Search Results for: song

Welcome to Lucy McGee and the Songwriting Club!

My Lucy McGee Book series is about a young songwriter named Lucy and her friends in their after-school songwriting club. Each of the four books in the series includes original songs.

Sing along with the songs from the Lucy McGee books
Perform with the karaoke tracks
Download a free songbook with lyrics, chords, and more ukulele
Watch videos of my tips for playing the songs on ukulele
Find out about the kids who are singing on the tracks
Find out how to send me your own video to share
Get an elementary school band score for The Friend Song

Mary Amato Projects · Lucy McGee Songs

If you sing one of the songs for your school or community talent show, make sure to share that the song is from the book and use the comments page to let me know how it goes!

Lyrics and Chords Booklets

Book 1 Lyrics and Chords Booklet

Book 2 Lyrics and Chords Booklet

Book 3 Lyrics and Chords Booklet

Book 4 Lyrics and Chords Booklet

Recording Credits

Juliet recording the Lucy songs

Book 1, 2, 3, 4: Lyrics and music for all songs by Mary Amato.
Book 1, 2, 3: Vocals by Juliet Wade (as Lucy) and Nico Rasi-deMatties as Phillip. Backup harmonies by Mary Amato.
Additional vocals on Book 1 by Marisa James-Le, Dunya Siddique, and Noah Miatudila, Malin Ruynh Thomas, Meredith Crowell, Lyla Binsner, and kids from Carpe Diem Arts.
Alex Lacquement on upright bass (Book 1, 2); Amy Bormet on keys (When I’m Home and Together); Mary Amato on all other instruments.
All songs engineered, mixed, and mastered by Cletus Kennelly, Urban Garden Recording Studio.
With special thanks to Juliet’s vocal teacher, Deborah Benner.
Thanks also to Luna Ukuleles for providing the beautiful concert uke used on this recording and for the book tour.
Read more about the preparation and recording sessions and see photos of the singers in this link.
If you enjoy these songs, please consider making a donation to Carpe Diem Arts, a non-profit music and arts organization that has a wonderful program called Ukes on the Move.

Elementary School Band and Chorus Score

Thanks to band teacher Darelynn Fung for arranging a band score for The Friend Song. Download this pdf and with the score and parts and play and sing it at school. Make sure to send a link to any videos you take and I’ll share them with all my Lucy fans.

Lucy McGee Teaching and Reading Guide

Download this six-page guide packed with discussion questions and activities for all the books in the series.

Lines from Lucy

Videos of Ukulele Tips

Are you learning to play the uke? Watch my videos of tips for playing these songs. Here are the first videos. Subscribe to my channel to get them all.

The Piggy Song

The Cleaning Song

The Cookie Song

The Friend Song

Coral Love Song

February 19, 2017 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Here is my love song from the point of view of the coral polyps to algae. This is part of my STEAM songwriting project. We studied symbiosis and used it as a metaphor in writing songs. Here are the lyrics and some info about coral and algae to share with students.
Lyrics & info

The mp3 is available to hear on Soundcloud below.

(Teachers,if your computer is blocking the Soundcloud media player, you can go directly to the Soundcloud site. https://soundcloud.com/mary-amato-author/two-of-us-draft)

STE(A)M Songwriting Workshops

April 28, 2016 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Are you a teacher or librarian who is also interested in STEM/STE(A)M education? I teach STEM and STE(A)M songwriting workshops and residencies.

What happens in a STE(A)M Song Workshop/Residency?

In my workshops, participants learn how to come up with an idea, gather research, write, revise, and record a song based on a STEM-related concept. Participants don’t need to play an instrument or have a background in music theory to enjoy. Sessions are tailored for every age group, from kindergarten to adult.

Above is a sample song done in a residency. The fifth graders in this residency chose the topic of bees. In the workshop they collaborated in researching, brainstorming, writing, and revising the song.

During an optional added workshop, students can learn how to use technology to record and share.

Workshops and residencies are offered in person or via Skype.

Contact me for more info.

STEM Songwriting Project at Holton

September 4, 2015 by Mary Amato 1 Comment

Holton whale brainstorm I met with each of the three fifth grades at Holton-Arms School for an interdisciplinary songwriting residency. The concept was for each class to write a collaborative song based on something they had studied in science; to learn how to collaborate in creating a melody for the song; to rehearse and record the song.

My favorite moments? When I headed to lunch and heard a group of girls singing their song as they walked down the hallway; when an actual bee flew in during the middle of our recording of the bee song; and listening to the girls experiment—and encourage one another to experiment—right up until the last minute. Each class created an engaging song from a unique point of view.

Topics Covered

Song structure
Brainstorming & Pre-writing
Research
Hooks
Collaboration
“Piggy-backing”
Writing elements: Point of view, alliteration, assonance, voice, rhythm, rhyme, meaning, symbolism
Revision
Performance
Music engineering (with sound engineer Cletus Kennelly)

The Songs

Listen to their songs!

What We Learned

The girls were good collaborators and were also respectful of one another. I saw many instances of constructive piggy-backing. For example, one girl would say a line, and another would say. “I like that, and what if we added this to it?” I stressed the importance of being open to changing or revising a line to make it stronger and shared how my editor and I work together to improve a piece.

We learned so many useful things on the spot. For example:

Sometimes you want to avoid repetition if it seems as if there could be a more interesting or lively substitution. For example, in the crocodile song, we changed “hiding, waiting, watching, watching for my prey” to “hiding, waiting, watching, searching for my prey.”
Some words that worked well on paper felt awkward when we sang them, so we consulted our inner thesaurus and brainstormed alternatives. “My instructions for the day” became “My directions for the day.” Directions felt better to sing and had a nice alliterative connection with “day.”
We discussed consistency of point of view and voice. In one instance, we decided that it would be effective to break the rule. In the bee song, one student wrote a verse from the point of view of the queen. We discussed how it wouldn’t make sense to use this as a verse because the other verses are all in the point of view of workers, but everyone liked the idea of the queen talking. “We could use it as a bridge!” a girl suggested. Since the bridge is a part of the song that has a different melody and could have a new voice, we could imagine it working.

Thanks

Thanks to Ms. Van Ells, Ms. McFadden, Mr. Bane, Mr. Howard, Ms. Baker and all the staff and students.

National Library Week Song

April 14, 2014 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Here is my song to celebrate National Library Week.

Lyrics and uke chords to share.

Follow me on twitter to see what I’m doing each day to celebrate National Library Week.

Writing the Songs for Guitar Notes

August 13, 2012 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Songwriting Tip

January 9, 2012 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

My son Max, an excellent songwriter, gave me a great tip. I had just finished a new song and I asked him for critical feedback. He said, “I’ve noticed that you pay a lot of attention to your lyrics. Why don’t you try playing the song all the way through without singing? Just focus on the way the guitar sounds, and make sure you play around with it until the music stands on its own.”

I am a writer first and a musician second, so I have developed a natural habit of being lyrics-centric. I tried Max’s suggestion, and it helped me to create a musically stronger chorus and bridge, as well as more interesting musical transitions between all the sections, and a lovely new opening and closing.

Spend some time in your work focusing on what you usually don’t.

Songwriting Workshop with Mary Amato

June 2, 2011 by Mary Amato 3 Comments

Songwriting Workshops with Mary Amato

For Teens

July 26, 27, 28 (Tues,Wed,Thur) from 2:30-5:00 p.m.

Do you love to write poetry but struggle with song lyrics that really work? Or are you a songwriter that wants to take it up a notch? Each day we’ll experiment with a different writing prompt for a new song. We’ll explore tone, word choice, contrast, symbol, metaphor, irony, and point of view in lyrics as well as play around with musical structures. If you play an instrument, I strongly encourage you to bring it, even if it’s not an instrument that typically accompanies a singer. If you do not play an instrument, no worries! Just bring yourself.

$50.00 for one workshop; $90.00 for two; $120 for three.

You can sign up for just one day or all three.

We’ll be doing something different each day.

The workshops will take place in my Silver Spring studio.

Mary Amato is an award-winning author and a singer-songwriter. Her next book will be a novel about two teens and the process of songwriting. www.maryamato.com.

Songs Sweet and Simple: Making Music with the Mountain Dulcimer

September 1, 2000 by Mary Amato Leave a Comment

Here’s an article about teaching children to play the mountain dulcimer.

“Songs Sweet and Simple: Making Music with the Mountain Dulcimer” by Mary Amato, Mothering Magazine.

Carpe Diem Credo

I wrote Carpe Diem Credo while I was teaching songwriting at Carpe Diem Arts camp on the Eastern shore of Maryland. My goal was to write a simple one-chord song that would not only enable beginning instrumentalists to have the satisfaction of being able to sing and play a song after only learning one chord, but also to inspire vocalists to be present when singing, to sing con anima. I’ve included 3-part harmony so that it can also be a vocal exercise/warm-up for groups who want to work on singing in harmony.

Downloadable Sheet Music:

Carpe Diem Credo Sheet Music

Downloadable Mp3:

Downloadable Vocal Rehearsal Mp3 with three-part harmony separated:

Gratitude

I’m grateful to the non-profit Carpe Diem Arts for their work in music education and community-building.If you enjoy these resources, please consider a donation to this worthwhile cause: Carpe Diem Arts.

If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy my Rumi Chants.

« Previous Page