( VIDEO )

( VIDEO )

( VIDEO )


AUDIO & VIDEO

CLICK ON SONG TITLES FOR AUDIO


ALL MY FRIENDS

Students were given an opportunity to brainstorm their own ideas for a song, resulting in  this song co-written by Perry and the students, which is about attending to and depending on one another.


WE ALL ARE A SPECIAL PERSON

Students were permitted to step outside traditional syntax when creating the chorus of this song because of its poetic power to convey the ideas of unity and individuality. To change it to grammatically correct form would have robbed it of much of its power.


INVISIBLE

Invisible was written for a class that was participating in a year-long philanthropy project designed to raise money and awareness for people in need.  This song, written through the voice of a homeless person, was created to bring to life to the people who sometimes go unnoticed.

Perry Jones wrote Invisible to bring listeners together to share in an act of collective compassion


impossible things

We all have dreams. This is a song that seeks to inspire listeners to have the courage to act on their dreams; even when they might seem impossible .


Song for spring

This Song for Spring began with students exploring melody, harmony, and rhythm in small groups. Their group melodies were later arranged into the framework for this song.  Inspired by the music they created as well as the subject matter they chose, the students engaged in a lively conversation about spring.  Through this conversation, the lyrics for this song were discovered.


THE 199 SONG:

This song was written by Perry Jones as a model for student deconstruction, and as an example of how songwriters find inspiration




BACK

HARM CIRCLE
Harm Cirlce was used during a workshop at Columbia University's Teachers College: Transdisciplinary Teaching: Liftimg Our Ideas with Songwriting, to demonstrate how a song can be written from an existing text; in this particular instance a piece of journalism   

CANTATA

This song, also used during the workshop at Teachers College, is an example of how a song can be created from a poem, and to help illustrate that while these two genres are very similar forms they also have elements uniquely their own.


WATERPROOF

Teenage hearts sing a song or resilience in the face of challenging circumstances.


kingdom of kool

A song of rebellion against the social pressure created by perceived hiearchies in the order of teen social groups and this group of songwriters' realization that they don't have to surrender to that.