When I wrote the fairy tale about Princess Florabunda and her friends, I kept hearing the story’s dance music in my head. After singing it in the shower for a few weeks, I sat down at the piano and worked out the basic melody and harmony. My piano teacher showed me how to make the harmony more interesting.

My attempts at writing the music out by hand, however, were illegible. When our efforts to produce a clean copy of the music failed, I turned to my ever patient tech support (husband).

He found a program called MuseScore to use for typing music scores. With his help I laboriously typed the music in, note by note. After the work was over, the fun began. We were able use the program to experiment with tempo and with different instruments playing each section of the piece. The program offers all sorts of ways to play the music from the harpsichord to a variety of human voices. When we had a sound that we liked, my husband made a short video using two pictures from the story and the sheet music.

You can find the story by clicking here: “Princess Florabunda and the Dancing Sleepover” or at the bottom of my pattern page.

If you would like to hear the music and see the video, click the picture.

Click the sheet music for a pdf.

sherralyn Free Children's Stories