Long-Distance School Songwriting "Residency"

What a great time this morning!

Student's Song Ideas from November 2010 Workshop
at Montrose Elementary School, Bexley, Ohio

I woke up early to get connected with a school that I'm working with in the Eastern Time Zone so we could have Skype Lessons with the music classes at Montrose Elementary in Bexley, Ohio.

Bill Manchester and Nonon Matthews are the teachers for these lucky students!  They are creative, inspired and inspiring teachers who are helping their students explore their creativity and equip them with skills to engage and interact with their world and their imaginations!

Thanks to funding support from grants within the Bexley City School system, I've been contracted to conduct a year-long, long-distance "residency" with these students, to help them with songwriting.

The overall theme for the school year is "What's Your Story?" and creating songs as a vehicle for telling those stories is a perfect fit.

We began with me being present with them for (2) days of workshops in November, to get acquainted and begin talking about songs, and trying out our ideas.

Chicken on a Fence Post

We have continued to correspond via a special googlesites page I set up (Mr. Steve's Songwriting Workshop) on which I post lessons, examples and resources, and they share their song ideas, beginnings, fragments and recordings of their demos!

In today's Skype lessons, I was able to meet with two classes (and the strings class came in to accompany the group singing "Old Joe Clark") to sing and play with them, and brainstorm and work on the song ideas further.



Bailey's 2nd Grade Class is working on a song about going to Market for food, but finding the food (a chicken) entertaining them!

Here is a screen shot of our Skype Lesson
(I'm in the lower Left Hand Corner but they are watching me on the screen in their classroom)

They are singing "Chicken on a Fence Post" as the verse and "Old Joe Clark" as the chorus.

The Birthday Song

Miller's 2nd Grade Class's song is about the excitement that comes with a birthday party.

Normally, a school residency takes place within a shorter amount of time (like a week or a few days).  By conducting this residency over the year, we aim to have a lasting effect that a "one-shot" concert or workshop cannot accomplish.

We will continue to meet long-distance and share our ideas, hone these and other songs, and then I will travel to Ohio in early May for (2) more days of workshops and the schools big Arts Festival.

Thanks to the vision of these teachers and the school staff, and some effective use of technology we are helping to awaken and equip these young people to have creative skills to apply in all parts of their lives!

I love my job!