On Thursday, December 15, 2011, nine My Voice Music volunteer musicians decended upon the unassuming 4th graders at Kinnaman Elementary School in Aloha.  The result was that 27 4th graders were able to have their words and stories put to music and recorded…Yup, that’s right, all 27 kids got their own words put to song and recorded by Portland musicians in one day!  Below are the songs that were recorded in that session.

Why did we do this?

These songs are the final product a week-long “Conflict Mediation through Songwriting” class that was facilitated by My Voice Music’s music man and intern, Jameson Wandling.  Jameson is working on attaining his Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution at PSU.   He worked with My Voice Music to develop a curriculum that uses music to help teach conflict mediation skills.

The curriculum he implemented covers conflict related topics such as conflict styles, perception and judgement, and the steps people can take to navigate conflict effectively.  As part of the songwriting portion of the class, each student was asked to describe a conflict and write two verses and one chorus about it.  Emphasis was placed on making the conflict personal to the writer and making the story coherent.

On the second to the last day, My Voice Music volunteer songwriters showed up and helped guide the students through putting their actual words to music.  After each student was happy with their words put to song, the volunteer musicians left the school and recorded all 26 songs in about 4 hours! Each of the songs were given to the youth the very next day – special thanks to our amazing musician volunteers;  Buddy, Bethany, Peter, Erik, Chris, Andi, Mike, Ian and Jameson!  Watch the video below to get a glimpse into how we were able to record so many songs so quickly!