Music box collaboration

A few years ago I visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. It's an amazing place showing the evolution of computers throughout time, and I had a great time remembering old computers, gadgets, and video games that I had in my childhood. I grew up with computers because my dad was a software engineer, and I really wished I could had visited the museum with him.

Before leaving the museum I had to visit the gift shop. Among all the fun little souvenirs that were for sale one caught my eye: a music box. Not a regular music box, but a programmable one. Instead of playing a predetermined song, this one came with a long paper strip and a hole puncher: by punching holes in the tape you can write your own songs!

Once I got home I played with the music box and wrote a little song. But I quickly forgot about it, until my friend Nancy Rost mentioned that she also had one!

I asked if she wanted to collaborate on a song with me, using the music boxes. She agreed, so I started a simple song on one of my empty tapes. I composed two verse parts in 3/4, leaving her enough space for two chorus parts and an outro. I then mailed the tape, all the way from California to Wisconsin.

You can see the final result in this video. Nancy added her part and recorded herself playing the music box.

I love how this turned out... it's a lot of work to produce a few seconds of music, but there's definitely something magical about it.