Tag: songwriting
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Write a Song as Meditation
Write a Song as a Meditation Two online sessions Dec 8 and Dec 15 at 5:00-5:40 pm EST As the winter solstice arrives, we need nurturing and calm. Yet our daily lives often become more hectic around this season. In this online workshop, we’ll learn a meditative song and then explore a strategy for creating…
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Project Noteworthy with Lima Symphony Orchestra
Music lifts us and connects us and is a lifelong partner in expressing our emotions. Thanks to the Lima Symphony Orchestra and a project grant from the National Endowment for the Arts coordinated by LSO’s Renee Keller, I led a songwriting project with four 4th-5th grade classes in four different Ohio schools to explore and…
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Rock Creek Forest ES Stem Songs
If the moon could talk, what would it say to us? What might a shadow be thinking? What would a star brag about? What’s the purpose of a constellation? For four days, I worked with fifth graders at Rock Creek Forest Elementary School in Silver Spring, MD, to write, revise, rehearse, and record original songs…
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Kidlit TV Appearance for Lucy McGee Series
Kidlit TV asked me to talk about my Lucy McGee series and answer one very interesting question. Find out about my books and what I’d do if I found a whale in my bathtub.
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Songwriting at Carpe Diem Arts Camp 2019
In my songwriting workshops at Carpe Diem Arts Camp this year, we focused on what it means to seize the day and wrote a collaborative song. Below is the recording we made after our two work sessions. As a songwriting teacher, I believe it’s important to talk about how to sing the song once it…
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Washington Post KidsPost Article
KidsPost article by MA about songwriting: My lesson on how to write a simple songwriting parody.
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STEM plus Songwriting equals STEAM SONGS
What is a STE(A)M Song? Imagine the love song of an invertebrate…or a glacier…or a drone. In my new STE(A)M Song series, I’m using STEM-related concepts as metaphors for songs about love and life. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and when you add (A)rt, such as songwriting to STEM, you get STE(A)M.…
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Songwriting Workshop at Stedwick Elementary School
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.…
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Ukuleles at Gadget Lab Camp
Wow! Loved working with Karen Giacopuzzi and campers to create homemade ukuleles from cigar boxes. My role was to teach campers how to play and write their own songs. We had a blast.
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Guitar Notes is Here!
My new novel, Guitar Notes, is about two teens who discover a profound connection through songwriting. Find out more about the novel and the original songs that accompany the story at