Of moontracks and songwriting students and teachers

I had such an enriching experience teaching a songwriting class at a homeschool enrichment center this past spring. I learned so much from my students. Our lessons evolved from writing with pens and paper from prompts to our last project which was to create a soundtrack for a film. We chose an interesting one by Mark Gee titled, "Full Moon Silhouettes".   It is a simple and lovely video of the full moon rising in New Zealand. You can see this film here at this link.  (the soundtrack is not the one we created at this link)

The soundtrack  project required a lot of technology know-how and the project was done mostly by creative techno wiz student, Oliver.  Our first attempt was for me to record us doing an improvisational jam with me on a melodic drum, Oliver on guitar and Hope on piano.  But it lacked something and Oliver thought up making a rhythm track on Garageband. (see above photo) This led to a whole series of instrumental sounds and effects and included me playing a Native American Flute solo in it. The result was really cool!

It goes to show you that there are so many ways to create. Whether it be the old fashioned way of writing on paper, or composing on computer.  I loved watching our class evolve and change and the soundtrack was the grand finale.  We showed it last night at the final production of The Hobbit.
It all made me remember when I was a young and acted in plays and productions. It makes me realize all the more how vastly important creativity is in our lives!