Day 1068: Bringing It Back

Go on, hit play on the above video so you can have some theme music for this blog post! 

A couple of years ago I blogged about playing Sleigh Ride with my high school band and wind ensemble, especially how it always reminds me of the Disney Parks because the song continuously plays throughout them at the holidays. Because I tend to visit Walt Disney World during the holiday season, I always end up hearing Sleigh Ride. 

Well, Sleigh Ride is back. 

For the second year at St. Norbert College since I've attended, we played Sleigh Ride. Honestly we all kind of expected it to happen for some reason, and when I noticed Sleigh Ride on the pile of music for me to copy for the group, I couldn't help but laugh. It's only been two years, and actually, you can read about the last time HERE. 

Long story short, I felt the need to bring back Sleigh Ride for another celebration this Christmas around...even if it does make me miss home even more! On the bright side, our Festival of Christmas concert went really well this year! So that's good! 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on December 25).

Day 340: Sleigh Ride

Now, initially I intended to have a video to go along with this blog post, and you'll understand why in a minute, but silly be, being caught up in finals, forgot to upload the video when I was at college. And we all know what happens when I try to upload a video here at home. So I guess there won't be a video to go along with this, well...other than you should hit play on this one.

So here's the explanation as to why there's a post about Sleigh Ride, other than the fact that it's the holiday season and this is one of my all time favorite Christmas songs. 

A year ago, back when I was still in High School, our band performed the original Sleigh Ride written by Leroy Anderson, which, if you clicked play, is what you're listening to right now. We performed it and it was great. Except this song gets stuck in your head like no other. Last November I went to Walt Disney World for Thanksgiving, which isn't exactly abnormal for my family (although as time goes on our trip schedule times get weirder and weirder). Anyways, we're down there and I'm celebrating a week off of playing Sleigh Ride, because as much as I love the song, sometimes the oboe part is just too much to handle...at least when you're in high school and tuning is the hardest thing ever. 

But Sleigh Ride followed me. Turns out that I never noticed it before, but Sleigh Ride plays pretty much continuously at Disney World during the holidays. When I was sitting at Epcot all I wanted was to hear some nice Future World soundtrack music, like Innoventions or something. You know, the stuff that I listen to on a regular basis here. But instead I got Sleigh Ride. 

When I found out that we were playing Sleigh Ride for Wind Ensemble for our Christmas Concert I got excited. VERY excited. I mean, I would be playing alto this time, and the jazz section on alto is just great. And then all the memories of high school and Disney and the song just came rushing back. It was nice and annoying at the same time. 

Ultimately I really did enjoy playing Sleigh Ride again, and I find myself missing the Christmas music at Disney. I tend to find that my favorite Christmas songs are the same ones that they play at Disney World during the holidays...so that's actually probably one of the reasons Sleigh Ride is one of my favorites!

Here's today's Disney History: 2012: Walt Disney World marks the grand opening of New Fantasyland at its Magic Kingdom park with actress Ginnifer Goodwin (who portrays Snow White on the ABC series Once Upon a Time). The largest expansion in the parks' 41-year history (Expanding from 10 acres to 21), new attractions include Under the Sea- Journey of the Little Mermaid, Enchanted Tales with Belle and a duplicate Dumbo, the Flying Elephant. The expansion also features Beast's Castle, which sits atop Be Our Guest restaurant, and Storybook Circus (which has been open to guests since March). More Fantasyland additions are coming next year, including Princess Fairytale Hall. 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 18 due to finals).

Day 123: Sounds of Disney

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the smells that remind us of Disney, and how we sometimes find those smells outside of the parks and it transports us back.

Sadly, that's not quite the same for music. There are times where a song brings me to Disney, and it's not a Disney song at all, but that's not something that happens all the time. For instance, after my last trip, I automatically associate the song Sleigh Ride with Epcot because I heard it there constantly, which was quite annoying since we were playing that song for our Christmas band concert.

Either way, there are all those sounds at Disney that, well, remind us of Disney, and luckily for us, there are ways to get those sounds outside of Disney.

It wasn't anywhere near as long ago that I told you about Live365, and how the online radio really brought me a lot of joy throughout my life because of the Parks music and tracks that play there, but tonight, as I was working on some writing, it occurred to me that, if you listen closely enough, you can recognize any Disney sound as quickly as you can identify "You've got a friend in me" as a song from Toy Story.

This was brought on since I was listening to Live365, and a dark, ominous sounding track came onto Parkhopper radio. It was a low rumble sound, that had a kind of ring to it (it's so hard to describe), the trickle of water, and the small sound of bats. Of course, it took me all of two seconds to notice this was from the caves of Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom.

Now, I'm sure that if you know what I'm talking about, you have those odd sounds echoing through your mind.

So it's just kind of interesting to see what kinds of things bring us right back to the parks. Listening to the sounds of the parks is probably really bad for me since it only makes me want to do one thing...go to Disney. Granted, that's not really a problem, other than the fact that I still have just over two months until I can go back...which is not cool at all.

On the other hand...two months mean's it's almost time to make a new countdown...

Here's today's Disney History: 1871: Walter Robinson Parr, the Illinois-based preacher who Elias Disney named is fourth son Walter after, is born in Liverpool, England. It was while serving as a pastor at St. Paul's Congregational Church in Chicago that be befriended Elias Disney.

Have a magical day!