Aiden's First Recording Session with 'Papa'

Aiden & Kaiis

On my BLOG post of November 28, 2010 I told you about ABCMouse.com and how in the future I would be doing more songs. Well on December 21, 2010 I went back to ABCMouse.com to sing a song about 'shapes', but since my oldest grandson, Aiden LLLLOOOVVVVEEEESSSSS ABCMouse.com I wanted to make sure that I had a chance to take him with me. The youngest grandson, Kaiis, loves it as well but since ABCmouse.com is from ages 2-6, Kaiis enjoys listening to the songs that Aiden plays. Don't worry, we've already set up an Avitar for Kaiis, he'll be 2 years in August 2011. 


I took my wife Rebecca and my daughter Denice with me, since I would be singing. When we got to the studio the 1st thing Aiden saw was the ABCmouse logo, and he was in awe. Aiden posed for pictures with the mouse and the logo and had a grin that you could tie in the back of his head.

When we went into the room to do the recording and I was getting ready to sing, Aiden asked if I was going to sing the letter "M". In the November 28, blog, you'll see why Aiden asked that question. I told him that I was going to sing about shapes and that we could play the letter "M" later. He agreed. As I sang the 'Shapes' song, Aiden was enjoying that experience, seeing 'Papa' sing in this setting. After I finished singing the song, we were given a tour around the facility. Aiden got to see how the graphics were made, and he also received a brand new CD that they had just finished with all of the alphabets. Even though there's 26 letters in the alphabet, Aiden loves the letter "M" - to him that's Papa's song. (I also sing the letter "I" on that same CD, go figure)

ABCmouse.com has done exceptionally well since their release in November/ 2010. As you can see they have received the Editor's Choice Award from Children's Technology Review (CTR). In their review, the editor of CTR Warren Buckleiner noted "This type of service is complete enough to supplement an existing school curriculum or provide the backbone of a home-based curriculum." I'm not surprised, it's a fantastic site if you haven't had a chance to check it out, please do so. ABCmouse


Aiden enjoyed this new experience of seeing Papa sing in this setting and he's remembered the 'shapes' song. He still wants to hear the letter "M" but now he's asking for the 'shape' song as well. That's a little progress.


I'm sure I will be taking both Aiden & Kaiis with me to the studio in the future, but for now, ABCmouse.com was Aiden's 1st recording session with 'Papa'.

Until Next Time - Phillip

Is James Ingram Your Brother?

James Ingram

One of the questions that I get quite often is, 'are you and James Ingram brothers?' The answer is YES. We come from a musical family. There's actually 6 of us. It goes in this order, Henry, Joyce, James, Janice, David and then me, Phillip, yes I'm the youngest. We grew up in Akron, Ohio. James and I are the only ones that decided to make a living out of the music industry.

When James was about 13 or 14 he got into his 1st band, 'Sharpee and the G-Clefs'. James and I are 6 years apart, so I was about 7 or 8 years old. But James actually inspired my love for music. As his little brother, James would take me to some of his rehearsals. I LOVED going to rehearsals with him. I would see the drums, and the keyboards, but you know how big brothers are, 'don't touch anything', back then I was like if I can't touch anything why did you bring me? But of course as I got older I totally understood.

So I would go with James and listen to them play and sing harmonies and that got me hooked. I would practice, using a pencil as a microphone, singing records that we had around the house. Well as we got a little older James joined a band called 'Revelation Funk', interesting names huh? James was the keyboard player and sang leads and background and a guy by the name of Bernard Lawson was the lead singer.

REVELATION FUNK

As you can see in this picture, Bernard is the one sitting in the seat and James is the one just to the right with with the hat. Well let me tell you what solidified me knowing without a shadow of a doubt, ain't got to think twice about it my decision to do music as a living. I was either 12 or 13, 'Revelation Funk', my brothers band, performed at the Akron Civic Center. They had done some touring up in Canada and was just back. I saw that particular show, was very proud of my brother and said, 'this is what I'm going to do'.


Well not too long after that I got into my first band 'Raw Soul.' Just about that time Revelation Funk moved to California to try and make it big. The band eventually broke up but James decided to stay and make a go of it. As you may know the story 4 years later when SWITCH was getting together that's when I called James and told him that I had a record deal and he couldn't believe it because he was out in California and I was still in Akron. So during that time when SWITCH was on the rise James wasn't known yet. But in every interview when I was asked who was your inspiration into the music industry, I would always respond my brother James. From the time that SWITCH did their first record, it had only been about 10-11 years since James had brought me to my first rehearsals, and only about 4 - 5 years from the time that I had made my decision to do music for a living, when I saw 'Revelation Funk' at the Akron Civic Center with one of my older brothers James. I'm still proud of what he's accomplished in the music industry. I also know that this is a long answer to the question, is James Ingram Your Brother?  I could've just said 'yes' but I figured I give a little more background :-)

Until Next Time - Phillip