This week in my day at Paul Cuffee School, I wrote and recorded a song with each second grade class. This may sound fairly impressive, but it’s really a pretty straightforward process if you remember to keep it simple. The songs will not make the hit parade, and in fact, unless they’re sung at an all school meeting, probably won’t be heard outside the classroom where they were created. But they have a real value within that classroom.
I told the kids that I wanted them to write a song about their class and the things they did in it. The first thing we did was brainstorm as many different things about their class as they could think of. They started with general things you could say about almost any class – we like our teacher (always a good thing to say!), we study math, we have recess. But I pushed them to come up with things that made their class different. Someone said, “We study the arctic!” Someone said, “The other classes study the arctic too!” Everyone nodded in agreement. Now they were thinking.
In Rob Pike’s class someone said, “We have worms and flies!” Then they explained that they were growing worms and turning garbage into soil by having the worms pooping. Interestingly enough, the word “pooping” didn’t send anyone into paroxysms of laughter – Mr Pike had discussed the virtues of worm poop enough that it seemed like an everyday thing. Which it is.
There was a discussion about popcorn parties. Mr. Pike uses some simple behavior mod in the class, adding shells to a jar when a good thing happens in the class. When the jar is full, there’s a popcorn party. That was different from other classes.
With those discussions things got more specific, and we had material to work with.
I saved a lot of time in the songwriting process by using the melody of a song everyone already knew. In Rob Pike’s class, I used “This Little Light of Mine”. In Donna Raymond’s, we used “Aiken Drum,” and in Sarah Rich’s, we used “This Land is Your Land.” Having a melody and song structure already set up made it a lot easier to get the kids thinking like songwriters. When they would come up with a line they wanted to use, we had to find a way to fit in the correct number of beats. This can be pretty challenging (even for people who call themselves songwriters), and the kids need some help on this – they began to learn if the rhythm was right or wrong and could identify the difference, but needed help in finding the right phrasing.
Everytime we found a phrase that worked we wrote it down on the flip chart and sang it – the kids got more excited as they saw the song take shape.
I should add here that songs like “Aiken Drum” or “This Little Light” are great ones for beginning songwriting, since all the kids need is one good line, which gets repeated three times, and a finishing line that is the name of the song. There’s not a need to worry about rhyming in this structure – the kids an focus on content and rhythm
We are second graders at Paul Cuffee School
We are second graders at Paul Cuffee School
We are second graders at Paul Cuffee School
Playing and learning every day
After that general line, we moved on to truly unique ones like:
“We have slimy worms, pooping in our class”
and
“We have popcorn parties when the shell jar’s full”
and my favorite
“We’re all different colors, we don’t really care”
Like I said, not rocket science, but the kids began to understand how the process worked. I’m not completely happy with the last line (“Playing and learning every day”)– they were having trouble saying everything they wanted to say, and I suggested it in the interests of time– it’s pretty trite and it’s my fault. I really try to have the kids not settle for a line that is untrue or doesn’t quite fit in the rhythm of the line.
“This Land is Your Land” is more challenging, because rhyming is necessary, and to be strict with the rhyme, you have to find three words that rhyme, and that can leave you with some lines not quite perfect
In our class, we have a sail (on the wall as a backdrop)
We study fish, we study whales
We work so hard, we never fail
This class was made for you and me
Here, I wasn’t so happy with the “never fail” line, but a kid suggested it and everyone liked it – of course they fail sometimes, we all fail, but… And it was pretty interesting brainstorm words that rhyme with “class”. I stopped that discussion.
So, in twenty minutes we had come up with a bunch of lines that scanned. We sang it through a couple of times. And then, the beauty of software. I set my laptop up on the chair I’d been sitting on, turned on Garage Band, sat on the floor with the kids and we all sang the song together. The microphone built into my computer was completely adequate for what we were doing. My voice is too present, but with such a short period of time, I figured the kids needed my voice as a guide and prompt. A couple more run throughs and they could have sung it on their own. And probably are. We recorded a couple of takes, I listened back at lunchtime, chose one, and burned it to a cd. The kids were excited and wanted to sing it for the whole school.
The benefits of this kind of thing include the sense of accomplishment the class feels in doing something together, the growing awareness of who they are as a group of people, and a tool for them to use in the weeks and months ahead – a song they can sing.
And, like I said, this is not rocket science – it’s something a teacher could do, even without a guitar. if you’re worried about your voice, listen to mine on the recording. Muffin Man, Skip to My Lou, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – any familiar melody with a simple lyric structure works. With more time, classes are capable of more complex subjects, structures, and language. But this is a good place to start. Here’s the song I wrote with Mr. Pike’s class:
Hey Bill – this is fabulous and adorable and important! Next week on our radio show (Wednesday, March 24) from 8 to 10, we will be discussing the importance of arts in ed – will air an interview with Amy Blake from NJ (don’t remember whether you have worked with her yet or not, but David, K & R, Mad Agnes, etc. have) and we’ll play songs from the CD recorded at her school, plus we’ll interview someone from a school in North Adams, Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter School, who believe in the importance of arts in ed. We’re trying to foster the idea of how important bringing the arts (especially music, our love) to schoolkids, and hoping to help bring some school performers to our local schools. If you are around, you can listen in at http://www.berkshireradio.org, on Wednesday, March 24 starting at 8 pm. At some point, we’d love to interview you too!! Best of luck with everything you are doing!
I love this idea. When I was teaching, I used to do songwriting with my classes for the end of the year graduation. You’re right about using a familiar tune. The kids always remembered the songs that they wrote. I wish I were more facile with Garage Band to use it.
As I write my own songs now, I’ve found a great resource in the Rhyme zone (http://www.rhymezone.com/). It helps me get rhyming words when I need them. I’ve set my Firefox Browser bar to accept the keystroke R and the word I want rhymed and it automatically goes to that website and lists rhymes for the word I typed. Outside of my browser, I have a program called “Launchbar” for my Macbook. If I’m in my Word Processor working on a story or song and need a rhyming word I just hit the keystroke for Launchbar then R and the word I need rhymed. It automatically opens my Internet Browser to Rhyme zone and looks for rhyming words.
It is a great time saver. I would probably use it with kids if I was still teaching. Even though finding your own words is a good learning experience, being able to discriminate from a list is also one. Not to mention the vocabulary they learn from the other words suggested that they don’t know.
I think I can hear the kid smiling when they are singing? It sounds like so much fun.
How cool for these kids, and how empowering. I use music in teaching and stumbled onto starting with a known melody, but I hadn’t thought of those songs or rhymezone.com. Thanks for the ideas!
And Rob Pike sounds like a fantastic teacher. Popcorn, not candy! Worms pooping! I sure hope he has tenure.
I wish Bill or someone like him would do this with second graders in Southern California. Music is not, of course, on the standardized tests, so it’s not in the lower grade classrooms any more. So by the time students get to my community college anthropology class, they often know nothing about rhyme schemes and sometimes can’t even tell whether something rhymes or fits a beat.
For years I’ve been requiring them to write a poem or song because it helps them memorize things. They can perform it for extra credit. We brainstorm in my office about topics and rhymes, starting with “America the Beautiful” or a secular Christmas carol.
Sometimes the students astound me. “Lucy, the Chimp-brained Biped” (to the tune of “Rudolf . . . “) was an instant hit! More often I wish these students had been in a class Bill Harley visited, or in any class where music or poetry was valued. So now the assignment is not only a last-ditch effort to help science-phobic students pass a life science course they need to graduate, but maybe the first and last time in their education when they’ll be encouraged to do creative writing.
It’s fascinating to look at this process. Thanks for sharing it, Bill!
I was wondering how you lead a brainstorming session while still engaging all the students in the class. I’ve seen this type of activity attempted in a music class, only to have a majority of the students disengage because their “fabulous” ideas don’t make it into the final version of the song.
It’s a good comment, Matt. Running brainstorming sessions and group writing sessions involve striking a balance – you have to value all suggestions, elicit as many responses as you can – which involves drawing some kids out, and then with the brianstorm done, guiding them towards some good choices. I don’t always succeed in this. At the heart of brainstorming is accepting everything as a possbile idea – a lot of this is based on the group improvisation philosophy of “yes, and…” accepting anything and building on it. (Books by Charna Halpern and Del Close like “Truth in Comedy”explain it very well.) Sometimes, when someone offers something and I see a way to build on it, I’ll jump in too. Sometimes I’ll stop and say – “aren’t these ideas similar? How can we combine them?” With all that said, my sense is most kids are okay with not necessarily having their one good idea included in a final version of a song -as long as it’s written up there and not discounted as out of hand. – the idea that’ it’s collaborative, if brought out in the porcess, affirms that they had a part in it. In the process, lines or ideas end up coming from a good number of the group. It’s a group accomplishment.
I had a similar concern when working with my 5th graders on a lyric “re-write” project. But what I’ve found is that the more ideas that come out, the more the teacher needs to help the students evaluate them as usable, as Bill outlines above.
Matt, the students who “dis-engage” might do so if the only focus or contribution is from a specific type of ideas being used; perhaps they need another attainable goal to work towards. I would set up the lesson to include something else for some students to do to contribute to the song. You’ll see their interest come back.
You’re always going to have the kids that are just naturally more linguistically creative than others. But keep in mind that the entire process needs to include discrimination skills, not just ideas. Educate them on why some ideas work better than others. For my students, maybe the number of syllables didn’t fit. Or perhaps the topic was not adhered to. Still maybe the rhyme-scheme wasn’t matching. These are all important points in developing linguistic literacy.
I originally was going to have individuals or pairs work on their own re-writes. But after some preliminary work, I decided to have whole groups work on a lyric re-write of a song they love.
I was able to find the most lyrically creative types during the initial brainstorm session where we worked on an example re-write. Now that I’ve identified them, these students will be placed in different groups along with other students who could take on other jobs such as helping to arrange ideas (maybe they have active imaginations but have trouble with rhymes, meter, or syntax) or offering critique on the actual performances (everyone has an opinion). Not every child is going to be a songwriter, but that does not mean that every child cannot contribute to the finished product. Where would the music be without producers?
The point is to expose the children to this endeavor, not to expect every one to have the same skill sets. We need to remember that students are individuals, and some will have strengths that differ from others. But all can learn something from this activity, and walk away with a deeper appreciation for creating a song.
Great article! My daughter is 3 years old and loves to create her own lyrics whenever she reads a new book with a tune that she sings and dances to. I was wondering if you guys are aware of any songwriting classes available where there are other toddlers or younger kids where they can write songs together? It helps with corporate setting. We live in Bellevue WA, but any help on classes or books would be appreciated to facilitate and encourage kids to write more.
Thanks, Jean. Language play is great with those 3 year olds, and pays dividends down the road. I’m not aware of any songwriting classes as you described. Some of my favorite recordings for that age are by Elizabeth Mitchell. I’m working on a book about storytelling for parents which will have a lot of tie-ins to music, but the publication date is off in the future. Best, Bill