Each semester I work with fantastic young musicians at Carnegie Mellon University's Preparatory School to create their own original compositions that are inspired by people, places, and art in their community. They've worked with poets, painters, photographers, evolutionary biologists, and historical foundations over the past four semesters. 

Below, check out a little documentary that the Hillman Photography Initiative made about their collaboration with the students of CMU Prep: ​

Telling Stories is a unique interdisciplinary program that is designed to inspire students to both collaborate across disciplines and create original work. The process helps students learn to speak each others’ languages, inspires faculty members to work together in new ways, and gives non-performing artists a chance to take the stage with their performing colleagues. I’ve been producing an annual show at the Denver School of the Arts since 2008, and I often get this question: “So, how do you get students in writing, music, visual arts, and tech to all work together? And what does that even look like?”​

Well, I’m glad you asked! Check out the slide show below from this year's show, Weird Science: ​

Living in Pittsburgh, we pay homage to our most famous songwriter, Stephen Foster. You may know him from "Oh! Susanna" or "My Old Kentucky Home" or "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair." But he also wrote "Hard Times Come Again No More," and I find the song to transcend the decades and have meaning no matter when you're listening to it. I had been meaning to play it for a while when two friends bought a house and ran into problem after problem. I wanted to send them a clip as a joke, and then got hooked on playing it -- funny how that works. 

This summer I played a concert in Boston, and at the end, a member of the audience asked for this song. I had never heard of it (Shame on me!), but you might well know it from Ken Burns's documentary The Civil War. In honor of her request, I've learned it. I love how this piece was written in 1982 and does have a contemporary mood but is rooted in such a rich, timeless feel. 

​It was tricky. Piano chords sound good when you just play them and let them ring. But when I plunked those same chords on the marimba, it sounded a little empty. I would need to waggle my hands a bit to fill things out. But waggling wasn't enough -- the melody is actually pretty fantastically intricate, and holding four mallets meant the "voice mallet" (the one closest to the camera) was getting thrown off by the others wiggling about hilter-kilter. So I had to inform the other mallets they'd need to actually move in time, with the melody fitting in like a little puzzle. And finally, I had to get them to move in time in a way that wasn't too chunka-chunka-thud-thud -- I wanted them to feel like a nice stream of sound with the melody gliding over the top. I used three rounder, softer yarn mallets on the bottom and a cord mallet on top to try to create that sound. 
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​Below, I'm including my chicken-scratch music, which doesn't have the voicings or accompaniment rhythms but gives both you and my brain a general idea of how it all comes together:

And below is the my full version of "All Your Favorite Bands," including a little opener and bridge not notated, which for now I'm keeping simple and hymn-style, though I have suspicions it might evolve to rock a bit more ... 

Oh, The Avett Brothers. They wrote the sweetest song, and it captured my heart the first time I heard it. And it sounded simple enough that I thought I might be able to combine the piano and the vocals and put something together for the marimba. 

But y'all, those melodies are deceptively tricky to fit in! As simple as the melodic contour is, each time it is stated it changes just slightly in terms of rhythm, which actually makes it feel quite different! It all leads to an interesting discussion, how rhythm so beautifully affects melody depending if it is a touch more round or angular. (But it was less interesting discussion and more swear words as I tried to get it all to fit together in practice sessions.) 

I must confess this version is missing something big -- in the second verse is a pretty little cello melody in the original, and I'm hoping to actually sing it over the top eventually. However, getting my voice in shape is a work in progress, so for now you can hear it without my faltering, pitchy attempts: