch.

Another song of that type is "Inchworm" by Frank Loesser from Hans Christian Anderson. It's on that wonderful CD by John Lithgow. The lead sings the words to the song, while the children sing "2 and 2 are 4, 4 and 4 are 8, 8 and 8 are 16, 16 and 16 are 32" in harmony. The orchestration is simple and superb (mainly a soulful cello), and it never fails to give me the goosebumps. Supriya and I have been singing it off and on, me on the lead and Supriya doing the "arithmetic". It's coming along nicely too.

In the last few months, about the time she turned 6, I have noticed a big jump in her musicianship. The big thing for me was when she started holding her own against my harmony. The first song we did together was George M. Cohan's "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy". We had rented Yankee Doodle Boy, the biopic about George M. Supriya kept watching it over and over again. We loved the songs of course and loved watching Jimmy Cagney perform (for which he got the Oscar).

Some day soon I will have a few mp3s on this blog.