Music Students Record Their Own Songs

The first week of Winter Term was spent rehearsing and writing songs, while this week has been focused on recording. Next week, students will edit their recordings and register for copyright protection of their songs with the U.S. Copyright Office. Another group of students—Audrey Staffa, Emily Manley, Mary Grace Copa, Zihan Hu, Martina Rodriguez, and Su Lee—was busy recording alternative punk songs written by Audrey and titled “Deader than Disco” (inspired by the rock band Panic! at the Disco) and “She’ll be Waiting.” 

The songs feature Audrey on lead guitar, Emily on vocals, Mary Grace on guitar (and on vocals for “Deader than Disco”), Zihan on piano, Martina on drums, and Su on bass guitar; Su also acted as producer and engineer. The songs were described by Mr. Moreland as an amalgamation of the rock stars/groups Joan Jett, Alanis Morissette, My Chemical Romance, and Green Day.

Two other music students—Michelle Mongillo and Jeena Turner—are privileged to have lined up meetings with major producers in the music industry. Michelle, whose father Ed Mongillo is a jazz drummer in a quartet that has opened for groups including Sting and The Beach Boys, will meet in Florida with recording engineer Jerry Jordan, who has produced albums for Madonna and Cheryl Crow. Jeena will meet and work with Lloyd Manes, producer of albums by the Dixie Chicks.

Separately, the “Music Theory” students of Mr. Steve Moreland are learning not only how to read music but how to compose music. In only one lesson, they learned the letters of all notes, where they are found on the piano, the “sharps” and “flats” of notes allowing for higher and lower sounds, intervals that are a collection of two different notes and the basis for chords, and how to form major and minor chords, which are three notes that play together. The students filled in the proper notes in musical charts as a way to learn intervals and chords.

The next day, the students began analyzing popular songs and writing down the chord progressions; next, they began creating their own chord progression following the fundamental principles of music theory. It is worth noting that the “Music Theory” class is comprised of both current music students and non-music students at SMCA, which shows that music is in fact a universal language that everyone can enjoy and understand.