Songwriting Project: Garden Community Cafe, East London

We have just finished a five week project at the Garden Community Cafe in East London. Our primary aim is to give as many children and young people in the area a musical outlet in which to express themselves. This workshop aims to improve confidence and self-esteem while providing an opportunity to work in a team.
For this project the young people decided collectively to write their song on the theme of Easter time, have a listen!




Some snaps of a couple of the children at work:

Songs written on the Young Songwriter Course, Kilve, Somerset

Written by young people on our ' Young Songwriter' course at Kilve Court, Somerset.

Their first song is themed on Kilve Court and what it means to them, the activities you can take part in, describing the surroundings, including beautiful Kilve beach. Some very good singing/lyrics and a rap about the tutors!
All lyrics and music played in/recorded by the participants. We had live guitar parts and each person contributed to a part of the song.

Their second song was influenced by a story told to them by a long standing staff member at Kilve...
It is rumoured that a young lady of 18 had a baby at Kilve Court in the early 1600's, unfortunately a few months after the birth, the baby died. The mother was so distraught she wouldn't believe he was no longer with her, so refused to bury him. She wrapped him in swaddling bands and sat cradling him in a rocking chair.

There is a door on the first floor of Kilve with no handle, no way to get in. It is said her and the baby are in the room behind the door.
She can be heard late at night singing haunting lullabies to her baby, willing him to wake up...
The students had lots of fun coming up with their song based on this story, a chilling lullaby, tick tock of the clock and some eerie spoken word. Finished with a door slam.

Scroll down to listen to the song and a few photos of them in action...

Towcester Holiday Club 2014 end product

The young people from Towcester Holiday Club wrote their song on the story of Joseph from the Bible. In their lyrics they describe how God gave Joseph the gift of interpreting dreams, the accusations on Joseph, him being thrown into jail, and how the brothers met Joseph in Egypt years after they sold him as a slave.

Acapella recordings

My lovely friend Victoria recently recorded some well known songs completely a cappella. They were for her nan who has Cochlear 'ear kiss' syndrome, a rare occurrence that means she has problems hearing musical backing to songs, and often causes pain. 
Here are links to two of the seven we recorded, the first 'Can't Help Falling in Love' originally by the great Elvis Presley and the second ' You are my Sunshine' written by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell.

https://soundcloud.com/actuallyamy/cant-help-falling-in-love-victoria-leonard

https://soundcloud.com/actuallyamy/you-are-my-sunshine-victoria-leonard

Towcester Holiday Club songwriting workshop - 21st Feb 2014

On the 21st February I am running a day's songwriting workshop at Paulerspury URC in conjunction with Tove Valley Baptist Fellowship.
Taking place from 10-4pm, 8-13 year olds are welcome to come and spend a day writing and recording their own song and designing related CD artwork to go with it.
We will be introducing the story of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat.
The cost is £10 per child including their CD to take home.
For more information or to book your child's place contact Sue Feasey on susanfeasey@hotmail.com or 07877 354 885.
Look forward to seeing you there!

Olympics workshop booked

Lots of exciting news from AA HQ!

Olympics workshop booked in for June at a local C of E Primary school...
The children will be exploring some or all of the Olympic and Paralympic Values of: determination, courage, equality, inspiration, respect, friendship and excellence.

They will be writing a motivational song around these ideals, each group will work on a value for their own verse and come together as a class to decide on which value to use for the chorus.

The children will also be able to take ideas from the day to their sports day, and will have some motivations from the workshop to think about when going into their own races.

Next news bit soon! x