Brave

Second grade kids from a Mill Valley, CA school worked in the 2019-2020 school year on a collection of songs about immigration. I collaborated with them and put their ideas into song lyrics. I took their lyrics and wrote music to it, then taught them the song. This video is a from the middle portion of the process. At the culmination of the process, the kids will perform this song.

Song Form Song
Every spring for the last 10, I’ve collaborated with 2nd graders to write songs. They provide ideas about a character trait or something fact-based, I turn their ideas into lyrics, then add music. Once it’s finished they work with their music teacher to learn the song. The physical distancing situation that we’ve been in for the last year has meant that this project was in jeopardy of happening at all. But when there’s a will… let’s just say we figured a bunch of workarounds!

During the first session of our songwriting workshop I teach about pop song form. This year I made a video! I formalized it a little more than usual. Here is the “Song Form Song”. I used the 80s rock ballad genre (of course) for the music.

We Are Coral
It’s the end of the school year, a group of 2nd grade performers are presenting their musical to an adoring crowd of parents and other family members to a packed auditorium. This scene replays itself throughout the country, perhaps the world, from school to school. However, something slightly different occurred at a Mill Valley school, in the spring of 2015. In this case, as the group of sixty or so 2nd graders presented their musical to their adoring fans in their packed auditorium, there was a big difference – they were performing a musical that they had written themselves! In fact they wrote all the content, and most of the words, collaborating with songwriter Jerome Rossen.

This is a small example of the songs, recorded in the spring on 2015, with all the 2nd and 3rd grade songwriters performing.

“We Are Coral
Please respect us
Come and learn about us
So you can help protect us”
– from “We Are Coral”, the opening song

Through a grant from Kiddo!, a community non-profit that funds the arts in Mill Valley public schools, 2nd graders worked with Jerome over the course of two school years, writing eight songs with the kids.

All the songs are aligned with the Common Core. The writing process covered science, language arts and music education. The in-class teachers worked with the kids to learn the content, so that when Jerome came into their class, they could explain what they knew about the coral reef. Jerome took that information to his studio and turned them into songs. Once they were written, recorded and notated, the music teacher, Lori Adessa took over and taught the songs to the kids.

“One of my favorite results of this process has been the pride and ownership the kids have shown toward these songs. These songs are theirs and they’re excited about them” – Jerome Rossen

This is a playlist of all the demos of the songs, recorded right when they were finished. We’re continuing to make some tweaks to make the songs singable, and we’re always on the watch to make sure the science is right.

For more information, including lyric sheets, sheet music or to learn how you can help 2nd graders write their own musical, please contact Jerome by here.

Food Songs
In the spring of 2015, Jerome worked 2nd graders at a Mill Valley school to write two food-related songs, in order to supplement the musical that the kids were performing. These are the songs we wrote.

 

Character Education Songs
In the spring of 2013, Jerome worked with a group of 120 first graders, writing four character education songs. The following recording is from the kid’s performance of the songs, at their spring concert.

 

I Have a Dream
In 2013, I wrote the character education songs with 1st graders a few days after MLK day. During my initial presentation to the full 1st grade (about 80 kids), we talked about the idea of “I Have A Dream”. While I had one idea in mind about what those words meant to me, the class brought the idea to another place – of what they’d like to do when they grow up. The following is the song that we put together. There are 2 versions. The first is the demo that I recorded right after we wrote the song, and the second is the song, as performed by the kids.