One of the most important parts about this online music education class is understanding what your story is and being honest about it. You know, for me, I grew up in Ohio as a queer woman with a mustache. This story for me hasn’t really changed. It will always be my story.
Now, we have to look at what your story is. We have to find what will never change for you. Where did you grow up? How did you grow up? Writing your first song is usually telling this story to your audience and finding a way to integrate that story into your body for your performance.
It’s important to do this storytelling without the music at first. What I usually do is have my students write down their story. We go through the beginning, middle, and end, and figure out what the real narrative is. Then we develop that into a song, writing out the lyrics and figuring out where they fit. What does the bridge become? And how do we end it? Are we still moving forward? These are important things to consider in music education.
Let’s start by writing a story of our lives. First of all, who is the main character? What do they wear? What do they look like? Where have they come from? Let’s figure out the beginning of that story, the middle of that story, and the end of that story. And this can be any kind of song you want — a ballad, an anthem, a dance track, anything. But we need to figure out where each part lies within the framework of the song and figure out how we move forward in our career in the music industry once this story is written.
