Young Song Writers Compose Original Music & Lyrics – Princess Shayna Musical

6. Building A Strong Collaborative Community: Princess Shayna Musical

Again, I am eager to share this 7th Journal entry/blog post from Kim Woycke. Not only is Kim the Blue Brain Director Extraordinaire of the Princess Shayna Musical, she also is a talented composer and musician.

I was out of town last Friday and was disappointed to miss the song rehearsal. I knew the cast would be presenting the original lyrics and melodies they had composed from reading Princess Shayna’s Invisible Visible Gift.

I trust you will be as inspired as I was to read all the Yellow Details about Kim’s Blue Brain Musical Attributes and Thoughtfulness that encouraged the performers to be creative, flexible and helpful to one another!

“Today, we took a giant step forward in our rehearsal, as we tackled writing our first two songs.  The songs have been something that has proven intimidating to me for this production, but luckily we were all feeling inspired and were able to start things off wonderfully.

My goal was to work on our first two songs, “The Invisible, Visible Gift’ and “I Just Need You”.  These two songs were both songs we discussed when plotting out our musical plan.

I figured the first step is always the hardest, and for this first song writing day, I thought it would be helpful if I paved the way for the group by composing and writing some starter lyrics for one of the songs. I decided to work on “The Invisible Visible Gift”.  This was a song that I was inspired to put into the show when reading the Gift Givers Guide pages.  Because this relates to the title of the book, we felt it was an important moment in the story, and worthy of a song.  We had been talking about this song for a few weeks, but we hadn’t come up with any concrete ideas as to lyrics or melody. Little did I know I was so inspired by this concept, and lyric and melody writing flowed fairly quickly.  I came to rehearsal, guitar in hand, ready to teach the song, and allowed the cast to assist by filling in the blanks or adjusting the lyrics as necessary.  I was thrilled by the excitement the cast showed for the song.  They quickly were able to help me clarify the lyrics and bring the song to a whole new level.  We worked to learn the melody and lyrics, and even included some solos.  This song will really be a great addition.

I also wanted to work on “I Just Need You” this week.  This song was the concept of one of our cast members, Rachel.  She had found a great moment between Shayna and White Falcon, and had written a beautiful lyric and melody to go with this moment.  While the remainder of the cast worked to finish staging Scene 6, Rachel, Emma (Shayna) and Griffin (White Falcon) worked to craft the details for this song.  We determined the places where the lyrics were best spoken, and cleaned up the melody to make it clear and soaring.  We also found some great spots for harmonies.  The group worked great and seem really proud of the piece they have created.  I was very proud of Rachel’s flexibility as she worked with the group on her writing.  I know it can be difficult to adjust something that you have created, but she was so open to the ideas and genuinely showed appreciated for the ideas we were able to share.

I am excited to work and put these two songs into our show, and to continue to compose more music!  I have to say that my nerves about writing music are dissipating after tackling two songs so wonderfully.  I could tell that this rehearsal inspired a few of our cast members, and they are eager to continue writing additional songs for our production.”

I am deeply honored by Kim’s and the cast members’ compositions and eagerness to create such an amazing musical production! 

Are you as impressed as I am?

If you missed any of the early post click on the links below and stay up to date with the Princess Shayna Musical.

5. Students Plan, Compose & Connect Emotions to Music & Lyrics: Princess Shayna Musical

4. Students Create Their Own Kingdom of Kindness – Princess Shayna Musical

3.  Auditions, Rehearsal, Casting & Music – Princess Shayna Musical

2. Diabetes, An Actress & A Royal Wizard – Princess Shayna Musical

1. Princess Shayna: A New & Original Children’s Musical

Sarah Spundah the Silver Spider wants to encourage you to subscribe to Sheila’s blog and her BrainBuzz Newsletter if you enjoyed reading this Princess Shayna Musical blog post and want to reading more.

Sarah Spundah also says, “Don’t forget, 10% of the royalties from the sale of Sheila’s books is allocated to JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) .”

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9 Comments

  1. Generous “SCBWI” Children’s Book Authors on March 27, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    […] also have also been thinking about how to share the Princess Shayna Musical with others. I contacted Sara Schacter to see if she knew a SCBWI-IL member who writes and also […]

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    • Nika on December 15, 2012 at 9:25 am

      Very beautifully coposmed posts on your webpage. I found them seeking an answer to a totally different problem and kind of lost track of time. With any luck , you are going to continue to put up fantastic written content for all to share!

      • sheila on December 18, 2012 at 1:49 pm

        Nika, thank you for your kind words. Yes, I will continue to post about Princess and What Color Is Your Brain?.

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