Paisley Road PS participates in songwriting workshop led by Guelph musicians The Lifers
November 15, 2019
GUELPH, Ontario – Young students in Guelph have had a unique opportunity to participate in an interactive musical experience.
On November 4 and 14, Paisley Road Public School participated in the Girls & Guitars project, with Guelph musicians The Lifers. The Lifers are sisters Liv and Anita Cazzola – they have been playing music together their whole lives, but formally as The Lifers for the past decade.
The Girls & Guitar program was started by Guelph’s Hillside Festival 11 years ago in response to a growing trend of young women not pursuing music studies or performances. The festival provides funds for female artists to lead songwriting workshops, to encourage participation in the arts.
According to recent research, women are still significantly underrepresented in the music industry, as artists, songwriters and producers. Many of Hillside’s initiatives are aimed at righting this gender imbalance, while encouraging all people in general to pursue a career in the arts and creative fields.
Paisley Road PS teacher Jennifer Gareau organized the workshop at the school, with all grade 5 students in the school participating. In recent years, the school has had great success growing its rock band program and Gareau saw this workshop as an opportunity for students to take the next step with their music.
During the first session with Liv and Anita, students focused on writing song lyrics. During the second session, the focused turned to melody and putting melodies to their lyrics.
Throughout the interactive session, Liv and Anita spoke to the grade 5s about the role and characteristics of verses and chorus, about pacing and chord progressions, and about rhythm and pitch.
As a group exercise, everyone worked together to create a melody for a song. For the lyrics Anita and Liv chose something that meant a lot to them, the words from climate activist Greta Thunberg’s Sept. 23, 2019, speech at the UN’s Climate Action Summit.
Looking at the words, they asked students what chords and what feelings they wanted to the song to convey. By the end of the session, students had created a melody for multiple parts of the song. They will continue to work on their music following the workshop.
