Singing For Love has returned from Attawapiskat!

Hope was the topic the youth chose to write about. Their song reveals their depth of thought and experience with hope, sometimes realized and sometimes lost—and the power to go forward in either case.

Immersed in a remote community facing many challenges, the kids we met are talented and determined to face the future. Music already plays a big role in their lives. They learn piano and guitar at school,  take part in traditional ceremonies in and out of school and  use a wide variety of tools and resources to accomplish it. We saw kids practising with YouTube tutorials and cellphone apps.  Read more... (165 words, 1 image, estimated 40 secs reading time)

It’s now less than a week before we fly, but the project has already taken off in ways we’d only dreamed of. Our small impromptu fundraiser at Ixiim Toronto last weekend raised money, awareness, and yielded new friends and supporters. On Thursday the GoFundMe campaign was trending. On Wednesday we were contacted by Anishinabek News, who scheduled an interview to take place at the end of the week. Friday, with the immeasurable help of Jordi Small at Long & McQuade Music—who crunched the numbers and bent some rules—we saw a pallet of guitars, a bass, two small amps, and 10 ukuleles donated by our friends Certifiably Strung, shipped off to Timmins, where De Beers Canada will pick them up and fly them to our destination free of charge. To say we’re grateful is an understatement! Our fundraising campaign remains open until we reach our goal, which is still needed to cover the cost of the brand new instruments that will stay in Attawapiskat to enrich the lives of the youth group we’ll visit.  Read more... (233 words, 1 image, estimated 56 secs reading time)

When Rosy was approached by songwriter/videomaker Timmy Danbrook to become involved in creating a video for his song Anger’s Not Pretty, she wasn’t sure what to expect. The ideas being floated included Spanish lyrics, completely new lyrics, a rearrangement, some orchestration… an open palette. In the end one line, “…but it’s mine” set the direction.  Read more... (256 words, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

For me, the first step in creating a unit of practice is to brainstorm, and no tool suits that process better than a mind map. For this project I’m using XMind.

You may have noticed Attawapiskat is miles north of S4L’s home base in Toronto. After these details are sketched in I’ll proceed to put as much of the content as possible on line here, using LearnPress. Each participant in the course can be given a login for early and ongoing access, and we’ll be able to see who takes advantage of that. Of course this relies on there being access to computers and internet, which was sometimes problematic even in Toronto. But the organizational benefits are still well worth it to me because I’ve got it running as a WordPress site in an “AMP stack” on my laptop. I’m guaranteed to be able to run it in the classroom with the students.  Read more... (203 words, 1 image, estimated 49 secs reading time)

Attawapiskat First Nation is a northern indigenous community beset by poverty, lack of support and resources, and a suicide crisis that still hasn’t been adequately addressed. Singing For Love has joined forces with documentarian Jackie Hookimaw and others from the community to raise funding for a musical intervention.

2017 was a very productive summer at Singing For Love. Although camp and other activities affected attendance, as expected this time of year, the small group of talented kids achieved a great deal. They learned he chords C, CMaj7, Am, Am7, F, Dm, Dm7, D7, G, G7, Em, Em(11), and E7. They learned a Blues in A, using a a sliding “double-stop” (a two-note shape that creates an “interval,” in this case a tritone), and heard that it will eventually allow them to quickly and easily play a Blues in any key. They learned why do re mi isn’t just child’s play, and one of the girls, C.R., then used solfege in order to compose the melody of the song we wrote. They shared the reasons they think people want to write songs, and explored several ways to approach songwriting. Together they chose a theme to write about—Canada’s 150th anniversary—brainstormed “power ideas” that form the main concepts they wanted to communicate about their chosen theme.  Read more... (425 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Singing For Love is off to a great start this year. The eager group of kids have all had some previous exposure to the ukulele and/or other instruments, and we’ve been moving at roughly twice the pace of last year.

Most referrals this year came through Nellie’s Shelter, meaning their participation isn’t necessarily related to parental involvement in a PARS program. While we’ve talked about the history of music in helping individuals to overcome sadness, physical oppression and the effects of violence, it’s not with the same personal attachment and focus as last year. As always, we are focusing on dignity, respect for self and others, and personal expression.  Read more... (344 words, 3 images, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Our first session begins 5:30 pm, Tuesday, June 13, at Counterpoint, Suite 605, 920 Yonge St, with 10 participants. There’s still time to get in on the fun! Use the form on the Contact page to get our attention.

---