Blues School
Penetanguishene students get a lesson in songwriting in a Motown style during a special session offered by Stellula Music in Schools program
Posted By CHRISTINA BERNARDO
Midland Free Press
June 10, 2009
Debbie Brown's dream came true recently.
Brown is big on blues and she brought the music to a high school that has a right to feel the blues.
Penetanguishene Secondary School students were able to pen their emotions regarding their institution's impending closure, thanks to Brown's Stellula Music in Schools program last week.
As part of teaching the craft of song writing, blues musician Harrison Kennedy guided the students through the process of writing a song. What they came up with titled SOS, Save Our Schools, was played by Kennedy during a concert.
"I told them my basic premise on how to write a song, which I learned when I was in Motown," Kennedy said. "I said we start off with a title preferably three words. So somebody said Save Our Schools then somebody said that breaks down to SOS. Then we asked them to say (words) whatever came to mind."
A student suggested a Bo Diddley beat for the song and Kennedy began to sing it "I put some adjectives, conjunctions and articles" then it came into fruition.
"They were impressed I was showing them how to write a song and how simple it really is and they got it. It's something that's heartfelt, which is the idea for writing songs - believe in something that's passionate -all those thngs are in it and also that's something the community believes in."
More than 15 musicians of various genres conducted one-hour mini workshops for three days with the students.
The week ended with a concert in the school's gymnasium, which featured six blues musicians, including student guests Devonte 'D-Bonez' Grubb and Keagan MacDonald from Whitby and Orillia, respectively.
"The first period of the day we asked teachers to bring classes down, so that all students, at some point, could get some exposure because they may not know if they like it if they don't experience it and the second period of the day we made it for students who chose to go," said principal Natalia Pyskir.
Dawn Tyler Watson, Paul Deslauriers, Harrison Kennedy at PSS
The musicians including Carlos Del Junco, Dawn Tyler Watson, Paul Deslauriers, Steve Strongman, Mansa Sissoko, Willy Terrones and Collette Sarand,The Cafe Ole, Creaking Tree String Quartet, Ariana Gillis, to name a few, demonstrated their music as well as discussed their instruments, songwriting, how they got into the industry as well as history and style of different music genres.
It was a dream come true for Brown, the program's founder/president.
"This is the second year we're here at Penetanguishene Secondary School -this is where it started last year and we're here again, which is incredible," she said. The hope was that blues music, which most young people are not exposed to, that they would accept it and try to understand it, and work with it, particularly because this school is threatened to be closed. It was an opportunity to use blues in the way blues is most powerful and that is as a means of communicating your emotions about difficult issues. That's exactly why I'm doing this program to reach students and show them that music can be a means of coping with really difficult situations in life."
She said it's not about making the students superstars it's about giving them a way of dealing with issues on their own "and blues is a really powerful tool for that."
Brown said blues is genuine, passionate and is amazed the students responded to the genre well.
Devontee Grubb of Whitby, OntarioIt was inspirational to play with professional musicians for student Danielle Loney.
"It's a great program to get students writing so young and get a head start. It's a really great opportunity."
She performed with schoolmate Devin Hollefriend in front of their peers in a end of week concert.
Loney participated because she loves music and sees a future in it, "so I just take every opportunity I can get to get some experience.
"Every single one of the musicians is unbelievable."
"It's an amazing opportunity for our students," Pyskir said about the program. "The quality of performers, the number of performers and the exposure to cultural diversity through music is a tremendous learning experience that we wouldn't be able to duplicate without Stellula music or something like that providing it for us. We can bring in the occasional guest speaker, but this is a really rich opportunity."
More than 4,000 students across the county took part in the inaugural Stellula Music event last week, which spanned six days. The program involved 38 professional musicians mentoring and performing in 16 Simcoe County schools in more than 44 workshops.
Mansa Sissoko of Mali West Africa