Fall 2008: Got the Blues?

Do you know a friend who would like Songwriting for Kids?
Click here to send them a link to this newsletter!

Reminder: the SFK Club Newsletter has switched to a quarterly schedule. We'll publish an issue in the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Here’s what’s in this quarter's newsletter (click a chapter title to go straight to that chapter):

NEW BOOK! Hip Hop Speaks to Children
I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner
Fall Songwriting Challenge
Poll: Names of the Blues


NEW BOOK! HIP HOP SPEAKS TO CHILDREN

I'm excited to announce that my song, "Long Track Blues," with words by poet Sterling A. Brown has been included in a new children's book/CD set edited by Nikki Giovanni. Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat has received rave reviews and is #9 on the New York Times Bestselling Picture Books list this week!

Read the story behind Long Track Blues at my blog, Please Come Flying.

Listen to the All Things Considered interview with Nikki Giovanni...including a clip from "Long Track Blues"!


I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner

Congratulations to Lauren, age 7... Lauren wrote a hit song!

Lauren, from Louisville, Kentucky, wrote a great song about trying to get to know someone better. You can view the lyrics at the I Wrote a Hit Song! webpage. Please stop by and leave a comment for Lauren to let her know how much you enjoyed her song.

If you'd like to enter the I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest, read the contest rules here. The next winner will be announced in the Winter newsletter. Good luck!


Songwriting Challenge: Got the Blues?

We've all felt down in the dumps. Lost a dog. Lost a friend. The sun won't come out. Bike broke again. That's the blues. The deep down underground blues.

This month's Songwriting Challenge is to gather up all that gloom and doom and put it into a song. A BLUES SONG. I love to sing the blues. Because the funny thing about singing the blues...no matter how bad I feel to begin with, singing the blues almost always makes me feel better.

Fall '08 Songwriting Challenge:
Can you write a Blues Song?

There are lots of different ways to do it.
Here are some tips:

It's all about feeling it.

• What's got you down?
  
• Tell it like you're telling it to your best friend.
  
• Put some soul into it.
• Let it all hang out.

Try to write an AAB Blues.

• An AAB blues has 3 lines per verse. The first line is repeated twice. LIKE THIS:

When you were lonesome, I treated you kind
When you were lonesome, I treated you kind
But since you've got money, it has changed your mind

Days are lonesome, nights are so long
Days are lonesome, nights are so long
I'm a good gal, but I just been treated wrong

(from Bessie Smith's "Lost Your Head Blues")

Poll: Names of the Blues

If you can't see the poll, just click here. (Once you vote, you'll be able to see other people's answers, too.)

Summer 2008: Road Trip

Do you know a friend who would like Songwriting for Kids?
Click here to send them a link to this newsletter!

Reminder: the SFK Club Newsletter has switched to a quarterly schedule. We'll publish an issue in the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Here’s what’s in this quarter's newsletter (click a chapter title to go straight to that chapter):

SUMMER PROGRAMS DEADLINE: JUNE 20
I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner
Summer Songwriting Challenge
Poll: Where Do You Think *You're* Going?


SUMMER PROGRAMS DEADLINE: FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2008

This summer’s Songwriting for Kids and Fiction Writing for Kids programs at Bowdoin College are going to be so much fun. It’s hard to believe the deadline is right around the corner. Tomorrow, in fact! I hope you can join us! For more information, please visit the Songwriting for Kids website or download the 2008 brochure (.pdf).


I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner

Congratulations to Ketty, age 9... Ketty wrote a hit song!

Ketty, from Brunswick, Maine, wrote a song called "Aligator" and you can view the lyrics at the I Wrote a Hit Song! webpage. It even has sheet music for the melody! Please stop by and leave a comment for Ketty to let her know how much you enjoyed her song.

If you'd like to enter the I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest, read the contest rules here. We are now on a quarterly instead of a monthly system, so the next winner will be announced in the Fall newsletter around September 15. That means you have all summer to submit your masterpiece!


Songwriting Challenge: Road Trip

School’s out! For lots of my students, that means a trip of some sort. Some are going for a weekend visit with grandparents or friends. Some are going camping. Some are going to the city. One of my students is going to another country to meet family members she’s never met before! Even Kevin and I are getting into the act and taking a road trip this summer.

There are MANY great songs about traveling. Oh Susanna is a song about a singer traveling to find his true love. This Land Is Your Land is about all the things the songwriter, Woody Guthrie, saw when he traveled across America. Gum Tree Canoe is a great song about traveling to escape slavery. In fact, my entire American Songs vol. 2 is devoted to songs about traveling in one way or another.

Summer '08 Songwriting Challenge:
Can you write a Traveling Song?

Here are some different ways to do it:

Write about a trip you are taking this summer.

• Be like Woody Guthrie. Pay attention to what is around you.
• What is the landscape like?
• What kinds of people, animals, insects, birds do you see?
• What makes this place interesting?

Write about a trip you *wish* you were taking.

• Listen to the traditional spiritual Unclouded Day and hear how the songwriter wrote about a land he had heard about but never seen. You could do the same.
  
• What would the place be like?
• How would you feel when you got there?

Take a trip in your home town.

• Take a walk or ride your bike to the library, or the ice cream store, or take a trip into town with your mom or your brother.
  
• Pretend you've never been there before in your life.
  
• What would a stranger think of where you live?
• Try it at home: Pretend you are walking into your room for the very first time.
  
• What would you notice first?
  
• What do you see that makes you want to write about it?
  

Poll: Where Do You Think *You're* Going?

If you can't see the poll, just click here. (Once you vote, you'll be able to see other people's answers, too.)

Spring 2008: Something New

Do you know a friend who would like Songwriting for Kids?
Click here to send them a link to this newsletter!

The SFK Club Newsletter is switching to a quarterly schedule. We'll publish an issue in the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Here’s what’s in this quarter's newsletter (click a chapter title to go straight to that chapter):

SUMMER PROGRAMS ARE HERE!
I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner
Spring Songwriting Challenge
Poll: Quote of the Day


SUMMER PROGRAMS ARE HERE!

I hope you'll join us for a Songwriting for Kids or Fiction Writing for Kids workshop this year. We'll learn how songs and stories are put together and have lots of fun creating our own! Sessions will be held the week of July 14th, 2008. For more information, please visit the Songwriting for Kids website or download the 2008 brochure (.pdf).


I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner

Congratulations to Oksana, age 6...Oksana wrote a hit song!

Oksana, from Great Falls, Virginia, wrote a song called "Since My Friend Moved Away" and you can view the lyrics at the I Wrote a Hit Song! webpage. I think it's great! Please stop by and leave a comment for Oksana to let her know how much you enjoyed her song.


Songwriting Challenge: Something New

Spring, at least for those of us in cold climates, means all kinds of new things: flowers, green grass, sunshine, birds coming back from the South, t-shirts (maybe even shorts for those of us who are *really* brave!)

Spring '08 Songwriting Challenge:
Can you write a song about something NEW in your life?

Here are some things to think about:

1. It could be absolutely true. It could be a song about a new friend, new sister or brother, new house, new shoes, new school.
   
2. It could be totally fake. How about a new planet, new country, new monster, new invention, new flying saucer?
   
3. How does the *new* thing make you feel? Happy, excited, sad, scared? Make sure those emotions are reflected in the song.
   
4. What's the *best* part about the new thing?

Here's a great example of a song about something new. It's called "New Blue Star" by Gustafer Yellowgold. (Sadly, I can't post the whole song here. The whole thing...& lots of other cool songs & videos...can be found on Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World.)




Poll: Quote of the Day

(Click for answer)
If you can't see the poll, just click here. (Once you vote, you'll be able to see other people's answers, too.)

January/February 2008: You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth!

Do you know a friend who would like Songwriting for Kids?
Click here to send them a link to this newsletter!

Here’s what’s in this month’s newsletter (click a chapter title to go straight to that chapter):
I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner
January/February Songwriting Challenge
January/February Poll: Name That Tune!


I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner

Congratulations to Joshua, age 10...Joshua wrote a hit song!

Joshua, from Plymouth, Minnesota, wrote a song called "Love of the Land" and you can view the lyrics at the I Wrote a Hit Song! webpage. I think you'll like it! Please stop by and leave a comment for Joshua to let him know how much you enjoyed his song!


January/February Songwriting Challenge: You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth!

It's always fun to write your own words for your songs, but sometimes it's fun to take the word's from someone else's mouth!

For instance, my friends Carter, Anthony, and I all love the poems of Sterling A. Brown, a poet from the early 1900s who wrote about jazz, blues, work songs, and old spirituals. We decided to put some music to his poem "Long Track Blues" and turn it into a song. We liked it so much that we recorded the song Long Track Blues and put it on my new CD!

January/February Songwriting Challenge:
Can you write music to someone else's poem?

Here are some things to think about:

1. Is there a poem that you particularly like? If not, try one of the poems below.
2. What is the mood of the poem? Is it sad? Happy? Silly? Scary? Try to match the mood of the music to the poem. Make it slow if the words are dreamy, fast if they are excited.
3. Are there any parts of the poem that you'd like to repeat? For instance, in the Edgar Allan Poe poem below, you could repeat the "tinkle, tinkle, tinkle" or "bells, bells, bells" in other parts of the song.
   
4. Always give credit where credit is due. I would never say "Long Track Blues" is MY song. I always say that Sterling A. Brown wrote the words and I helped write the music. That way Mr. Brown gets credit for the words he wrote, not me.
   

Here are some poems you can use if you don't have a favorite of your own. These are all from a book called Winter Poems.

I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember:
"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,"
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.


from The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe
Hear the sledges with the bells--
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells--
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.


Skiing by Marchette Chute
I'm very good at skiing.
I have a kind of knack
For I can do it frontways
And also on my back.
And when I reach the bottom
I give a sudden flop
And dig myself in sideways
And that's the way I stop.

Here's a great place to visit if you're looking for poems. You can even look for poems by subject (for instance: poems about animals, or poems about feathers, or poems about family).

January/February Poll: Name That Tune!

(Click for the answer)

If you can't see the poll, just click here. (Once you vote, you'll be able to view the results.)