House at Pooh Corner by Kenny Loggins (cover)
 

I transposed "The House at Pooh Corner" by Kenny Loggins so that it was in the range of a woman's voice and asked my grand daughter, Emma, who is currently 15 years old, to sing this. My son, Ian, Emma's dad, also agreed to play bass and sing harmony with me to Emma's lead vocal. I, of course, played guitar and sang harmony to Emma. So we have three generations in this video... I really enjoyed this project, and am so grateful to Ian and Emma for working with me on this.

Ian also taught me a slew of new things about how to use Steinberg Cubase. In the end he mixed the audio down for this project. And he is such a good bass player -- he makes it look so easy. He also added some of his own vocal harmony ideas to the project.

Emma is a soprano with a huge vocal range, so even though I have always thought of "House at Pooh Corner" as requiring a good range, she made it seem like no challenge at all.

And in the end, I really thought a song about Winnie the Pooh ought to be sung by someone who really grew up knowing who Winnie the Pooh was. ;)

I hope you enjoy this video! Thanks in advance for watching! :)

- Glenn

So lovely! Thank you for posting. This has always been one of my favorite songs. How fortunate you are to have family members to play with.

Can't think of anything else to say but just brilliant! Your Grand Daughter is an excellent singer. You all excelled in this one Glenn.

Wow - that made my morning. VERY well done...

One of my all time favorite L&M tunes. You and your beautiful family certainly did it justice. Just awesome!

Fantastic!!! I love the live performance vibe, makes it even more impressive. And the 3 generations story is priceless.

Did you need practices or takes to generate this awesome rendition? Any tips for others considering a similar project?

Bravo - well done. Thank you for sharing your family with us! :up:

Hi Karen!

Thanks so much for your comments! This has also been one of my favorite songs, too. And it really does sound a little different, pitched for a woman's voice, I think. I really like the different sound.

I am fortunate to be able to make music with Ian and Emma once in a while. They are both very busy, of course. Emma is a high school student, she just got a lead role (Mabel) in the local college's production of "Pirates of Penzance" and she is a very serious classical dance student. But she was on spring break this week, so she had a little time.

Ian is an engineer but also runs his own Internet music business, so he had to take time away from his own music to help me with this. It was very good of him to give up that time, but I also think he enjoyed working on this.

Thanks very much for your comments! They are very much appreciated! :)

- Glenn

Hi Richard!

Thank you very much for taking the time to listen and then comment here, Richard! :) I am so glad you enjoyed this! Much appreciated! :)

- Glenn

Beautiful!
And it certainly shows that musical aptitude is genetic :). A lot of talent in that song.
Mike

Hi Todd!

Thanks so much! How nice to hear from you, a fellow musician! Much appreciated! :) And how rewarding to know that this performance made your morning! How wonderful!

Thanks Todd! :)
- Glenn

I loved this. What a gift to be able to play with your family! You are creating incredible, lasting, memories for everyone, not to mention a beautiful video as well.

Hi Jeff,

Thanks so much! Yes, I think this is my favorite Loggins & Messina song, also! It's hard to believe it was written by an 18-year-old kid in Everett, WA. The song has certainly had staying power. :)

Thanks so much for your generous comments! We put a fair amount of work into this, and I feel it came out well. I'm very grateful to your comments, Jeff! :)

- Glenn

Hi Carmel Cedar!

As always, I appreciate you generous support and your kind words on these videos! Thank you so much!

This song was the culmination of about a week's worth of effort, so yes, it took some preparation, some salesmanship (to talk Emma into doing a song she didn't know), it took some practice and rehearsal. Ian had to take time away from his own music work and work up his own harmony and figure out his bass part.

I have been thinking about Emma singing the lead on this song for a while now. I asked her if she would be interested and she expressed some interest once she had time on spring break. So I transposed the song and printed it out (words and chords, only), went over to their house on a Sunday afternoon and started teaching Emma the melody line. Then we experimented about where to pitch the song. The song was dropped 6 half steps below the key of E where Kenny Loggins sang this. So now it's in the key of B but played in G with a capo on the 4th fret. I expected her to sing it on the 3rd fret in Bb, and that worked really well, but her parents suggested that we bring the capo up one more fret to add a little more air to Emma's voice. So we ended up on the 4th fret. We also tried the 5th fret, which was also fine.

It was a reminder of how wonderful it is to have a young voice with all that wonderful range.

I then worked with Emma to do some recording for practice on Tuesday afternoon. That worked out really well. Then I took the recording and added some harmony to it on Wednesday and took that mix over to Ian later on Wednesday so he could consider his own harmony and figure out a bass part. Ian worked out his stuff and then we got together yesterday, Saturday, when Ian had time off from his day job, and we worked on this almost all day. We recorded Ian's bass first, then we recorded his harmony, then we got Emma to come over. Then we rehearsed the whole thing, start to finish, then set up mics and cameras and did the whole thing again at about 4 or 5 PM. We did have to do multiple tries to work out the performance issues.

But Emma is such a solid singer, that the only problems were Ian and I messing up while singing and playing at the same time. Emma is a total rock of stability when it comes to singing. And she has a good mind and really had no trouble with the words. The truth is, I was a bit of a weak link here on this performance. :)

Thanks for asking and thanks for your enthusiasm and support! :)

- Glenn

Hi Mike!

Thank you very much for your comments and kind words! :)

I suppose genetics has something to do with it, along with the ability to work diligently on a project and put in the time and effort to make it happen. I think it was a good experience for Emma to witness the time it takes to think something like this out, step by step, and turn an idea into a final performance.

It was a good and rewarding project for me! And I think it was rewarding for Emma and Ian, too.

- Glenn

Good morning, Glenn! O.k.....you got me a little "teary" with this one!! The song, the ensemble.........the voices........the playing........the family memories for posterity that this will keep forever with this performance. Just awesome.........
My grand kids are at this age too so this hits home on that front.
Congrats on exceeding anything you've done thus far!! :)

Happy Sunday! 'Fred
ps. Eeyore and Piglet loved it too!! :D