How spirit-lifting it was to walk into Mary Ruth McGinn’s classroom at Stedwick Elementary School and see a circle of third graders with their ukuleles, ready to write songs.
Before my arrival, the teacher and I had already begun to give the students the experience of critique and revision—an essential part of the songwriting process. About a week before the workshop, McGinn emailed me a draft of a collaborative song, I wrote comments, made suggested edits, and emailed it back. She shared that with the students and together they re-wrote one of the verses and talked through why I had made the suggestions I had made.
During the workshop, we set those lyrics to music and practiced it. After that, we wrote an entire new song together. The focus for this workshop was on a trio of elements that are often employed in songwriting: rhythm, repetition, and rhyme. As we wrote, we tested each lyric line to a beat to make sure the rhythm of the words sounded right. Sometimes, we had to make a change, such as substituting a one syllable word for a longer word if the line sounded awkward.
When it was time to write our new song, I taught how I often start by writing down a lot of possible ideas, rather than just one idea for each line. For example, in the first four-line verse, when it came time to write the last line, I asked them for lots of ideas. I wrote them all down so we could pick the one we liked best.
If I built a wall,
I’d build three more
It would be a small house
With a door
(or one of these instead)
With four doors
With sixteen doors
With a floor
With a floor and a door
We ended up liking the humor and the symbolism of sixteen doors.
Next, we worked on the idea of establishing and repeating a pattern. In this case, the pattern for each verse was four lines with the second and fourth line repeating. We also worked on the idea that the chorus of a song can be simple and make use of repetition.
Here’s the whole song:
If I built a wall,
I’d build three more
It would be a small house
With sixteen doors
If I built a window
I’d look outside
I’d say, “Hello World”
To the bright blue sky.
CHORUS:
So many people can come inside.
So many people can come inside.
Come inside!
If I built a roof
I’d make it warm
It would keep us safe
From the big dark storm.
If I built a floor
I’d use it for my band.
Everybody come
And jump and dance.
CHORUS:
So many people can come inside.
So many people can come inside.
Come inside!
Come inside!
Thanks to Carpe Diem Arts, Inc., the non-profit arts organization that organized and funded the experience, to Busy Graham, CDA’s founder, Ms. McGinn, and all her students.
The Lucy McGee Book Series is a collection of books (best for ages 7-10) that feature a girl named Lucy and her friends and family. Lucy is a budding young songwriter and a ukulele player. Each book contains 3-4 songs along with lots of fun extras, such as mp3s, lyric/chord booklets, instructional videos, and more 
Learn with me
First we did brainstorming to write down all the things about the topic that we know. Sometimes questions would arise and we had to do research to make sure we were correct. Then we used our brainstorm to write a rough draft. We had to experiment with different rhymes and rhythms to make sure the song made sense and sounded good to our ears. We had to recognize a pattern in our first verse and then apply that pattern to the rest of the verses. We decided that a good song has magnetic properties—it sticks to your brain!