In my experience performing with ukulele in hand, I have found that befriending the audience helps alleviate much of the stress from being vulnerable on the stage. When I befriend the audience, I am no longer standing up there in front of a bunch of strangers. I can create a temporary community with everyone in…
Category: instrument
A difficult song to write
How do you write a song about the Holocaust? This is a question I asked myself when I was approached by a woman who wanted to give her mother, a Holocaust survivor, the gift of a song. My response was to welcome to the opportunity, but inside the seeds of doubt began to take root….
A need for sharing our stories
Time banks are on the rise, and a skill I am offering to my community is that of songwriting. I offered a songwriting demonstration at the Merrimack Valley Time Exchange Skills Showcase last night in downtown Lowell at the LTC. It was a work night, but many folks came out to participate. I played a…
And the beat goes on
My days off from work are fast becoming a time for songwriting in the STS tradition. Thus far in my experience creating songs from spoken stories, I have worked with people in my community and beyond, as well as from people who are no longer living but whose stories have been captured on film in…
The Past Is Close Behind: A Holocaust Story-to-Song
This past week, I began my first post-doc Story-to-Song. I spent a few hours on a Tuesday afternoon working with a woman (I will call her Amy) who was the sole member of her family to survive the Holocaust. Her daughter (I will call her Dana) had attended a program offered by Lowell National Historical…
Songwriting Step III: The painful part
The third step in a Story-to-Song is to sing. This is the part that is my least favorite. My inner critic tends to be at its most powerful and convincing at this early stage of the songwriting process. This is also the roughest of cuts. I gently tap the red record button on my ipod…
The ukulele is juuuuuuuuust right
It took me about 30 years to find the instrument that was the perfect fit for me. I grew up playing piano in the classical tradition, which involved a strict adherence to historic interpretation of pieces from many incredible composers. While the sound of Prokofiev continues to tug at my heart strings, I am finding…
Choose the Uke for You
Congratulations! You are about to become the proud owner of a ukulele. While I cannot claim to be a ukulele expert, I can share some knowledge that I have gained in my tenure as a ukalalien. There are different modes of thought for choosing an instrument. In general, the nicer the instrument, the better it will…
You can uke!
Seriously, you can! One of the wonderful things about the ukulele is that it is so very inviting. It is small and non-threatening and seems to be saying, “Go ahead. Pick me up! You know you want to. Check out my soft nylon strings. You won’t get callouses from these babies!” Who can say no…
Guiding Song 