Thank you for this question, David. * It set me to thinking to my childhood. My dad could play any instrument that he got his hands on – whether or not he’d seen it before. As a child, my mum taught us to read and it seemed natural that she also taught my sisters and I to red music. Although she lead the local church choir for years, mum didn’t play any instrument. She could find her way around the piano, but was frustrated, I think, at the lack of technical expertise – her fingers just wouldn’t move as she wanted them to! She knew tonic solfa however, and could sight-sing. We grew up gathering around the old piano that someone had donated to us, singing, playing together, often with much laughter.
For me playing the piano was an emotional outlet that I didn’t recognize until many years later. I used it to work out any strong emotion, whether anger, sadness or happiness. Improvising and composing where not words that I knew or thought about a s a child, but just like when writing, I’d make things up. Teaching is a vocation and I came to a place where I chose music, over english or art, though looking back, if I’d known more, I could have done a double major.
As a teacher, I wrote songs for the students to sing. Normally around a particular concept, theme or topic that they were studying. It really helps students to think across disciplines when for example, they can help write a class song about Roman Soldiers (the topic for 7 – 8 year-olds that term). When your head is down and you’re working hard, it’s difficult to do more than the necessary. I don’t think I kept much of a record of anything from those days.
By the time I’d gone to university and started thinking about needs that music could meet, I realized that those good songs, often written by humble children or amateur musicians, could have a positive influence on the world. It was then that I began advocating for more Christian Songwriting.
*This question asked in FB Messenger by David Corsini of https://www.the-potentialist.com/
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