How to Plan Your Year with Creativity in Mind creativity curriculum planning songwriting songwriting education Sep 09, 2024

Every year around August, I (Sarah) start getting workshop requests. 

Can you come and speak to our educators about creativity? Can you share strategies for improvisation? 

LOVE talking about creativity and how to incorporate creative action, like songwriting, into any...

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The Habit of Rest creativity habits rest songwriting Jun 18, 2024

Ok. I'll admit it. I'm a chronic workaholic. For the longest time - and honestly it still happens - I equated my worth with how busy I am. 

Anyone else? 

It's something I have to consciously work at and something I have needed to form new habits to even start finding time to rest. But...

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Why Sharing is Hard assessment creativity feedback songwriting songwriting education May 15, 2024

F.O.S.O. (or, Fear of Sharing Out)

A few weeks ago, I was running a workshop on creativity for a group of music educators in Pennsylvania. We had multiple exercises where participants would create and share with each other. Many teachers reflected on how they felt uncomfortable sharing creative...

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Melodic Memory melody memory music and brain songwriting Apr 15, 2024

This month we're talking all about melody - how to create them, how to craft them, how to connect them to lyrics - and how melody can affect us in more ways than we might know.

To that end, I've been thinking a lot about how melody plays a role in my memories. Like how I remember, vividly,...

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Three Fun Ways to use DAWS in the Classroom daw production songwriting songwriting education Mar 13, 2024

I can still remember the first time I recorded music on a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). I was in college and had recently purchased a Mac. I had written a handful of children's songs and wanted to make a CD for the parents of a program I ran. 

I could record songs on my computer...

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The Hard Co-Write collaboration cowriting songwriting songwriting education songwriting for music educators working together Feb 13, 2024

Co-writing can be a really fun and engaging way to expand skills, get to know more people and expand your collaborative network, but it can also be really hard. Especially when you get into a situation when you feel you're not being heard. I find this happens a lot more frequently when...

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Holiday Blues holiday songs songwriting songwriting education winter songs Dec 05, 2023

I just did an interview where I was asked why so many people dislike holiday music. (You can check the whole thing out here). In preparation for the chat, I sat down and thought about this and found some interesting anecdotes that I'd like to share.

There are a few things I came up with - some...

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Why Lyrics are Both Easy and Hard crafting lyrics lyric craft lyric writing songwriting songwriting education songwriting prompts writing lyrics Oct 14, 2023

 

For whatever reason, lyrics seem to be both the easiest way into songwriting as well as the most challenging. Easy because they access language that we already have - no need for harmonic or melodic vocabulary - but hard because there just isn't a lot of real estate to say everything you...

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Tell Me Why mission purpose songwriting songwriting education songwriting for music educators teaching Sep 17, 2023

I can't read those three words without thinking of I want it that way by the Backstreet Boys. At songwriting for M.E. this month, we've been focusing our energies on this simple phrase: "Tell. Me. Why." 

In a world full of "whats," "hows," and "whens," it can be easy to forget our...

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