I set out to compose an inspirational song to celebrate Earth Day with one of my larger group ensembles. I wanted to include a variety of elements: repeating lines for ease of singing, songwriting opportunities for the group, a different mode to create improvisations on pitch instruments, and maybe even include some foreign language elements.
Initially I started to explore melodic lines in Phrygian- inspiration from Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song”. As the song progressed though, I discovered I was moving the overall tonality more into Mixolydian. The chord progression and melody ended up having the right mix of mystic color and edginess I wanted. I then researched some easy Swahili phrases, selecting two that meant “guard the world”. My students loved the challenge of exploring new words and sounds.
For the songwriting experience, I presented the group with two lists to add their ideas and words to. The first list was Inspirational Words. They added words like: beauty, love, power, might, light, glory, etc. The second list was The 5 Senses in Nature. The group had two steps. First, list the five senses, and then add objects in nature that connected to each sense. (Smell- flowers, fresh air, taste- oranges, fresh water, etc). The word lists we created then provided a word bank for composing our lyrics. The final combination of all the creative writing and musical elements produced a pretty epic song for Earth Day!
The score for “Make Every Day Earth Day” will be part of my “Songwriting with Modes” book.
Wade is a board-certified music therapist and one of the directors at Spectrum Creative Arts. He completed additional training programs in Orff-Schulwerk, Neurologic Music Therapy, and Performance Wellness. As a songwriter and creative writer, Wade has authored several music resource books for music therapy and music education.