Well, it’s here. The first album of the new Learning Music Monthly series. I think Ben White’s cover art says it all:

I’m sure the angel had it coming.

For all of you non-subscribers, here’s this month’s free single, track six: “Short Tempered.”

As we plan to do every month, we’re giving away free stems and sheet music for the single. You can make your own cover or remix, and upload it to our website to share with everyone else. All this is on our Contribute page. Single and stems are offered under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license; enjoy.

I especially want to thank Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for taking time from their busy schedules to host this month’s LMM podcast and talk a little about the new album. (also thanks to Lisa, Autumn, and Jeff for the great reading!)

Myths about LMM 2.1:

• The name of the album is Allegro, in reference to the common first movement of a sonata. Some of the songs attempt to follow a sonata-allegro form, especially track one.
• I wrote much of the material while sitting on the couch watching TV, yamaha pss 460 on my lap. The first lyric of “Short Tempered” came from a sitcom. (Also shout-out to Huell Howser)
• Track two borrows story and some lyrics from an old traditional folk song.
• Musical contributors are Oscar Schedin (guitar) Sam Robles (saxophones), Max Markowitz (trumpet), Damon Zick (woodwinds), Mike Richardson (trombone), Devin McNulty (co-writer), Lisa Tremain (co-writer), and the Notorious OCD (rhymes on track five).
• This is the first Learning Music album to feature trombone.
• if you play track eight backwards it says “change we can believe in”

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