A Wizard in the Kitchen

Hamelin Music presents A Wizard in the Kitchen, a children’s story with a play-along soundtrack arranged for twenty different instrumental solos.

A Wizard in the Kitchen

                                                                                                                                                                      A Wizard in the Kitchen is an off-the-wall comedy with a play-along soundtrack available in book-with-accompaniment and video formats.  An instrumental soloist follows the story and plays each of his or her accompanied musical cues after a count-in.  There are solo arrangements available for twenty different instruments.

Learning to play a musical instrument can be a long and solitary pursuit but this concept offers a means of using learned skills as part of a bigger project whilst the fun and drama of the illustrated story create enjoyment and stimulate the imagination.  Written with young instrumentalists in mind, it lasts for just over fifteen minutes and has been arranged to suit the differing grade one (approx) criteria of twenty instruments including piano, violin, guitar, recorder, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet etc..  each using the same story, illustrations and essential musical material.

How can I play A Wizard?

Solo book and backing track

See an excerpt from the A Wizard book for flute solo and follow along with its backing track.

For people wanting a traditional approach, A Wizard can be performed using an instrumental solo book with its free downloadable backing track(s).  With this option you simply follow the illustrated story in the solo book and play along with the narration and orchestral accompaniment of a backing track after each count-in.  The books are available as both hardcopy paperbacks and pdf downloads which can be read digitally or printed out.

Video                                                                                                                   

Watch the trailer for the A Wizard video for cello solo

Each instrumental arrangement is available as a play-along widescreen mp4 video which combines the music notation and illustrations of its solo book with the recorded narration and orchestral accompaniment of its audio backing track creating a fun, multi-media experience that can be played on any screen – desktop, tablet and even phone. Watch more trailers and excerpts from  A Wizard play-along videos.

With A Wizard in the Kitchen being just over a quarter of an hour long and, due to the crazy nature of its tale, it can be enjoyed by everybody.  It makes for an engaging supplement to a  traditional tutor book-based system of learning and also equips an instrumentalist with something light-hearted to entertain parents, classmates, visiting relatives etc…  The purpose of the project is fun.  That’s it.  Just fun, fun and more fun.  You can find a list of the products available for each particular instrument by clicking on the instrument name in a ‘SHOP BY INSTRUMENT’ column at the bottom of each page.