MUSICIAN Lee Pepper hated the music on his children's tapes so much he decided to compose his own.

Now his album of traditional nursery rhymes, sung by toddlers and set to modern backing tracks, has become a success, not only with children, but adults too.

The father-of-three is a classically-trained violinist and his pop band, Weird Space, was signed to EMI in Paris. But he gave it all up to spend more time with his family and that's when he first hit upon the idea of writing for children.

He said: "While I was in the band I didn't have much time after work for family life. I was abroad, writing, recording or promoting all the time, but I think it is very important for fathers to be with their children while they are growing up, and I really wanted to be here.

Diabolical

"If you can find a job you can do at home you are really lucky."

It was after the band, while he was sharing looking after his two youngest children, Charlie, two, and Boudicca, nine months, with his wife, Marina, that Lee started buying children's tapes and CDs.

He was not impressed

with what was on offer.

"The music was awful", he said. "What I heard was cheesy and diabolical. I listened to it twice and couldn't stand to listen to it again. I wanted to write children's music that adults would enjoy as well."

He built a recording studio at his home in Oaklands Avenue, Saltdean, and hit on using nursery rhymes as the basis for his compositions because they are familiar to young children and are both fun and educational.

Lee, 32, said: "Nursery rhymes intrigued me. They all have stories behind them and a history and they have often been changed or merged with each other over the years.

"The melodies are so easy, but there is still a strong musical structure which makes it easy for children to remember them."

He describes his orchestration as dreamy and calming, but the young performers, his own children and those of friends who sing on the album, are what has really helped it take off.

The youngest was only 18 months old and the renditions of classics such as Hey Diddle Diddle and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star include all the little mistakes and chatter that naturally comes with toddlers.

It often took up to a full day to get the best out of the children. Everything was recorded and then edited afterwards, but Lee believes it was all worthwhile. He said: "Technical ability is not important, it is the feeling they put into it. The result is delicious and almost every time we had parents in tears as they heard it."

But not all nursery rhymes were considered for the album, Lee said the story of Rock-a-bye Baby, which ends with the cradle falling, was too nasty to be included.

Response

He said: "I want the music to be beautiful and happy."

Launched just before Christmas, the album has sold so well by word-of-mouth that Lee, who was reproducing it at home, has taken on a firm to manufacture it for him.

He said: "The response I have got has been amazing. I have had teachers say they have used it at school and the Autistic Society is really interested in it, but I have also had adults say they put it on to listen to themselves."

Lee is now writing music for two more CDs and hopes to release the first one nationwide this month.

He has also started a company called Nursery Stars, which offers parents the opportunity to make recordings of their own children singing, which he said was proving popular.

His album, Over The Moon, is on sale for £9.50 and recording sessions cost £50. For more information, contact Lee Pepper on 01273 306240.

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