Kyle's Music Page

Kyle started recorder lessons with Children's Music Workshop on October 16, 2007. These are group lessons held after school at Fairburn Elementary School on Tuesdays and ran to the end of the school year.

Kyle started piano lessons with Kanae Matsumoto at UCLA on Saturdays starting November 3, 2007. His last lesson with her was June 14, 2008, as we sadly had to stop because we were moving to Palo Alto. We have yet to find a new piano teacher in the Bay Area.

This page records a few of his accomplishments.

Songs

Kyle has come up with a few of his own songs.

Untitled. Recorded July 2, 2005, when Kyle was four years old. Some "scat" style singing which he liked (and still likes) to do, with me playing guiro. He overdubbed himself in this song.
The Rolling Pencil. Recorded October 27, 2008 using an Edirol R-09. Kyle said he thought this up at school. He insists the music is his own invention, but it sounds familiar to me...I can't quite place it, though.
First Song. Recorded November 24, 2008 and remixed 11/25. So named because it was our first song using my new audio interface (Edirol UA-25EX). It consists of four tracks recorded separately (and each without hearing the others), all using a Shure SM-57 microphone plugged into the audio interface. First Kyle sang, then I played my new Fender Stratocaster (with the amp set to either metal or rectifier, a simple I-ii-IV-V-I chord progression in D major), then Kyle played a toy xylophone, and then a toy accordion. I panned the four tracks to various parts of the stereo spectrum.
Oooh. Composed 12/20/2008 on the Korg DS-10 and recorded 12/22.

Video Recordings

Video of Kyle's first recital, at a joint recital for six of Kanae Matsumoto's students at Steinway Hall, Field's Piano in West Los Angeles, Sunday, April 6 at 6pm. Kyle plays "Winter Wind" and "Wind in the Bamboo Tree", both by William Gillock.

Kyle's First Recital (very large download, 109 MB)
YouTube version (slightly truncated and lower quality, but much faster to watch)

The following is a YouTube video of a few seconds of a Name That Tune Game at the Fairburn Recorder Class that features Kyle. This video is small.

Name That Tune

First Transcription

On 11/18/07, Kyle tried playing the beginning of the Super Mario Brothers theme on his recorder, by ear. He then had the idea to write it down, so I gave him a piece of blank music paper and this is what he wrote. He figured out the rhythm (which is perhaps not quite right at the very end) by himself; my only help was to point out where bar lines should be and to make sure to fill out the last measure.

Sound Recordings

[All pieces below were recorded directly to MP3 with an Edirol R-09 portable digital recorder.]

Recorded at home, November 18, 2007. Kyle playing soprano recorder.

Jingle Bells

Recorded at Kyle's 4th piano lesson, November 24, 2007, in the accompanist office, Schoenberg Music Building, UCLA. Kyle played a Fazioli grand piano; for the duets Kanae Matsumoto accompanied on the same piano. The songs are from the Piano Adventures Primer Level.

Merrily We Roll Along (duet)
Hot Cross Buns (duet)
The Shepherd's Flute (first use of damper pedal)
Ode To Joy

Recorded at Kyle's 5th piano lesson, December 1, 2007. For "Ode To Joy" Kyle added the third phrase (not in the book) himself by ear and then memorized it. For this piece Kanae played on the adjacent Steinway piano using her own accompaniment.

Ode To Joy (duet)
Train's A-Comin' [sic] (duet)

Recorded at Kyle's 7th piano lesson, January 5, 2008. All duets.

Recorded at Kyle's 9th piano lesson, January 19, 2008. All duets.