Mister Cooper's Blog & Website

One of my favorite music activities during the school year is the Sing-A-Long Club with Mister Cooper. It’s an after-school program for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders who get together each week to sing songs that don’t quite fit in with the curriculum based material we sing in the classroom. It’s a 5 week program that ends with a big concert for families and friends. Kids think the best part is when I break out the kazoos to play. A kazoo is a plastic submarine-shaped instrument that buzzes when you hum into it. The intention is to make it sound more like music and less like a swarm of bees. Imagine the chorus of the Beatles song “Yellow Submarine” played on a yellow kazoo. Yikes! Maybe I should rename it the Kazoo-A-Long Club.

Happy Earth Day, Mother Earth! You are the most beautiful world in the world.

The Loose Acoustic Trio is the name of our band. We play a spicy gumbo of folk, ragtime, Cajun/Zydeco, country, jug band, and blues that’s guaranteed to make you smile. One of our favorite places to play is the Farmers Markets. It’s a great opportunity to hear our music and pick up some fresh veggies as well. We enjoy singing songs for our friends on a sunny Saturday morning. So, make the trip sometime. You’ll be glad you did. We start around 9:00 am (ish) and finish up about noon (ish). Now here, ladies and gentlmen, is our…

Farmers Market 2010 Summer/Fall Tour:

Saturday, July 10 – Country Club Plaza Farmers Market (located at 2405 Butano Dr., Sac. 95864) For more info, click here

Saturday, July 24 – Sunrise Farmers Market (located on the corner of Sunrise & Folsom Blvds., Rancho Cordova 95742) For more info, click here

Saturday, August 21 – Country Club Plaza Farmers Market

Saturday, August 28 – Sunrise Farmers Market

Saturday, September 11 – Sunrise Farmers Market

Saturday, September 25 – Country Club Plaza Farmers Market

Saturday, October 9 – Sunrise Farmers Market

Saturday, October 16 – Country Club Plaza Farmers Market

I play music and sing with 5 elementary schools and 3 pre-schools on a regular basis. And every one of them had this past week off for Spring Break. Hopefully, all of the students, but especially the teachers, had a relaxing time. I had a long list of things to do and I’m proud to say, most of them got done. I have started gathering songs for a new kid CD. One song in particular has become very special to me. A 4th grade friend of mine named Trevor wrote a fantastic song titled “That’s What Beauty Is.” He gave me a recording of him singing the melody, but there was no music. I worked on it, made some edits, figured out some chords, and recorded a version of it for him to hear. Maybe if he likes what I did, he’ll let me put it on the new CD.

Last Saturday, I sang some songs at the Land Park Great Egg Hunt. The weather was nice and there was a big turnout. Here is a picture of me singing “Peter Cottontail.” Thanks to event organizer April Meszaros for a job well done.

On Thursday, I continued my afternoon Sing-A-Long Club at the Valley Hi Library. I am very grateful to have this music program extended through the first week of June. Please come and sing along if you’d like to. For more info, please click here.

Speaking of the Sing-A-Long Club, I’ll be starting the after school group again at Sutterville Elementary on April 19th. Sign-up forms will be going out this week. I’ve been saving some songs especially for this session, so it’s going to be big fun. And kazoos, don’t forget the kazoos.

Lastly, I will be singing some songs this coming Wednesday, April 7, at the Southgate Library. The performance starts at 4:00 pm. This will be a “Read Along – Sing Along with Mister Cooper” program where I pass out booklets with all the lyrics to the songs I’ll be singing that day. Then everyone will be able to read along and sing along with me, Mister Cooper. These shows are always great. For more info, please click here.

Spring has sprung and it’s starting to get busy. My Spring Break was a good one. I hope yours was too. Thanks for stopping by. See you soon.