Mike Whitla’s Blog

Rock ‘n’ Rainbow’s first video

Like the title says. . .

Rainbow Songs Foundation gets Charitable Status

Earlier this year an not-for profit off-shoot of Rainbow Songs was founded. The purpose of this organization is to bring the same high quality music programs that Rainbow Songs is famous for to people that do not have the means to experience them. So the Rainbow Songs Foundation runs Rainbow Songs programs for families staying in shelters in the GTA. Earlier this year we applied for charitable status so we could issue tax receipts for donations. This week Read the rest of this entry »

Origin of “Four White Horses”

This is a wonderful catchy song from the carribean. There is a really great 4 person clapping game that goes with it too.
Anyway the words I learned at a workshop run by Doug Goodkin for this song never made any sense to me. But I did love the song as well as the clapping game.
No doubt a song like this has been passed person to person though many generations and do doubt the words have got changed.
Particularly as the song has crossed cultures as it was originally sung in the tropic and is now sung my me in Canada.

Four White Horses (words I learned from Doug Goodkin)

Four white horses by the river
Hey, hey, hey, up tomorrow.
Up tomorrow is a rainy day.
Come on and join our shadow play. Read the rest of this entry »

My New Band “Rock ‘n’ Rainbow”

So I’ve formed a band. It features:

Jessica Vigars- Vocals and percussion
Joshua Engel - Vocals and Bass
Chris Cawthray - Drums
and Me singing and playing guitar

The band will play family oriented concerts and we have our first ones booked already at the famous Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.
If you and your family want to come please check here for tickets:

Making a Recording (Part 01)

I thought it might be interesting to document the process of recording a song from start to finish.

Ok before you start recording you first need to have your song. For this process I am using the song “Some Like it Hot” a folk rhyme from England that was turned into a folk rhyme in Trinidad. I have been singing the song for a while and have adapted myself from the Trinidadian version. Then you need  to get your musicians rehearsed. For the rehearsals you need sheet music I have been using a program called sibelius to do this. It is a nice music notation program which I have just started using and seems to work quite well. I made an arrangement that has drums, bass, guitar, and several vocal parts for the band to read in rehearsal and recording sessions.
This song will have the following instrumentation:
Drums
Bass
Guitar (several guitar parts 4-8 different tracks and sounds)
Voice (about 5 different parts)
Horns (probably 3-5 different saxophones and brass instruments though I might not use em)

The first part of the recording is to Read the rest of this entry »