Ringtones

My birthday present came early this year. It's an iPhone. Over the past few days I've been playing with all the bells and whistles. Well, not all of them. My knowledge of what an iPhone can do is severely limited both by my age and by the fact that I'm the first person in the family to have one.

One of the things I have decided to do on this phone is to install special ringtones, at least for the friends and families who most often phone me. I have up to 30 seconds per tone. Emily, a fellow student in my Revit class, shared with me how to take fragments of songs on my iTunes and crop it for a ringtone.

Finding just the right tone takes some planning. Catherine's was the easiest. Ever since she was a baby Bill's been singing "My Girl" to her. In fact, if there's dancing at her wedding Bill and Catherine will probably dance to that song. I have both the Temptations' and the Mamas and Papas' versions. I chose the latter because it's more melodic.

Billy was a little harder. His song is "Wild Thing" because as a baby we changed the words to: "Wild Bill, you made the milk spill, you made everything sticky." But then I could have also chosen Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" because that's the first song Billy learned to play on the guitar. It seems, however, that the younger Bill took off with the CD and only left the case at our house. Hmmmm. "Wild Thing" it is, by default.

Bill always thinks of "The Mighty Quinn" as his song. I don't have that song on my iTunes, but I do have Robert Goulet singing "If Ever I Would Leave You." While Bill may not think of that as our song, I do. You see, when we first started to date Bill and a bunch of other guys (not together) took me to see "Camelot." I guess it was the date movie in 1973. However, Bill was the only one who sat on our couch and sang it to me before he headed off to New Jersey. Maybe that's why I married him!

As for my boss Tim Maddox, architect and owner of deMx architecture, p.a., I decided to go with the Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." I was looking for a building song (I associate hammers with building) and this was better than "If I Had a Hammer." Besides, I have the CD of "Abbey Road."

Roberta and Rhonda, my two pals, are a little harder because I don't associate any particular song with either of them. Since Roberta is the girliest girl I know, I decided on "I Feel Pretty." "Help Me, Rhonda" seems like an excellent choice for Rhonda except that I don't have that tune on iTunes, and I'm too cheap to pay for it.

Two others for whom I might set ringtones are "Some Enchanted Evening" for Robbie because that's his favorite song. For Chuck I could select "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore." I'm sure that choice is puzzling to my readers. That song happened to be on a CD I had borrowed from the library. As Chuck's birthday was approaching, I decided to send him the song as a birthday gag gift. For the record, Chuck is younger than I (by only two days). I rarely receive calls from either Robbie or Chuck, so if I do set ringtones for them by the time I receive a call from either one I probably will have forgotten the connection.

I think for calls from home I'll install "Our House" by Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young, or maybe it's only three of them (Crosby, Still, and Nash?). I don't have that song either, so I guess I'll have to scout around for it.

Individualized ringtones are excellent for people like me who have to put on their reading glasses to see who's phoning.

If you're interested in setting up your own ringtones, follow this link:

Make iPhone Ringtones from MP3 Songs Using iTunes – Video Tutorial

Source: www.labnol.org

As for my ringtone on your phones, I would think something Italian would do nicely. Maybe a little Andrea Bocelli or perhaps Giorgia. Chissa'?