Sparky Superhero (classroom collaboration)

I have been teaching songwriting in my son's third grade class this year, and presented below is our first group assignment. Written in concert with 20 third graders, My son's third grade teacher Bonnie Raines, and myself, we all feel it is a fine debut effort.

After offering up my services to teach this twice a week in the class, I was initially concerned how to get 20 kids to write a song together. My fears were dismissed when Bonnie put into action her great corralling technique:

After we discussed the many reasons why people wrote songs, the kids were asked to come up with suggestions for subject matter and song type. They were allowed to vote on their favorite, and came up with the idea of a silly song about a superhero kittycat named "Sparky". Sparky now needed something to define him as a hero, and so the idea-taking and vote-casting process took over once again.

To start, I played a simple chord progression for the kids, suggested a melody line, and sang the chorus.

The first verse (the intro of the bad guy) was worked up during our initial session together. The second verse (which has Sparky resolving the conflict) was completed in the following class, and the last two verses were written during the third class. It seems that once you get the ball rolling with a room of vibrant, imaginative, 8 and 9 years old thinkers, it can be hard to settle them into making a concrete storyline out of what was decided upon by vote. They just want to keep coming up with more and more ideas, which is awesome, but makes it difficult to distill a cohesive song. Bonnie was trying to steer them into thinking about why a superhero cat would be called "Sparky" in the first place, and a couple of students thought of some laser-eye prospects for Sparky, but not enough votes were cast for this idea. For the final verse, Bonnie came up with the great "hairball" line, trying to get some part of the song to reference that Sparky is a cat, and the choking chupacabra lines filled out simply from there, completing the song.

An exercise in showing the kids how easy and fun writing a song can be, this first experiment came out very well. We will work on having the children create the actual lines (and rhyming scheme) for future songs, working in small groups and on individual songs throughout the year.

I plan on recording the kids singing this one on Tuesday, and will post that version on my blog when ready!

Enjoy

- Mark Otis



Lyrics:

There's a robot underneath the Empire State Building
He eats grownups, small children, and parking meters
This is so naughty and a serious problem
Someone has to stop it. Who can do it?

Sparky - Superhero
Meow meow - Superhero
Sparky Superhero
Meow Meow - Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow

Sparky has a decoy parking meter
he climbs inside and the robot eats him
Sparky takes control and then defeats him
he saves the day – Hooray!

Sparky - Superhero
Meow meow - Superhero
Sparky Superhero
Meow Meow - Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow

Chupacabra is trying to ensnare
the whole city in a wig of human hair
He's stealing it from everyone, everywhere
What shall we do? Tell me who can help us?

Sparky - Superhero
Meow meow - Superhero
Sparky Superhero
Meow Meow
Meow Meow - Meow Meow
Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow

Being a cat, Sparky coughs up a hairball
Chupacabra can't pass up on that at all
Hairball is so big, the chupacabra chokes
and that's all folks – Goodbye chupacabra, and say hello:

Sparky - Superhero
Meow meow - Superhero
Sparky Superhero
Meow Meow- Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow


copyright 2009 Mark Allen Johnson

Uke Musings Update!!

We have updates!! Crazy, crazy updates!!

More lyrics now on this site than have been seen ever before!!

Individual song links to your left!

Song lyrics and notes to your right!

More stuff, more stuff, more stuff!!


Check out this crazy list of sings that you can now sings along to:

AMBITION
BEAVER DAM
BIG BLUE RUBBER HANDS
CAUGHT IN THE SPOTLIGHT
EMPLOYEES AREA ONLY
GARAGE SALE
HABITAT
HEMINGWAY
MENUTIA MADNESS
PARKING LOT
RANTERTAINMENT RADIO
SOME GOT LUCK
SPLIT MY SKULL
TALKING 7 NIGHTS A WEEK TOILET TALK BLUES
THERE'S A MAN (ZOMBIE SONG)
UKE SONG (NOT A ZOMBIE SONG)

Much much more to follow soon!!

All of these songs are guaranteed to be listenable at low volumes, but are more accessible to larger audiences at higher volumes.

- Mark Otis