// Luella (age 7.5) and a Songbird Rising student, has composed a lovely little tune called ‘Morning River’ and recorded it with us two days ago. To prepare herself for her first ever recording session, Luella played for her peers at the Girls School of Austin and also for her parents at breakfast time. Luella recorded her song twice and together we chose the best take. Luella answers some questions below on her experience of composing her first piece and making a recording.
How old are you? 7 and a half years old
How long have you been playing the violin? 1 and a half years
What is your favorite thing about playing the violin? That you learn a lot. But people who don't play the violin may not think that you learn much.
What do you like about daily practice? That after I finish the songs that my teachers tell me to do, I can play a crazy made-up song.
How long did it take you to compose Morning River? Four days
How did you start to write Morning River? I started with one note and then moved to the next note to see if it made sense.
Did you write Morning river down or remember it? Wrote it down and then I could remember it.
How did you know when Morning River was finished? I couldn't think of any other notes that would fit in with the notes I already had.
What was it like to record your song? At first it was kind of scary but once I was doing it I imagined that the whole set wasn't there. Asha pressed buttons to make it start recording and I just played my song into the microphone.
How did you feel when you were recording? Scared and excited at the same time but I knew that I could do it.
How did you choose which take to pick? Ms Laura helped me. The one I chose didn't have any bumps.
Would you like to write more parts/variations for your song? Maybe!
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 Luella for working with her own challenges and sharing her music with us!
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Check out these blog posts for more Songbird Rising student compositions
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!