Creating a Songbook

a workbook for personal music making (wkshp.)

This program is designed for young people to put together their own songbook. Materials such as songsheets, colorful paper, notebooks and a tabl e of contents will be provided. By following the artists' selections & suggestions, the students will assemble a collec tion of songs for a sing-along. John and Trish will introduce each piece by the characteristic traits that make a song either a folk song, a popular song, a historical ballad or whatever category bes t describes that song's style. They will perform the song with the students singing along and demonstrate how to play simple accomp animent on several instruments. The notebook will be a colorful piece that the student will take pride in putting together . It is designed so that they can add their own songsheets. Through this activity young people build musical, rhythmic, lyric & folklore skills. They learn a constructive approach to journal making, collecting, singing, playing instruments and they use this program as a catal yst for personal music making. The artists talk about music resources, finding or purchasing instruments, songwriting, copyright laws and playing in ensembles or bands. (materials fee: $3.00/student)

Please call (518) 581-0255 for more information or E-mail us! or
Follow these links for more program information:

Our American Heritage Festival of Music and Dance
American Old Time Country Dances
Building a songbook
Carrying on the Tradition of Old-time Fiddle & Dance
Celebrating Community Diversity
Dulcimer and Hands-On Music Making in the Classroom
Quotes - Comments about our programs
Artist Fees