We Made This Song. The Group Song Writing Processes of Three Adolescent Rock Bands

<p>In garages, practice rooms and classrooms, young people are composing music in rock and pop bands; engaged in working together in the shared enterprise of group music making. This study aims to contribute to scholarly knowledge through describing, analysing and interpreting the collaborative compositional processes (song writing) of three teenage rock bands. A theoretical model was developed and is applied to an analysis of the compositional processes of each group. Communication within each of the bands is analysed in terms of musical, nonverbal and verbal communication. The teaching and cooperative learning that occurred within each of the bands is presented, and each band is described in terms of a community of practice. An analysis of the compositional processes reveals that the three bands employed similar methods to generate ideas and construct their songs. However, when the data are viewed from a number of other theoretical perspectives, it is clear that two of the bands composed collaboratively, working together within mutually supportive, highly focussed and respectful communities; and that the third band’s songs were the work of a single composer, achieved through the cooperation and participation of the other band members. The young people in all three bands were highly engaged in selfdirected music learning, finding meaning and identity in the process.</p>

We Made This Song. The Group Song Writing Processes of Three Adolescent Rock Bands

<p>In garages, practice rooms and classrooms, young people are composing music in rock and pop bands; engaged in working together in the shared enterprise of group music making. This study aims to contribute to scholarly knowledge through describing, analysing and interpreting the collaborative compositional processes (song writing) of three teenage rock bands. A theoretical model was developed and is applied to an analysis of the compositional processes of each group. Communication within each of the bands is analysed in terms of musical, nonverbal and verbal communication. The teaching and cooperative learning that occurred within each of the bands is presented, and each band is described in terms of a community of practice. An analysis of the compositional processes reveals that the three bands employed similar methods to generate ideas and construct their songs. However, when the data are viewed from a number of other theoretical perspectives, it is clear that two of the bands composed collaboratively, working together within mutually supportive, highly focussed and respectful communities; and that the third band’s songs were the work of a single composer, achieved through the cooperation and participation of the other band members. The young people in all three bands were highly engaged in selfdirected music learning, finding meaning and identity in the process.</p>

In the groove and in the moment: epistemology and ethics in ethnography with Sudanese musician revolutionaries

This study discusses the methodological component of a research project with Sudanese musicians and their associated activist groups. The methodology included song-writing and, as such, is an example of collaborative creative research practice. Proponents of collaborative creative practice argue that the combination of aesthetic methods with ethnographic and participatory research methods brings both epistemological and ethical dividends. This paper considers whether these alleged epistemological and ethical advantages bore out in this research project. While confirming some benefits, my study also shows evidence of underlying tensions between aesthetic ‘micro-methods’ and ethnographic and participatory traditions of knowledge production. In relation to the alleged epistemological dividends, I argue that autoethnographic embedding in collaborative creative practice is alone insufficient. It requires a theoretical framework which theorises the relationship between one player’s musical experience and another’s. Only with this, can the sensory experiences of the researcher be used to inform analysis of participant observations and interviews. The autoethnographic experiences of the researcher are not findings in themselves. In relation to the ethical dividends, unlike other arts-based research, I found that the aesthetic micro-methods in this study did not naturally lend themselves to participant empowerment. The pursuit of aesthetic goals has its own division of labour which can lead to the deprioritisation of self-expression and co-learning which constitute the primary aims of classical participatory research. Overall, collaborative creative practice did enhance this research project but there are important caveats. To reflect these, I aruge that creative collaboration should not be considered as a simple sub-set of either ethnographic or participatory research but as a method in its own right.

Paul Muldoon in America

Paul Muldoon was looking west long before he left Ireland for the United States in 1987, and his transatlantic departure would prove to be a turning point in his life and work. In America, where he now lives as a US citizen, Muldoon’s creative repertoire has extended into song writing, libretti, and literary criticism, while his poetry collections have themselves extended to outlandish proportions, typified in recent years by a level of formal intensity that is unique in modern poetry. To leave Northern Ireland, though, is not necessarily to leave it behind. Muldoon has spoken of his ‘sense of belonging to several places at once’, and in the United States his work has found another creative gear, new modes of performance facilitated by his Irish émigré status. This book approaches the protean work of his American period, focusing on Muldoon’s expansive structural imagination, his investment in Eros and errors, the nimbleness of his allusive practice as both a reader and writer, and the mobility of his transatlantic position. It draws on archival research to produce provocative new readings of Muldoon’s later works. Exploring the poetic and literary-critical ‘long forms’ that are now his hallmark, this book places the most significant works of Muldoon’s American period under the microscope, and opens up the intricate formal schemes of a poet Mick Imlah credits as having ‘reinvented the possibilities of rhyme for our time’.

Extra-Curricular Activities and Well-Being: Results From a Survey of Undergraduate University Students During COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions

Participation in extra-curricular activities has been found to associate with increased well-being. Here we investigated in a survey (n = 786) what activities university students at a Canadian university engaged in during the stressful COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in April, 2020, which coincided with a novel online exam period, and how these activities related to perceived well-being, anxiety (STAI-S), social aspects of activities, and personality. Sixty-five percentage of students scored in the high anxiety category of the STAI-S, an alarming statistic given that only 24% had reached out for professional supports. This is consistent with reports that current supports on university campuses are inadequate. Listening to music (92%) and watching movies/series (92%) were engaged in most frequently, followed by socializing virtually (89%) and engaging in social media (85%). The activities students rated as most helpful to their well-being were somewhat different, with outdoor exercise rated highest, followed by socializing virtually and listening to music. While all activities were rated as beneficial, those with a social component tended to have high ratings, consistent with students attempting to replace lost social interactions. Linear regression models found few associations between STAI-S scores and other measures, likely because of large individual differences and lack of a pre-pandemic baseline needed to assess changes in anxiety. The importance of individual differences was evident in that those higher in conscientiousness or extraversion or emotional stability were more likely to engage in exercise, while those higher in openness to experience were more likely to engage in journaling, playing a musical instrument, or singing, with a trend for higher engagement in song writing. Individual differences were also evident in that equal numbers of students gave positive and negative comments related to their well-being during the pandemic. The individual differences uncovered here suggest that having a variety of proactive interventions would likely reach more students. Indeed, 52% indicated an interest in online group music therapy, 48% in art therapy and 40% in verbal therapy, despite music and art therapies being virtually non-existent on campuses. In sum, the findings highlight the importance of choice in extra-curricular activities and therapies that support well-being.

An equal opportunity: Using technology to engage young people in Welsh music making

Through his work as a self-employed music tutor based in the coastal city of Swansea, the author has found that many young people can regard making music as a difficult or even impossible thing to achieve – whether this means playing guitar, producing music, composing a song, writing lyrics or singing. This article examines some of the techniques employed by the author to break down a range of social and personal barriers in students, using technology as a creative medium. It also outlines some of the success stories of participants who have engaged in his teaching programme.

Blake Meets Sissle

This chapter describes Eubie’s first meeting with Noble Sissle; Sissle’s early life and training; Sissle and Blake’s initial song writing; and their efforts at pitching their song “It’s All Your Fault” to singer Sophie Tucker, who made it a local success. The chapter also discusses Eubie’s travel to New York to join Sissle as assistant to James Reese Europe; his work leading Europe’s band to entertain New York’s society at dinners and parties; and the racism he encountered while performing. Furthermore, the chapter explores the recording of “Charleston Rag”; the outbreak of World War I and Eubie’s lack of desire to serve abroad; the good treatment of black musicians in France as opposed to what they encountered at home; and the death of Europe and its impact on Sissle and Blake.

Government Worker

This chapter discusses Eubie’s employment by the WPA as a composer for the Federal Theatre Project’s variety shows. The chapter also explores Eubie’s partnership with new lyricist, Milton Reddie; Reddie and Blake’s work on the show, Swing It; the show’s reception on Broadway; Reddie and Blake’s attempts to interest black bandleaders in the work of black songwriters; their formation of an association to promote black songwriters’ work; and their formation of a song-writing service for would-be popular-song tunesmiths. The chapter also examine how, inspired by the success of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Blake wrote a few piano works that wed a classical harmonic approach to his own syncopated melodies; the illness and subsequent death of Blake’s wife Avis, and its impact on him; Blake’s reunion with Andy Razaf to compose the revue Tan Manhattan, and their attempts to have it performed; Blake’s hiring by the USO to tour American camps; difficulties on the road touring the South; and his first meeting with Marion Gant Tyler, who would become his second wife.