Anatomy of a Ukuleles For Peace Recording Session:

Today I've posted an mp3 of the kids doing "All Together Now", and I've intentionally posted the unedited, untrimmed file so that you can get a clearer idea of what these recording sessions are like. This particular song was from the session last night, with 15 UFP kids. But first, a few things you need to know before you listen...

1) The whacking sound you can hear right at the beginning is Paul hitting a wooden cabinet with a newspaper - the cabinet is home to a very noisy woodworm (you can actually hear the woodworm making little clicking sounds right after Paul says "shhhhh"), and the woodworm was apparently getting

With Annapolis and reactions to Annapolis making headlines around the world, I'm sure you've already heard a lot about Israel today. But just in case the news hasn't reached Reuters yet, I should probably tell you: Ukuleles For Peace got some great work done this evening - a few more excellent takes for the album.

It was also Suhair's birthday today, and at the end of the recording session while everyone else brought out cakes, I sneakily kept the machine rolling. Below is an mp3 of a little magic moment when some of the girls (joined by a backing chorus of parents) sang a birthday song for

[SOUND+VISION] on YouTube.

I've started a [SOUND+VISION] channel on YouTube and I'm steadily uploading the entire [SOUND+VISION] archive... The [sound+vision] project is the constant re-examination of the live performance of soundtracks to silent films. Some of the best work done by Peterborough musicians was for this project... For example - check out Beau Dixon and the Hiscox Bros. scoring David LaRiviere's The Empty Gallery for Artsweek 2005... ...absolutely brilliant. Enjoy.. And stay tuned for more!

The photo above is of one of the UFP orchestra kids, who along with another girl gets a nearly one-on-one lesson every Monday morning before Paul moves on to teach the younger ones who haven't yet graduated to the orchestra. And today, instead of focusing on the UFP orchestra itself, I thought I'd give you a taste of what the younger kids are up to. The mp3 I've posted below is a brief segment of one of the classes this morning - most of these kids are in 'Bet' (like Grade 2), and some of them still need to work on the three golden chords of the ukulele: C, F, and G7 (or 'G-sheva' in Hebrew). Take a listen to Paul leading them through these chords...and remember, this is only a very brief segment! The kids are great to work with, but I hope you can get a sense of just how much effort Paul spends with them...

Torrential rains all day today - Tira is apparently experiencing a minor flood and here in Hod Hasharon things aren't much better. Consequently tonight's orchestra rehearsal was canceled, which is probably for the best, and I definitely don't blame parents or kids for not wanting to be on the road in this weather. The extra time has given me a chance to look at some of the recordings from last night. I've attached an mp3 of Mayan, Hillai, Noya and Leah playing the same Jazz Medley I posted from Day One - this time a lot more polished!

One thing I'm learning very quickly: recording an album of a children's ukulele orchestra is not as easy as it sounds. Tonight some of the advanced kids from the orchestra came by to try a few more songs. They really are very, very good, and their energy is amazing and inspiring. But it IS hard to find a balance between preserving the energy of their usual performances and managing to capture a relatively nice take of a particular song.

After a few days in Jerusalem I was excited to get back to Ukuleles For Peace...and today was definitely a marathon! Three morning classes in Hod Hasharon, and then three in Tira in the afternoon. The last group of the day were all brand new students, getting their hands on a ukulele for the first time ever. Very special. The older kids in the orchestra are getting excited and nervous about the recording as well: we have our first full-orchestra recording session on Friday. Below is an mp3 of the Tira kids practicing "Salaam".

This evening we had a rehearsal with the orchestra in Tira. We walked in and were greeted by a gang of kids working on a dance routine to one of the songs; everyone seems to be extra-enthusiastic now that they realize what's involved in making a recording - the kids have all put in a very impressive amount of effort

This morning Paul and i worked on setting up gear for tonight's practice at his house - we're going to try to have our first 'proper' recording session. With the help of a couple nice condenser mics and my trusty portable recorder I think we've got a good system worked out. This afternoon I've been sorting through the files from yesterday's session with the Arab kids in Tira. After meeting with Youssef, the headmaster of the school,