I have to confess that I rarely write for pleasure. I just never thought I had the “writer’s flow” that some are so blessed with. It wasn’t until I started attending my high school, the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts (otherwise, colorfully known as “Charts”), that I finally found my flow.
The moment I auditioned for this artsy-fartsy school I knew that it was going to change my life. I had been subjected to an entirely new environment – an environment full of artists. Because I was a vocal major, I had to take classes such as Music Theory, Vocal Techniques, Piano, etc. It was Music Theory that really inspired me to pursue musicianship even apart from my required classes. Here I was learning how to write and compose my own music through my own expression. It was as if they mixed my two favorite classes: math and music, into one! Although music is so creative, there’s a structure about it and a way of problem solving.
My junior and senior years of high school were almost completely dedicated to composing and performing. I can recall one of the projects assigned was to create a variation/many variations to a nursery rhyme theme. I chose The Wheels on the Bus. I can remember having so much fun during our in-class work time with friends, sharing our ideas and compilations of harmonies. I wrote three variations of The Wheels on the Bus. One was harmonized and retrograded, another was half-time, and the last was just heavily harmonized to finish strong.
This flashbulb memory of mine will very well stick with me until I am rolling around in my wheel chair. I guarantee it. I’m fairly certain it was the moment I realized, “Hey. I’m pretty great at this. Let me continue writing music”, and so I did. I now have a tiny leather notebook I carry around for whenever I am inspired to write something musical. Though much different than I had anticipated, I had found my “writer’s flow”.
ENGL 106 