Lyrics to Xylophone Song :

Everything sounds sad on a xylophone

I want to make it happy
I want to sing about happy things like love and lemontrees
But I don't know how to do it
So screw it

In my neighbourhood
Lives an orange cat
And every now and then a magpie jumps up from behind
Starts pecking at his tail
I think he's trying to make friends
But he's just very socially incompetent
And that's the way it goes
No-one understands
The wishes of a magpie
And now he just wants to die
(sobbing)

So he flies back to his nest

It's not a very nice nest, he can't even have that
He watches from above the cat get cuddly with another cat
And it's no fair

He tries to clean the place up

But ends up on the couch
And the pile of socks beneath is getting bigger every day
And he doesn't know how to stop it
Now he sits there eating microwaved left-overs from last wednesday watching Ricki Lake
And no-one in their right mind watches Ricki Lake
He sees the fat girl who gets picked on cause her dad has money while the other kids are poor
And he's ashamed when he cries

Everything's so sad on a xylophone

I want to make it happy
And I've tried to sing about stupid things like love and lemontrees
But I don't know how to do it
So screw it
[ Xylophone Song Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
MUSIC PAGE Web Main Page

MIDI FILES I played these pieces on my synthesizers. I improvised some of

them.

Piano Study An improvisation with a fast backup. Many of these files are studies of
ideas that I never brought to perfection.

Xylophone Piece This was done live and fast. It has shifts in timing because I always
played alone, so never learned to keep in time with an ensemble.

Three Part Composition This is one of the few multi-part pieces that I was able to
do. It is all instantaneous improvisation, so while playing the first line the other lines
had to be imagined and then played after the first line was completed. I can't do that
now. The same piece in Four Parts is below.

Ain't Misbehavin I think Margaret used to sing this with a band. Here is my
rendition of the song.

Ain't Misbehavin Variations Margaret calls this "wandering"

Piano and Xylophone Piece I like this one.

Third Man Theme This is an old piano piece from about 1945. I remember that my
cousin Juanita Waller played it for me.

A Piano Study

Ragtime Piece The synthesizer plays the rhythm, under control of the player, while
the player has fun improvising.

A Guitar Piece

Trouble in Mind This is an old song. I did it as a three part piece on my old
computer and music system.

Guitar with Organ Backup

Another Xylophone Piece

Country Music Piece Margaret and I would go to Moose Lodge dances. After an
invigorating square dance the band would play a slow dance like this, so we could
cuddle.

Another Short Piano Piece

Here are a couple of Christmas songs. What Child is This and Christmas Stars

FAMILY The following files were done by family members.

Margaret She has been doing music all her life. In high school she was in the band.
As an adult she sang in the Sweet Adelines for many years. A few years ago she
decided to take piano lessons for fun. She played this country style piece for me.

Bryan Wood This was recorded when grandson Bryan was less than 1 year old.

Zachary Steppe This was recorded when grandson Zachary was about 1 year old.

Daniel Steppe This was recorded January 29, 2002 when Daniel was about 2 1/2
years old.

Moninna My daughter did this for me on one of my synthesizers..

Moninna My daughter and I play a violin duet, when she was taking violin lessons at
school.

Moninna She sings a Christmas song at about 5 years old.

Duet I play the Mandolin and daughter Moninna plays the Violin, when she is about
nine years old and taking violin lessons at school.

Duet Lewis and I play a duet on violins. He is about 7 years old.

Me I play a guitar piece that I composed.

WAVE FILES Wave files are large even at low resolution, so there won't be
many. On some browsers the file loads and plays one part at a time, which I haven't
learned to fix. But when it is finished loading you can play the whole file again, or
save it. These are low resolution sound files. If you would like a high resolution file
please let me know.

In The Mood A song we always like to dance to.

Mexican Piece I finally got around to adding another music piece to the website.

Another Mexican Piece Added July 2005.

Yet Another Added October 2005

ORGAN INTRO, MALAQUENA, ORGAN FINALE Here are a set of three organ
pieces. You will need a speaker system external to the computer to hear these three
files well. If you can add reverberation it will improve the sound.

BACH PIECE I play a Bach melody, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."

A COUNTRY SONG It starts with the line "Well, I never felt more like singing the
blues."

A SHORT INTRO Something I did without thinking.

OLD PIANO This is a piece that I played on my present old piano. See the OLD
PIANO links below for other improvisations that I played on my old pianos.

OLD GUITAR I taught myself the elements of classical guitar playing. I enjoyed
learning this piece.

OLD GUITAR A second piece on the old guitar.

A THIRD OLD GUITAR PIECE I played and recorded this piece years ago. The
name of the piece is Lagrima, which means 'tear drop' in Spanish.

A FOURTH OLD GUITAR PIECE

VIOLIN LESSON When my daughter was taking violin lessons at school I practiced
with her and tried to teach her somewhat. Here she begins by wanting to tune her G
string. I tell her that we are supposed to end together, so we try it. She loudly
verbalizes her ending: e-e-e-e. She ends by saying "Let's play it again."

VIOLIN AND CELLO PIECE Played on my synthesizers.

PIANO ETUDE A short piano piece.

GUITAR AND XYLOPHONE Played on my synthesizers. A four part composition,

the same as the three part composition above with drums added.

PIANO PIECE Another piece that I like. Added summer 2007

BASE PIECE When Margaret and I first moved to Timberlake Drive we would go
dancing every Saturday at the Moose club. While Margaret was dressing I would
improvise with a Base on my Synthesizer.

UNUSUAL INSTRUMENTS I have been collecting interesting

musical instruments for many years. Here are pictures and sounds of the
instruments. To hear the sound again click your 'refresh' button. Most of the music
files are short and will start playing quickly. But the OLD PIANO file is long and
may require a minute or more to load.

SHAKERS These hand held percussion makers belong to my wife Margaret, who
had them before we met. They have a name but we don't know it.

OCARINA This is a small ceramic blowing instrument. It is homemade, brightly

painted and makes a whistling sound.

OCEAN DRUM A finger percussion instrument which can also make a sound like
waves on a beach.

GOURD PIANO A small plucked instrument made out of a gourd and steel
vibrators. I can play simple tunes on it.

MANDOLIN A mandolin with an unusual body that I bought in Sicily.

GUITAR I bought this guitar at the same time that I bought the above mandolin.

FIRST OLD PIANO I have had a couple of old pianos. They have a nice slightly out
of tune sound.

SECOND OLD PIANO This one came to me, free, late in life.

OLD VIOLIN A violin that belonged to my grandfather, and which I used to teach
my daughter.

COW HORN This a trumpet made from a cow horn when I was a kid.

MY FIRST MUSIC SYSTEM

COMPUTER SOUND This page tells how a file stored on our computer becomes
sound to our minds.
My first computer music system. On top are a MIDI switcher box and a Digital
Signal Processor. Then a Casio CZ5000 synthesizer which I no longer have. Then a
Korg DW-8000 synthesizer. Then a dual deck cassette tape recorder. On the bottom
shelf is Roland drum machine and a Roland mixer/amplifier. In front is maybe a
Yamaha PSR-SQ16 synthesizer. To the left is a Radio Shack Color Computer. I
purchased it in 1980 before IBM came out with their PC design that we all use now.