Welcome to 2012 with Strings Attached project – we’re back to work with new projects, music and activity planning for the year.
Thanks to The Film Music Foundation, students at Strings Attached will be scoring music to the silent film, Steamboat Bill, Jr. as a summer project.
This workshop exercise will help students learn to improvise and sharpen their skills at playing music with emotion as they augment film action with music.
While beginning students are learning traditional folk music tunes recorded on our student CD, “Eternal Songs,” our 2nd and 3rd year students in “Guitarkestra” are moving into a new phase of blues and jazz songs. We’re learning to play, “Summertime” (George and Ira Gershwin) “Heliotrope Bouquet” (Scott Joplin and Louis Chauvin)
Scott Joplin
“Baby Please Don’t Go” (Big Joe Williams) “Frankie and Johnny”
Big Joe Willams
and “St. Louis Cyclone Blues” (Lonnie Johnson)
Lonnie Johnson
Also on the learn list are “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Everyday I Have the Blues,” “House of the Rising Sun” and jazz songs from a Mel Bay book. We’re sorry to hear that the original home of the Mel Bay Music Store in Kirkwood, where Mel Bay began his publishing business, is threatened with
demolition to make room for more parking for cars! Perhaps if more people appreciated St. Louis music history, this site and others with historical significance would be respected.
Many of these songs have connections with St. Louis music artists. We’d like to thank one of our new advisory board members, author/artist Kevin Belford, who wrote the book, “Devil at the Confluence” for the research contributions we’re using for our current curriculum. 
We’ll be using some of this material for upcoming spring performances, recitals, “The Strings Attached Road Tour,” and hopefully our next recording sessions later this year.
We’re back to work! – and please remember, we can always use more help from you….yes, you…to make it possible. Please consider donating some of your time to Strings Attached project!
Thanks!
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