Elementary School Workshop

I really enjoy going into the schools and working with elementary students.
I have had great success and achieved much personal and group satisfaction in writing songs with elementary school
classes in the Yukon, NWT and northern BC.

Songs can be written around topics from the curriculum, everyday life and - of course - flights of
fancy and make believe. The class is involved in writing the songs right from the initial concept.

Timeline: two one hour sessions with a break (lunch or recess) inbetween.

A typical workshop would proceed as follows:

collecting topics and ideas: the class suggests various topics that they'd like to write about
selecting topics: we collectively edit the topics/ideas to a manageable number
group work: the class splits into groups. each group takes several
topics and comes back with action or descriptive phrases about the topic
framing the song - lyrics: the class starts putting the lyrical song structure together using the
"phrases" the groups came back with
framing the song - genre: we discuss what kind of song it is: rap, R&B, country....
and adjust our lyrical, rhythmnical and melodic structures accordingly
Presto - instant song! we did it!!!!!

The title track of my latest CD - flying into inuvik - was developed using this process.
For other examples click here.