Collaborative Songwriting Starter Kit

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It was lovely to get together with so many of you over Zoom this evening. Thanks for your patience as we all try new things & learn new skills. I know there’s nothing like being in the same room for a good sing, but working together to negotiate these different challenges promises plenty of opportunity to create fresh ways to connect, share & collaborate to create interesting new offerings!

One creative challenge we’d like to invite you to join us on is to contribute to a collection of new songs… let your experience guide you. If there are words buzzing arounds you head - write them down, take a photo & throw them into the collective pot to see what another member might interpret them.


contributE LYRICAL CONTENT

Perhaps you come across a poem, a news report or speech with a particularly interesting set of words… add them to the songwriting pot.


Contribute Musical Content

You might find an interesting combination of chords while you’re playing on you piano or ukelele, or maybe your recorder helps you find a lovely little melody line. You might come upon a repeating riff which could serve as a bed of sound to sit a melody or vocal lines on top. Write or record those & add them to the songwriting pot.


Contribute rhythmic content

You might read words & have a sense of the rhythm with which they should be spoken in order to communicate a certain feeling or evoke an emotion. Or perhaps you use body percussion to find a rhythm which would provide a lovely accompaniment to a vocal melody. Video or record it & add them to the songwriting pot.


In this case, the songwriting pot is this Google Drive folder & it will serve as a central point where you can upload your files or collaborate on documents. You can also pop them up as a discussion on our MOSAIC facebook page.


Themes

We thought it would be helpful to give you a few starting points, to get you going.

  • Kindness, Gratitude & Connection

  • Friendship, Being Human & Reassurance in Unknown times

  • Whakatauki (Insights & wisdom from Te Ao Māori. The word whakataukī can be split into whaka (to cause), tau (to be settled) and kī (a saying), thus a whakataukī is a saying that has become settled over time, through constant repetition from the time it was first exclaimed right up to the present day.)

  • Information for navigating life in Time of Pandemic (Personal Hygiene / Physical Distancing / Know the symptoms / Kindness Contagion / Myth Busting)

  • Cover versions (maybe with re-worked lyrics)

  • Lullabies for Uncertain Times, for humans of all ages


The Elements of Songwriting

Here’s a Guide Sheet to print out & use as a reference guide.

"Everybody" sing along & play on Ukelele

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Here is a fun little ditty I thought you might like to learn… have a sing & if you have a ukelele nearby, play along too!

Join Brooke as she teaches the chorus of Ingrid Michaelson's "Everybody" for ukulele & 3 vocal parts in the key of C. Click here to access a lyric sheet with...

Click through to access the lyrics & ukelele chord sheet

We would love to hear how you like this song & how you got on learning it (& playing it). Please leave your comments below.