Making Orchestral Mixtapes at James Lyng High School

Students at James Lyng High School have been writing and recording original songs based on the genres of music they listen to. Over the past couple of weeks, Louise Campbell has been guiding a composition project, leading music students through the process of listening for orchestral instruments in their own playlists of pop and hip hop.  The students learned to identify different instrumental techniques for strings: pizzicato, arco, tremolo, vibrato, col legno, etc. and then wrote their own string arrangements for their original songs. The best of these arrangements will be recorded and included on a year-end mixtape. 

Louise Campbell is a teaching Artist who believes that the key to any creative process is having fun, building trust and starting from each person’s individual experience. Her aim is to teach through experiential learning so students learn and understand through doing. Nathan Gage, the music teacher at James Lyng, said Louise “was an invaluable resource, helping to breakdown an otherwise difficult process so that students could write arrangements for their songs”.  We hope to link the James Lyng Mixtape here at the end of the year!

James Lyng High School’s ArtistsInspire Grant experience was made possible by an ELAN Quebec/LEARN partnership for students from Quebec’s English-speaking communities to participate in arts and culture experiences, thanks in part to funding from the Government of Canada.

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