One Voice

It is nearing the end of school, and as Micah is getting ready for school choir concerts and end of the year jazz band concerts, he is still working on some songs at home.  

We are trying to have Micah experience many different genres of music.  

He has done some oldies, folk like songs, modern pop songs, classic rock songs, and so now we thought it was time for some country.  

To start out mellow, Micah was going to learn a song that came out the year he was born by a young 11 year old boy called "One Voice".  We thought it suited his voice and age range.  

Here he is working on "One Voice" by Billy Gilman:

Everyone Needs to Learn a little John Denver

Really, John Denver was a great guitarist and singer who wrote most of his own songs.
Everybody needs to learn at least a little John Denver!

Micah chose to learn a great song John Denver wrote for his wife many years ago called
Annie's Song.

Here he had a bit of mix up with the words, but he was still working on it at this point:

Micah's Spring Choir Concert

It is Spring time and Micah has had a rough patch.  He was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes which is the insulin dependent diabetes.  He had to spend 3 days in the hospital and miss a lot of school.  He managed to get back just in time for his Spring Choir Concert.  

Here he is performing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".  He is one of only 3 boys who does the really high part, and if you listen, he is the only boy who does the high part toward the end of the song as the other 2 boys forgot.  

           

That's pretty high!  

Micah's Spring Jazz Band Concert

Micah performed in his Spring Jazz Band Concert this past week.  

It is a pretty good band, although we still can't hear those guitars very well over all the horns.  

We still know he is doing a good job.  

Micah says, "I'm the rhythm section.  We're not supposed to be loud, we're supposed to be background."

Well, someday he should crank up that amp and show everyone!

It's fun to see little bits of when Micah jams out to the music.  Here is a video of part of one of his songs.  Keep an eye out for the jammin' sessions.

Micah Makes Concert Choir!

It has been one awesome week for Micah.  Not only did he just win a $100 gift certificate for his jazz guitar entry, but then he found out he made it into the Junior High Concert Choir for next year!  

Micah had auditioned last week for the concert choir, which is made up of mostly 9th grade boys and girls.  As a pretty young 7th grader whose voice hadn't changed yet, the odds were against him, as the teacher said that "preference was given to 9th graders".  

But, he auditioned anyway, and he made it!  What an awesome kid!  

We found out today from his choir teacher that Micah not only did well auditioning, but he got a perfect score at auditions in everything.  He had to sing a solo, do a sight reading exercise, and theory, and he got 100% on everything!  So way to go Micah!  We look forward to next year when we get to see you sing with the best of the best!

Micah Wins a Mardi Gras Jazz Contest!

The local music store was hosting a Mardi Gras/Jazz music contest where they said anyone could upload themselves playing some jazz music to their webpage and they would pick one of the entries to win a $100 gift certificate to their store.  

Well, Micah was in the Jazz Band at school, and he had been learning how to improvise from his guitar teacher somewhat, so we had him play some of his jazz music from school and improvise a little bit and submitted his video to the contest.

Then he WON!  Wooohoooo!  Micah was surprised, but we sure were happy about winning that gift certificate!  We went right out to use some of it to buy a new nicer microphone so Micah can sing better with his guitar.

Here is his jazz video that won:

Talent Show for Micah

Micah joined his younger sister and brother this last week to perform in a talent show.  Micah played and sang to Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now".

He did great considering our microphone was a little bit lousy and broken off!

I'm Looking Through You

Micah, now 12 years old, just keeps getting better and better.  

One thing that has been steadily improving is his vocals.  While a lot of the time it has been difficult to hear Micah sing over his guitar without a microphone, now he has learned how to better project his voice.  

His latest song is yet another great Beatles classic,

"I'm Looking Through You":

            

We think this one is pretty awesome.

Micah's 12 Year Old Guitar Photo Shoot

For Micah's 12th birthday, he went all out with a nice photo shoot with his guitars.

Some classy ones with a shirt and tie, and yet also some fun ones.

           

Even one without his glasses for all the girls to get a good look at his eyes!

Last Song as an 11 Year Old

Micah was getting older.  Although he still loved building awesome lego creations, he wasn't a little boy anymore.  He was about to turn 12!  

So, we decided to get one last song recorded as an 11 year old.  

Here is The Beatles "Here Comes the Sun":

               

This song is supposed to be played with a capo, but it made the pitch a little too high (or rather too low) for Micah's voice range, so we opted to leave it off.  

Christmas Jazz Band Performance

Micah had a Christmas concert for Jazz Band this past December.

He wasn't feeling the best for the concert, but he still managed to make it there and play his guitar.  

It is always a little frustrating that you can't hear the guitars over all those horns, but I'm sure they are doing a good job.  Maybe eventually they can turn their amps up a bit and we'll be able to hear them better.

Well, since we couldn't hear him too well at the concert, we had him play at home to get a better idea.
Here he is playing a bit of Jazz at home, although you won't get the full effect without the horns and drums.