I gave my first official ukulele lesson this evening. My pupil—I will call her Lily—was a spritely five-year-old who is a regular at the family programs we offer where I work. She was just fantastic—full of energy, life, and stories to share. I learned about cats named after various kinds of cheese, a dog that…
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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 Chorus Should Speak to Everyone
I recently wrote about the challenge of creating a chorus. I explained that the chorus should speak to everyone who hears the song. The more relevant the message and emotion expressed is to each person, the more apt they will be to want to sing. So, how can I create a chorus about a female…
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…
Sing your story
What story from your life would you like to hear in song?
Songwriting Step II: Making the words appear singable
The next step in the Story-to-Song process is to prepare the text for the first singthrough. I take that big block of words all strung together and shape it to look like one long poem. This essentially means looking at the text and imagining reading or singing a line of words. Inhale, speak or sing…
Songwriting Step I: The Spoken Story
A week ago, I started working on a new song. I decided to try staying close to the Story-to-Song method for this one, which meant that I needed to think of a story. The songs I have come to love most dearly tend to be those from other people’s stories. Maybe, it is the grass…
Sing sustainability
For the past month, I have been struggling with tendinitis in both of my arms. Needless to say, my ukulele playing time went from daily to nonexistent. I’ve injured myself in the past and know far too well that the healing process will take longer if I don’t listen to my body and take care…
Guiding Song 