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Posted By: Old Ed Santa's Elves - 11/08/11 09:59 AM
I wrote this song a few years back and my granddaughter Tara recorded it about two and a half years ago just before her 15th birthday. Tara is 17 now and when she finishes her education wants to make music and drama her career.
I just finished doing an animation of the song which I posted on You Tube.

It's called Santa's Elves and was recorded using Band in a Box and Real Band. While I play guitar, I used only Real Band and BIAB tracks for the recording, nothing else.

If you'd like to hear the song and see the video you can do so by going to her website and
clicking on the "Santa's Elves" video button.

Here's her website address. www.taradoyle.com

Hope you like it.
Posted By: RodM Re: Santa's Elves - 11/09/11 11:26 PM
Hi Ed,

Very creative! Which real tracks did you use? Also, I thought I heard tubular bells as well. I liked also how the lyrics throughout the song contained musical terms, too. How in the heck did you also do the animation on this? Is it custom made? Your granddaughter's voice fits this song well, too! If I get brave enough, I may post some original Christmas songs, with some made with BIAB. After hearing your original plus Bob and Josie, I think I still have a lot of work to do! Anyway, great job!

Rod
Posted By: airtcon-161 Re: Santa's Elves - 11/10/11 12:37 AM
Hi Ed, excellent animation which suits the song very well. Alot of work there. Enjoyed watch this. Well done

Cheers

Nels
Posted By: Old Ed Re: Santa's Elves - 11/10/11 09:19 PM
Hi Rod,
Thanks for your encouraging comments.
Yes you did hear tubular bells, and I'm trying to recreate the style that I used. But the song was recorded a couple of years ago and my computer got burned up in a power failure. So some data was lost. However I have been able to recover some and when I find the style I'll repost. This I do remember. We first recorded it in BIAB then went over to Real Band and regenerated.
As far as your own efforts are concerned, I held back for a long time too. I was taking steel guitar lessons at the time, and one of my assignments was to write a tune. It was just before Christmas so I thought I'd write lyrics as well, and dreamed up the idea of using musical terms for the names of the elves.
My teacher gave me high marks for the effort. I had Tara record the song when she was 13 years old. But it only ran one minute and eleven seconds. The following year I added a couple of verses so the song would run a little longer and Tara recorded it again. The final version runs about 2 1/2 minutes.
Since I fool around with animation I always intended to do and animation for the song, and completed it just this week. The program I used is Hash Animation Master. I'm not much of an animator and a pro would have done much better, but it seems to work.
As far as Tara is concerned she's growing up, she's 17 now and is turning in to quite a talented beauty as you may have noticed on her website. She plans to continue her education in music and drama.
But I would encourage you not to hold back. Just give it a shot. I'm no musician by any means compared with the people I hear on this site but I do enjoy fooling with lyrics and melody. At age 75 it keeps me out of my rocking chair.

Good luck

Ed
Posted By: Old Ed Re: Santa's Elves - 11/10/11 09:21 PM
Hello Nels

Your comments are so positive and encouraging.

Thanks a lot.

Ed
Posted By: rsdean Re: Santa's Elves - 11/11/11 12:18 AM
Ed,

Very nice job on this. Josie and I just finished up a video - they are no small chore to complete...

Bob
Posted By: Old Ed Re: Santa's Elves - 11/11/11 01:47 AM
Hi Bob.
Just looked at your video. Wow !!
What a job, both on the video and on the song.
I just can't say enough. And can that gal ever sing.
You did things with the video I could only hope for and the same with the music.
Tara's future is ahead and she'll do well. My future is mostly behind me, if you know what I mean,
Please pass along my congratulations to Josie. Now I'm headed back to see more of your website,

Ed
Posted By: PatrickH Re: Santa's Elves - 11/11/11 01:55 AM
Quote:

Ed,

Very nice job on this. Josie and I just finished up a video - they are no small chore to complete...

Bob





Amen to the video comment. At least for me, it makes the music part seem easy. I suppose an animator might turn that phrase around on us. Nice job on the video and the vocals too. I wish Tara great success. As far as the 75 comment. I have the good fortune of playing with a lot of folks pushing 90 and beyond! Keep it up. It's inspirational.

Regards,
Patrick
Posted By: Old Ed Re: Santa's Elves - 11/11/11 02:23 AM
Patrick,

Thank you.

Up until about a year ago, I played with a couple of fellas who were older than me. We played at a few nursing homes, and a few other venues, and we had a great time. But one of the other guys got a little arthritic in his guitar pickin' hand and was begining to struggle, so the interest just died off. I really miss it too.

All thes bes

Ed
Posted By: gibson Re: Santa's Elves - 11/11/11 07:55 AM
WOW excellent, as well as good songwriters we now have budding cartoonists also!!
WELL DONE!!

Alyn
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