4B - Thursday, February 11, 2010
4B - Thursday, February 11, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
JAZZ
From Page 2B
to the music," Broder said. "I
thought it would he interesting to
examine what happens to that pas-
sion aod that love after the kida
enter high school and are met with
all aorta of distractions and various
other interests."
Though the film's scope encom-
passes three individual schools
and their hands, its primary focus
is the Douglas Anderson School of
the Arts in Jacksonville, Plo. These
pupils strive for a coveted spot in
the annual Essentially Ellington
High School Jazz Band Competi-
tion & Festival at the Lincoln Ceo-
ter in New York City.
The competition is named after
the great Duke Ellington, who is
widely considered to he the father
of modern jazz music. Only 15
hands make the cut for the competi-
tion each year, so there is very little
room for error. Perks of acceptance
include several formal dinners, a
community jam session, cluh gigs
in the New York area and the honor
of standing alongside Artistic
Director of Jazz at the Lincoin Cen-
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Only 15 bands make the cut for the Essentially Ellington competition.
they gather for a moment to pray
over their performance. Regard-
less of whether you helieve in reli-
gious ideas, faith can he certainly
seen as a consolidating and power-
ful force.
"It was particularly meaning-
ful in that it united them furs h rief
while," Broder said.
The students also come together
in spite of one of history's moat
common dividers: race. One third
of the students at the Douglas
Anderson School represent some
minority, hut the students see past
these exterior differences. They
are all handmates, and that's what
matters.
"One thing my good friendonoted
after watching the movie was that
there was very little of the animos-
ity one expects hetween students
of various ethnicities," Binder said.
"They are truly color-hllnd in their
conduct toward one another by
treating their peers as tantamount
to their own family."
"CHOPS" will he shown at the
Michigan Theater this Friday at 7
p.m. Binder will he present hefore
the film for a brief introduction
and afterward for a question-and-
answer session. 'CHOPS" has won
several awards including the Jury
Award for Best Documentary at
the Ft. Lauderdale International
Film Festival, in addition to receiv-
ing positive reviews from the Balti-
more Sun and CNN - rightly so. It
gives attention to an underexposed
group and highlights the camara-
derie and talent of a group of stu-
dents who have overcome harriers
that many adults still struggle to
see past.
TOEHAN HARMAN/DaIly
A student performs his composition for Dick Siegel and the other members of his class
DICK SIEGEL
From Page lB
"Songs are a particularly won-
derful form of expression," McKay
said. "Almost everyone, in every
culture, listens to songs. Many
people sing them. But relatively
few have the chance to seriously
explore expressing themselves
through song."
Siegel also makes a convincing
argument to justify the class.
"(Poetry is) something that has
COURTE5Y OFuecRS ALL ANce
'U' alum truce Binder mooted to e xpose high school iazz to a wider audience.
- .......... .
been taught at a university level,
where it's sort of the legitimate
form of self expression for many,
many years now," Siegel explained.
"Singer-songwriters (are) not
uncommon anymore. In fact, a
lot of people (are) using songs as a
form of self-expression.,
"And so a course in songwriting
made sense, even (if it's) not in the
music school, but in the liberal arts
school," he added.
Songwriting from scratch
With logistics and precedent
aside, a massive elephant in the
room remained. .-
Siegel had to confront the ques-
tions of "Can you teach somebody
how to write a song?" and "How
do you teach songwriting?"
He solved this puzzle by outlin-
ing three main components for the
The first is what Siegel calls the
"songwriting workshop," int which
people carry out the act of writing
and performing songs.
"Every two weeks they're com-
ing up with a new song," he said.
This part of the course forces
students out of their comfort zone
and jump-starts the creative pro-
It's not a free-for-all, however,
as Siegel seth up some guidelines.
For example, the first assignment
was centered around the theme of
"Sometimes limitations are
very good," Siegel explained.
"(They prevent) you from thinking
all things are possible. Maybe (if)
you just look at certain parameters
you can come up with something
and surprise yourself."
The method of constrainingcthe
students to one narrowly focused
ides has proven to be quite effec-
tive.
LSA sophomore Emily Byl,
a member of Siegel's class, said
"(Siegel) is very much a natural at
teaching. The first day we went in
he gotcus all really involved and we
wrote a song together right off the
bat."
In that first class, Siegel laid out
amelody and chorus, but no words
for the verses. The task was to
come up with some lyrics for the
holes in the song.
"Fifteen minutes later, every-
body had come up with something
to sing," Siegel said. "And this
is after the introductions when
everyone was saying how words
are hard to come by. And every-
body's words were so cool in all
different ways.
"It's just a trick of the mind,"
he added. "I sort of gave them a
different environment to be cre-
ative, without any of the usual of
'Oh, I can't do this' or 'What do I
feel today?' or any of that stuff. It
was just - boom - and they had
all these dense little images they
came up with, with meaning and
themes in four lines."
LSA sophomore and class mem-
ber Eimberly Grambo wrote in
an e-mail interview, "We have a
great mix of people with different
musical backgrounds, and I can
tell people are improving already.
Everyone has something awesome
and unique to bring to class every
week."
The second component in Sie-
gel's teaching process is a study of
the craft of songwriting, focusing
specifically on the creative aspect.
"There's a sense that I had that
people, by the time they're in col-
lege, have been listening to music
for2Oyears," hesaid. "Theyalready
have favorite songs, they've been
listening to songs. They love songs,
songs are meaningful. They carry
them around in their head, they
sing them. Intuitively, (rhey) have a
sense of what a good song is."
Questions like "What things are
happening while you write a song?"
and "What are the things you have
to attend to in order to do it well?"
come up frequently. Siegel is able to
provide constructive criticism to
students eagerly expressing them-
selves.
The final component in this
songwriting education is to become
familiar with American roots
"The songs that people hear
these days that are inspiring peo-
ple to write songs ... were inspired
by previous traditions. The more
you understand those traditions -
the basic, fundamental streams of
songwriting in the America n tradi-
tion -the more you can understanid
songwriting," Siegel explained.
Musicians like the "incred-
ible creative force" Willie Dixon
(known for his Chicago blues
arrangements sung by Muddy
Waters and Howlin' Wolf) and
the "watershed performer" Robert
Johnson (the most recognizable
face of Delta blues) are seen as the
forefathers of the American song-
writing tradition and are used to
illustrate the "basic form" of songs.
Grooving forward.
Even though he has quite a bit
of experience under his belt, Siegel
isn't done learning yet. He looks at
the songwriting course as a contin-
uation of his own education.
"Every week I have to come up
with something that's going to
move (the class) along and be inter-
esting to people (and also) interest-
ing to me," he explained. "(It has)
allowed me to explore all sorts
of things about my process, how
songs work, how creativity works
(and) about where American music
came from."
In fact, Siegel hopes to extend
the reciprocal effect of the class by
searching for other teaching out-
lets in the future, citing the Resi-
dential College as something he
will look into.
And students would certainly
benefit from having the chance to
learn under such a passionate art-
ist.
"He has a lot of energy, and be
is very passionate about what he
does," Byl said. "He really knows
how to get us energized about sing-
ing and songwriting."
And Siegel is just as energized as
his students.
"I'mihavingsavery positive expe-
rience," he said. "It's fascinating
to me. I really enjoy working with
the people I'm working with. I'm
learning so much, and it seems like
a valuable thing to do. And it's real-
ly a pleasure to be teaching at the
University."
The intensely personal and
exceedingly subjective process of
writing a song will never be broken
down into an exact science. But by
emphasizing the value of routinely
writingoand performing, the impor-
tance of squeezing a single emotion
into a set of words and the signifi-
cance of studying the greats, Dick
Siegel, armed with the many years
he has spent perfecting his craft,
is making the complex art of song-
writing a little more digestible.
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