RESIDENCY GOALS
Students learn:
– to engage in a collaborative art making process
– a sense of empowerment from creating something new
– a basic understanding of the two pillars of popular song: lyric and melody
– to have a ridiculous amount of fun

WORK WITH STUDENTS
This residency is as much about collaboration and literacy as it is about rockin’ out and singing hard. The big idea of this residency is how we can work together to wrestle language and music into recognizable patterns, patterns that stick with us and bring us joy. All grade bands get basic nomenclature such as lyrics, melody, chorus, and verse. The older grade bands tend to create longer songs with more complex rhymes and rhyme schemes. By the end of the residency each classroom will have created a song based on either in-class curriculum or something the class is interested in as a community (lots of ‘friendship’ songs in the lower grades and a couple of ‘stress’ songs in the upper grades tend to happen). However, this is NOT a product oriented residency. It is well and truly a process orientated residency.

Mo’s style is to break the ice immediately with silliness, continue to have fun through the process, and then end with goofballery, while always leading with love. That is to say, Mo knows his art and how to teach it. While it may seem like he is just trying to make them laugh, he may actually be setting up a discussion on patterns or rhymes or slant rhymes.