Growing Songwriting: Student Creativities in the Classroom and Beyond

Growing Songwriting is a groundbreaking book on the pedagogy of songwriting that starts with the essential question: How do I begin to write songs myself and with my students? In this book, Randles suggests that we start with cover songs, then explore the middle ground of remixes and sampling, and finally, jump into the world of lyric writing and the musical world of original songs. A growing metaphor also features throughout: lesson "seeds" are presented along with "water" in the form of stories of how people have written songs in the past and "sunlight" in the shape of ideas for continuation and inspiration. It is all about growing! In this book, you will be inspired by stories of how riffs were created, how lines were penned, and how songwriters capture their ideas in journals. Original music making is part inspiration and mostly hard work. This book gives you a window into the world of craft that surrounds the working lives of professional songwriters and pulls you into that world in small manageable steps. In looking to the metaphor of nature for pedagogical answers--answers that may very well usher in the most profound curricular growth period in the history of music education--Growing Songwriting aims to sow the seeds of songwriting in your life so that it can also flourish in the lives of your students.

Clint Randles is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of South Florida, where he teaches courses at the intersection of contemporary musicianship, creativity, philosophy, and popular music. His work centers on the development of innovative curricular practice. He enjoys performing on guitar and singing as a part of his role as Director of Contemporary Worship at a church in Tampa.