ASCAP’s Songwriter Residency @ America Scores Program
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 by adminToday’s guest blog is from Adrian Ross, ASCAP’s Director of Public Affairs, who writes about ASCAP’s Songwriter Residency @ America Scores program.
In recent years there has been increasing focus placed on providing children with opportunities to learn about the importance and value of copyright and intellectual property. ASCAP and The ASCAP Foundation have been actively involved in these vital educational efforts, leading the way with various initiatives such as Donny the Downloader and Creativity in the Classroom, among others.
Another program that has gained considerable recognition of late, is the ASCAP Songwriter Residency @ America Scores, an innovative program that unites established ASCAP songwriters with students, as a means to expose young people to the creative process of transforming ideas into artistic expression through music.
While not the most conventional method for copyright education, this three-session model allows students to learn firsthand what is involved in producing a creative work, and is thus quite effective in demonstrating the essence of intellectual property. With guidance from their songwriting mentors, the students create a full song by the conclusion of the program, perform and record that song (often in a professional recording studio,) and see their creation released as part of a professionally produced compilation album.
The song is a co-write between the ASCAP songwriter and the America Scores kids. To reinforce the element of copyright, students assign their name to the work and date and label it with the copyright symbol to emulate a professionally published creative work.
The ASCAP Songwriter Residency @ America Scores is an exciting and refreshing approach to copyright education, which at the very least, provides a very significant introduction to the idea of intellectual property rights and reinforces the value of creativity to the next generation. What better way to teach the value of creativity and protecting one’s work than through the actual creation of music? The ASCAP Songwriter Residency @ America Scores has expanded since its inception in 2006, and promises to continue to grow and broaden its reach moving forward.
We are inviting the songwriters and students from the ASCAP Songwriter Residency @ America Scores to share some of their experiences with us, and hope to hear their personal accounts. To learn more about this program please feel free to contact Sue Devine at sdevine@ascap.com.
Founded in 1999, America Scores is an after-school program serving over 6,000 children in 15 U.S. cities, that uses soccer and poetry to inspire a lasting dedication to education, literacy, healthy living and civic responsibility among urban youth. The ASCAP Foundation is a public charity dedicated to supporting music education and talent development, and is supported by contributors, bequests and grants from ASCAP members, other foundations and the general public.
