// Lucca (age 9), a Songbird Rising student, has composed a lovely piece called ‘Spring Time’ and recently recorded it with us. Lucca wrote her piece in a few different sections and had fun thinking about the mood she wanted to create with her music. Lucca answers some questions below on her experience of composing her first piece and making a recording.
How old are you? 9 almost 10.
How long have you been playing the violin? About a year.
What is your favorite thing about playing the violin? It isn't one of those instruments that just play in the background it stands out.
What do you like about daily practice? Well it helps me get better and better each week.
How long did it take you to compose Spring Time? About a week.
How did you start to write Spring Time and what is it about? I started with a beat that I liked then I just went from there.
What is Spring Time about? Describe the different sections of the piece. It's about animals waking up from hibernation. There are three sections, the first one describes the end of winter, it's slow, sad and cold. I thought playing on the E string made it sound cold. The second section is the waking up from hibernation part, it's a little bit happier and warmer, I used the A and D string for this. The last note of Section 2 is a long open D, the animals are getting ready to wake up. Section 3 describes the start of Spring, it's a lot faster, happier, the animals are excited and running or jumping around.
Did you write Spring Song down or remember it? It took a little while but I remembered it.
How did you know when Spring Song was finished? After it sounded good to me.
What was it like to record your song? Well, It was fun because u got to listen back a lot, I've used garage band but I haven't been able to record myself. I was having a hard time keeping a steady tempo so we changed the bowing to separate bows instead of slurs and it worked well, it also sounded better.
How did you feel when you were recording? A little nervous because this was my first time doing this, but it was exciting at the same time.
How did you choose which take to pick?
Well I wanted to get the one that had the correct tuning, smooth bowing, and I made sure it was in time.
Would you like to write more parts/variations for your song? Yes and no because I really like it the way it is now and I would like to add more because I think adding something to it would make it sound AWESOME!
As always at Songbird Rising we appreciate the challenges and benefits of writing, recording and sharing music. It can be a challenge for any artist at any stage of their career. One of the best possible benefits is that, in sharing, we are left feeling inspired and motivated to keep creating, practice with excitement and further share our work. Thank you to Lucca for working with her own challenges and sharing her music with us!
Check out these blog posts for more Songbird Rising student compositions Rain - Cosette Joy Song - Elise
Morning River - Luella We encourage all our students to write their own music, speak with Mrs Laura if you need help to start! Perhaps we will be recording YOU next! If you are interested in a summer camp for young players of Violin, Viola, Cello and Bass then check out our String Camp page for details of our 2017 camps!