JoJo Brinkhoff
Managing Editor
As their final, the songwriting class will hold a concert May 13 at 6 p.m. in room 124 located in the Elsie Plaster Community Center (EPCC) on the Neosho campus. It’s a free event and anyone is welcome to come.
According to Dr. Kierstin Bible, choral music instructor, the songs that will be played at the concert were written and produced by the students who had never wrote a full song before the beginning of the semester.
“I think being able to show people that hey, I wrote a song,” said Brittany Schroader, music major, “it’s quite an accomplishment.”
Not only is this a final where an audience can attend, but also this is the first semester the music department had a songwriting class. Although this was more like an experiment, according to Dr. Bible, the students were able to walk away knowing how to produce songs.
The first step in teaching the class was having the students write stories and poems. Next, the students learned a music numbering system known as the Nashville Numbering System which is an easier numbering system to learn, especially for those who may not know or understand music. After writing their stories and learning the Nashville Numbering System, the students would read their stories and decide which sections would make a good chorus and which section would make good verses.
Once the stories were turned into songs, the students would finally add any instruments that they thought sound good for their songs and find people who would be willing to perform it during the concert.
“One of them [student] wrote it and decided that she just wanted a piano,” said Dr. Bible. “Another one wrote it and she’s playing the piano and singing while I’m playing a violin sounding keyboard…another two guys are singing a duet with a piano and then we have two songs with a full band.”
Although the songwriting class was a fun class to learn as well as teaching, the lack of participation and interest is one of the few reasons Dr. Bible will not be continuing the class next semester. According to Dr. Bible, there were five students that attended who were part of the music department anyway.
“If there were more people outside the music department, it would have been more demotic,” said Clara Augustin, music major.
Another reason Dr. Bible is not continuing the songwriting class next semester is her schedule. Because Daryl Foster, vocal instructor, will not continue teaching at Crowder, Dr. Bible will be teaching her classes and giving vocal lessons as well. Due to this, the songwriting class will not be offered next semester along with vocal lessons for students outside the music department.
However, Dr. Bible would still like to offer the songwriting class sometime in the future when she has enough students interested.
“It will be another year or so before I consider doing it again because you need to get the right people,” said Dr. Bible.
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