(On stage picture and flyers and tickets from opening for the Wailers in Milwaukee, WI.)
Writing and interpreting lyrics has been a part of my life since the age of twelve. One thing I’ve learned is that lyrics often represent personal feelings and may at times be abstract. Lyrics are almost never black on white. Instead of clearly stating in a song that someone is in love with a person or missing a person they may for example represent that person and a bird singing a beautiful song. At a young age, I was left on my own due to my mother’s mental illness and my fathers lack of involvement in raising children.
at age 16 with some hand written lyrics.
Through music I was heavily encouraged to start writing my own lyrics. The lyrics not only gave me a way to express my feelings but gave me a way to express them through writing which over time helped me to learn the art of interpreting and the art of creative writing. At age twelve using and old guitar my grandmother had left me after her passing, I wrote my first song “sunrise goodbyes” about someone I consider my brother passing away from a heroin overdose.
As a high school student, was when I really noticed that learning to interpreting different meanings for song lyrics had impacted me positively. In novel studies we started reading a Shakespeare novel. Romeo and Juliet, just like most high schools, is a required reading for novel studies classes. As a class, everyday we would breakdown the book slowly and interpret what was being said on each page. My peers seemed to have difficulty with this, and would get angry and insult the teacher and curse the book and meme Shakespeare as an old dead guy who doesn’t matter anymore so why do we even have to read the book. I however, seemed to do well at interpreting the novel and that was despite the fact that I hardly even ever attended school. I could miss days of novel studies and still go into class and understand what Shakespeare was conveying on the page. I figured that a huge part of this being easy for me, had to do with what seemed like an obsession with lyrics. At this time in my life I was living in my car.
I would play my songs at parks while homeless due to lack of space in my tiny car.
Every night, if I had enough gas, I would turn on my car and listen to the radio. I had a journal that I kept in my glove box and I would make up and write stories that fit to a particular song that I had listened to through out the night. I would try to figure out what the writer was really trying to convey in his song and if it was relatable to anything I had ever felt or gone through.
Creatively and educationally, music particularly the lyrical aspects of music, increased my literacy. I was able to write almost instantly without brainstorming, and to interpret pieces of writing which helped me to increase my reading skills.
Stateline Peace Rally and event I and 5 other community members hold where I run workshops for kids on arts, music, and creative writing.
I owe a huge part of my literacy to music. This is why I think in creative writing classes they should learn also to interpret songs. I have been back and forth on what I want to be in college for. I know I want to help inspire young minds and sometimes I honestly debate about being an English teacher. I realize though, that I want music to be a part of why I am in school, through this I put the two together and have decided to become a music teacher. In my classes I hope to teach the art of interpreting lyrics to others and not only how to make music but how to express yourself through the writing aspect.
Ariana Hartgraves 