In music the children wanted to speak out against climate change by writing a song. The class responded to a statement we found on the internet @Attenborougheffect and this became the stimulus for their composition.

The class explored song writing techniques by experimenting with and analyzing chord patterns, song writing structure, improvisation, melodic hooks and lyric writing.

The children worked in small groups to compose lyrics in response to the stimulus and factors that they felt were important measures that needed to be considered in order for our population to take responsibility for the earth and try to make a difference.

Once the lyrics were composed the students improvised melodic ideas over the chord progression and re-worked their words to fit their musical phrases. The lyrics were grouped into verses and the strong hook ‘I Believe’ became the chorus.

Chorus

I believe, oh yes I do that we_______ can change

I believe, oh yes I do that we can change the world

I believe, oh yes I do that we can heal the world

In which we live (rising sequence)

I believe, oh yes I do that we can make a difference

I believe, oh yes I do that we can make that difference

If we try oh yes we can we can make a difference

One step at a time (Rising Sequence to link to Bridge)

The students decided to add a bridge to reinforce urgency and to encourage the audience to take on their own action in the fight towards a better world.

(Bridge)

Counting Down, Time running out, sand slipping through the hour glass,

Counting Down, the clock is ticking, alarm bells ringing we must all take charge

Counting down the fuse is burning, the bomb is set, we must defuse it

We have a chance to rewind our mistakes, we’ve got one last try to save our world

As a class we discussed different ways to enhance emotion using different chords in our songwriting and developed the piece during rehearsal sessions in the music room over the term. By adding more instrumental parts from our music department staff we explored how to build up an effective texture. The children wanted to include piano, drums and violin to enhance the emotion and increase the energy as the music developed.

Unfortunately, when school closed, we were unable to put the final polish to the piece and present as a live performance. Luckily we took audio recordings during the composition process and creative cycle which have been edited together to give an idea of how the end result may have turned out.

We hope you enjoy the music video ‘I Believe’

Mary Pantlin, Music Teacher