I've also been doing a lot more songwriting with kids in schools lately, so I'm planning to revive this blog as a tool for teachers and students interested in learning more. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't abandoned the site, and there is more to come soon.
In the meantime, you can check out the songs my students wrote last year at Skyline Elementary and at Richmond Elementary here in Stillwater:
Enjoy!
2 comments:
Hmm... maybe I'm doing this wrong, since I'm not very familiar with Blogspot, but I don't see anywhere else to submit questions, so I'll just leave a comment.
Hi there, Monty! First off, your blog is absolutely wonderful. I really admire not only your dedication to music, but also to helping kids understand it better and really reap the rewards of music writing and appreciation. My name's Maggie, and I'm 14. Being so young, I have no idea where my head will be by the time that I graduate high school, but at the moment, the only think that I can really see myself doing in the long term is writing music and playing in a band, whether we become wildly famous or I'm stuck living on bread, cheese, and water for the span of my adult life. I... I really love music. I live for it.
Now, here's the deal; I feel as if I know a lot about music. That sounds horribly conceited, I know, and I don't know how to fix that. I just have gotten to the point where I know a good bit of music theory (for example, I only really play guitar and viola, but if I know the notes and/or chords to a song, I can more or less play the tune on piano.) I am a self-taught guitarist and hope to be receiving a keyboard over the winter holidays, which I also hope to be able to teach to myself. I am a very motivated instrumentalist.
My real passion in music, however, is the lyricism of a song. That's why I like the bands - The Beatles, Panic! at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, The Young Veins, The Brobecks, Paul McCartney and Wings, and Mumford & Sons, to name a few - that I do. Their lyrics are excellent, fun, witty, meaningful, emotional, beautiful, etc. You get the idea.
However, as I (sort of) mentioned above, I recognize that I am very young. I don't have a lot of life experiences in my inventory on which to base meaningful and well-written songs. There are certain issues that I feel quite strongly about, but I feel they're inappropriate for songwriting, that I may come across as trying to (immaturely) be 'the next big controversy'.
I want to write songs with lyrics that help people, that inspire people. If I help even one person with my lyrics, it will have been worth it; I just don't know how to do it yet. I know this is a very vague and ambiguous request, so I understand perfectly if you're unable to lend much of a hand... but if you can think of any tips at all for me, could I ask you to post them on your blog?
Thanks, and I really appreciate you even taking the time to read this (quite long) comment. :)
Hi Maggie,
Thanks for your comments! I get your question. I don't think it's too vague. Let me think on it a while and I'll post an answer soon.
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