Intensive Learning @ MFS
The World At Your Fingertips
On day three of Songwriting IL we continued on our songs made with the refrains and started to add a melody behind them. Some people left the classroom to work in different rooms and hallways to record, and others stayed in the band room and worked with headphones on. After we did our melodies...
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Today we started the morning off with sharing our songs that we wrote yesterday, as well as giving critics and suggestions. Throughout the day, we worked on composing and matching instrumentals to our lyrics. For my music, I used Band Lab with the alternative pop genre as my inspiration. Later in the day, we...
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Creating the lyrics for my song enhanced my ability to completely understand how to make a “part” of a song and how much creativity and work goes into a small part. Overall, I felt as if today, we made a lot of progress toward creating our song. Today, we continued progressing through learning how...
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For our second day of IL we learned about refrains and how to use them in a song. With our new-found knowledge of refrains we began to create our own short “songs” using refrains within them. Everyone was working diligently on their songs, and we were told to think of a melody we wanted...
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Today we were working on writing songs. Some people used instruments and played, while others used samples on various song writing apps. People stayed in the band room, and others went to places around the school to work quietly. I enjoy playing music, so I enjoyed writing music and playing it. When we presented,...
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This morning we began our Intensive Learning experience. Over the next week we are going to be both learning about songs and songwriting. We began the morning by setting out some key aspects of being musicians. After settling in for the day, our first activity was that we each had to write our own...
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First, we made a list of 10 song titles we like and why we like them. Then, each student made 10 fake titles, and we added them all to a Google Doc. Next, we made a verse and chorus for one of the 100+ titles in the Google Doc and shared them with each...
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Today we learned about the history of Tin Pan Alley and the influence it had on the music industry. After that we attended a zoom meeting with David, Mr. Howard’s friend. He is a composer and produces music. He makes music for commercials, and he is very successful....
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Today we further explored the history of songwriting by watching a documentary about Abbey Road Studios. After we watched some of that, we explored the school and the lighting booth to see the sound system in our school. After that, we had a zoom call with songwriter Claire Carruthers. We asked her questions about...
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Today we visited Gradwell House Recording studios in Haddon Heights, NJ, and met many professional music producers. They taught us the basic principles of music production instruments and helped us record many students’ unrecorded music. Additionally, several students met a professional guitarist that has recorded and performed music with musicians like Ed Sheeran and...
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Today on Friday, March 24th, 2023, students shared with each other what their relationship was to music — some starting from a young age and others recently beginning more recently on their musical journeys. After a brief breakfast comprised of doughnuts, students began to write some poetry. It required them to write at least...
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