Summer 2008: Road Trip

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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.)