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Music

Tone and Melody

Why Music?

It is said that music is a universal language that simultaneously unites disparate peoples, as well as defines a people through shared cultural norms, rituals and expression. Through music, people tap into their ancestral roots to celebrate life’s cycles, express emotion, create culture and communicate with spirit. Music allows us to feel and to share those feelings through creating and listening together. Concurrently, combining poetry, music and visual arts serves as a language that bridges between people who otherwise would have a hard time communicating. Often, people from diverse backgrounds can unite by sharing this common experience even though their realities might be dramatically different from one another. MAPS builds these bridges!

MAPS Music is all about:

  • Students learning about writing songs through exploration of melody, rhythm, instrumentation, vocals, arrangement, lyrics and how to create the desired emotional effect in a musical composition.
  • Students writing songs to the poems provided by the partner poetry school.
  • Students learning how writing songs to poems can help them better understand the English language, rhythm and verse to express their deepest feelings.
  • Exploring with other students how best to build the chord structure and melody to most effectively create the proper emotion to support the poem.
  • Learning how to collaborate with students from different and diverse backgrounds to accomplish a finished work of art together.
  • Learning to have a better understanding of what other students from different backgrounds think about, how they love their lives and express themselves.
  • Preparing and performing the songs in a professional theater in front of a live audience.
  • Coming together with the poets and share how the music and songs were created in order to express the written word.
"Exploring collaborative songwriting through MAPS has helped me develop creativity, flexibility, and perseverance."
Birdy Newman
"...participating in MAPS was one of the most amazing experiences of my life."
Analua Moreira

2022-23 Music