Periodic Symbols Song goes viral

My songwriting energies have been directed much more to my ear training students this semester, so I haven't written any new science songs. But the ones I have written continue to attract more attention.

I'm honored that the producers of the Periodic Table of Videos chose to use one of my songs as a basis for a recent video of their own:





Thanks to the publicity they gave to this song, many more people have heard it. The original video, which had about 5,000 views a few weeks ago (after being on YouTube for months) now has over 30,000. This came in two surges. The first was from the video above. The second surge in popularity included mentions on Metafilter, Neatorama, and Yahoo News Canada, as well as a small flurry of referrals on twitter.

So, with all this interest in my science songs, I'm planning to use my summer months to record an album that I could actually sell. What shall I add to it? What should I write next?

Follow me on Twitter

I am normally more inclined to be an early adopter, but it took me a long time to see the value of Twitter, especially when I already had other social media accounts. I had even asked some active Twitter users why it was worthwhile, and hadn't heard anything to tempt me.

Last Tuesday, however, one of my students sat down with me, and in a few short minutes he demonstrated to me how effectively one could use Twitter to reach an audience with similar interests. I recognized then that I needed to create an account for my science songbook project.

So, as you can see in the upper right corner of the blog, I now have an account. Please follow me, help shape my musical/educational agenda, and get informed about new things that I post!

Follow @ScienceSongbook

Thanks,

David 

100K Views!

Sometime this afternoon, assuming that the Internet doesn't abruptly shut down, my Periodic Table Song is going to hit one hundred thousand views! I'm glad that so many people have discovered it, and I hope teachers and students continue to find it useful. For what it's worth, I have now posted a revised version that includes the "placeholder names" and shows each element's position in the table. (As I had with the karaoke version.)

I haven't figured out what to do about the two new elements that should be approved in a few months, though... it may require an addendum rather than a rewrite. In the meantime, they are mentioned in the video (but not the song) of the revised version:


For the original 100,000 views version, see Memorizing the Periodic Table of Elements, which also has a link to my Periodic Table Symbols Song. (I find the latter an invaluable help in remembering what comes next.)

I Want to Sing About Science!

It's been awhile since I posted any new science songs. But they've been on my mind again and with good reason.

Back in the fall, I had written a song called "I want to sing about science." It was inspired by a conversation with Greg Crowther, who manages the website Sing About Science... and Math. I had just finished recording Greg's song "Scientific State of Mind" for the 2012 USA Science and Engineering Festival Song Contest. We spent about an hour on the phone talking about science and music and what we wanted out of educational songs. He told me he wished there were more songs about actual great discoveries and how they were made, presented in a way that made people want to make discoveries themselves, too. Songs that would be about the process of science, rather than just the data we've derived by using it.

As we hung up the phone, I resolved to rise to the challenge. I thought I'd see if I could write a "theme song" for his site, using these ideas. We had also just talked about how hard it would be to fit heliocentrism into a song, so that was where I started. Within a day or two, I had the basic ideas of the song, and I finally sent him a rough draft. I think he was pleased, but he also came back to me with some really helpful criticism, and suggestions for improvement. I took these into account, and it made a big difference in the quality of the song.

Though my usual practice with these songs has been to write and record them in a single evening, I took several weeks to "finish" the song, and paid more attention to the recording quality this time. When I presented Greg with the final result, he not only featured it on his blog, but suggested that I enter it into the aforementioned contest as well. With his blessing, I did so.

Months passed, but in early December, I was notified that my song was a finalist in the contest! I was pleased, and shared the news with my friends, not knowing what to expect next. Both of the other songs in the category were also really good.

I had plenty of things to distract me in the meantime, as I sang in a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors with Opera Roanoke and prepared for my role in "Le Roi et Le Fermier" with Opera Lafayette that was presented in the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and then for two performances at the Opera Royale in Versailles. It was a magical journey, and I brought my family along with me to France, staying in Paris for several days after the last performance.

It was on one of my last days in Paris that I received the email that my song had been named one of the winners of the contest!

I'm looking forward to attending the festival in April. Meanwhile, here is the song... I hope you enjoy it!



Lyrics after the jump...