In September when the school year was getting started, I saw a Facebook post from my niece, Maggie. I can’t remember what it said exactly, other than that they had just learned that all schools in Chicago were going to be online. I jokingly posted that I would be happy to work with my then 7 year-old grandniece, Portia, maybe do a songwriting workshop. Kind of preposterous since I only started writing songs the previous spring, but I had taken some classes, and learned some things along the way that I thought would be worth passing on. I knew Portia liked making up songs, and that she was good at it. I thought, maybe she would be interested in writing a song that she could perform, and that was documented so other people could sing it too. Turns out she wanted to, and her parents were wholly behind the effort Thus was born Portia’s Song Workshop.
We have just completed her first song, “The Dark.” That was our semester goal. We met each week for 30 minute sessions. We began by exploring what a song is and what makes writing a song different from other writing activities. By the end of that first lesson, Portia was literally climbing the walls.
We studied different aspects of some of her favorite songs to learn about song structures, line length and number of lines, rhythm, rhyming schemes and types of rhymes. Portia came up with an idea for a song on her own. She had been singing it around the house, and in fact had the makings for a first verse, a pre-chorus and a chorus. So we started with that. Each week we focused on some different aspect of her song–rhythm, rhyme, verse development, honing the melody, identifying the key, and then came the really fun part. Her dad, Antonio, developed a piano accompaniment for her song. Her mother, Maggie, and I helped her with verse development. She practiced. She listened to the piano track on her iPad with headphones and sang to the accompaniment over Zoom. I captured just her voice.
Anne Page McClard · The Dark
Using these pieces in GarageBand I began to build Portia’s recording. I am a neophyte though, and when I played what I had done at the weekly family meeting my brother, Peter, and cousin,Garth, both experienced musicians and music producers, called out some problems. Later, Peter offered to help me fix them because he has more sophisticated software and knowledge, and I happily accepted. I really didn’t know what to expect. The result is beautiful, much better than what I had done with the same basic material. Anyway, I am grateful to have had everybody’s support with this effort. It has been magical and rewarding. Turns out there is light in the darkness that is now.
I hope you like it!
The Dark by Portia Casanova
When the lights turn off,
And you say good night,
and the door goes SLAM,
my eyes grow wide.
And I think…
Now that it’s night
Nightmares come to fright,
But IÂ know deep inside
If IÂ look at the sky
I’ll see the only star in sight,
and how it shines.
And then I get a little shiver,
a shiver unlike others;
but I like it… I like the dark.
Ohhh ohh, I feel scared of it,
’cause there’s not a spark of light.
But I like it…
I like the dark.
There’s fright in the night.
Ohh Oh Ohhhhhh……
The dark, the dark,
The dark, the dark.
When I fall asleep,
And begin to dream…
What dreams may come…
will teach me things.
Strange scenes,
And IÂ wonder why.
What’s real and where am I?
But somehow IÂ know,
I’m asleep in my bed,
And this thought calms me down,
and I’m at rest.
And then I get a little shiver,
a shiver unlike others;
but I like it… I like the dark.
Ohhh ohh, I feel scared of it,
’cause there’s not a spark of light.
But I like it…
I like the dark.
There’s fright in the night.
Ohh Oh Ohhhhhh……
The dark, the dark,
The dark, the dark.
When the sun comes up,
And the light flows in
And the night is done…
The day begins.
And I think…
Now that it’s day
IÂ have something to say
There’s no fear in the way
IÂ see the night anew.
Now IÂ know the light is there
In the dark of night.
And then I get a little shiver,
a shiver unlike others;
but I like it… I like the dark.
Ohhh ohh, I feel scared of it,
’cause there’s not a spark of light.
But I like it…
I like the dark.
There’s fright in the night.
Ohh Oh Ohhhhhh……
The dark, the dark,
The dark, the dark.
