In honor of National Poetry Month, here are a few resources to help with the related art of songwriting.  Most of these books (the "MT" books) are available in the Music Collection.  The "PE" books are on the Third Floor of Bracken Library.

Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting, by Pat Pattison

MT 67 .P383 2009

How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC by Paul Edwards

MT 67 .E38 2009

The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs That Sell: How to Create Hits in Today's Music Industry, by Eric Beall

MT 67 .B43 2009

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting, by Joel Hirschhorn.

MT 67 .H55 2004

How to Write Songs on Guitar, by Rikky Rooksby
MT 67 .R66 2009

Righting Wrongs in Writing Songs, by Danny Cope
MT 67 .C628 2009

This Business of Songwriting, by Jason Blume.
MT 67 .B67 2006

In order to write a good song
The words should go where they belong
The best songs do rhyme
But not all the time
Sometimes the lyricist just can't figure out the last line

Having trouble coming up with rhymes?  We can help with that too!

Bronner's Rhyming Phrases Dictionary: For Writers, Songwriters, Lyricists, Poets, Speech Writers, and Others Using Rhyme, by Michael A. Bonner

PE 1519 .B76 2000

The Modern Rhyming Dictionary: How to Write Lyrics (including a practical guide to lyric writing for songwriters nad poets)

PE 1519 .L37 2000

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes (Electronic resource)

Music for Earth Day

Celebrate Earth Day with Music!  Check out these CDs from the Music Collection:

Earth, Wind and Fire

Sacred Theory of the Earth

by Anne LeBaron

Song of Middle Earth by Daniel William McCarthy

Heaven and Earth

by Al Jarreau,

Songs of Earth, Water, Fire and Sky: Music of the American Indian

Honor the Earth Powwow: Songs of the Great Lakes Indians

Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) by Paul Winter.

Earth: Voices of a Planet by Paul Winter

Earth Tribe Rhythms: The Ultimate Drum Experience by Brent Lewis

The Earth Rolls On

This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

Sacred Ground: Tribute to Mother Earth

Lied von der Erde by Gustav Mahler

Earth Moving by Mike Oldfield

Or you can sing some songs for the day yourself from this songbook: Songs for Earthlings: A Green Spirituality Songbook 
M1977.C53 S6 1998

Subject Guide for Jazz

There is now a separate subject guide for jazz on the Ball State University subject guides page:

http://bsu.libguides.com/jazz

The guide includes tips for researchers, performers, and listeners.  I hope you find information you can use.

Music of the Civil War

The Civil War began 150 years ago with the Battle of Fort Sumter in South Carolina.  This war was a definitive war in American history, and the music of the time helped to define American identity as well.  Unlike the years of the American Revolution, music of the time was often published and much of it survived.

 You may be familiar with the soundtrack to the PBS series, "The Civil War," by Ken Burns.  "Ashokan Farewell," the haunting violin melody from the series became associated with the Civil War, but most music of the time was for voice with piano, or piano alone.  A few are still well known, such as the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."  Popular music of the day was spread by traveling minstrel troupes.  Some of Stephen Foster's songs come from this tradition.

Sheet music for many Civil War songs has been preserved by American libraries can be found online in digital format.  Ball State Libraries' Digital Media Repository has some Civil War Songs in the Hague Sheet Music Collection. 

Check out some of these Compact Discs:

• Songs of the Civil War  Compact Disc 9537
• Stephen Foster's America, Compact Disc 8610
• A Lincoln Portrait: The Music of Abraham Lincoln by the Bands and Choruses of the U.S. Military, Compact Disc 16447
• Robert E. Lee Remembered, Compact Disc 8615
• The Civil War: Its Music and Its Sounds, Compact Disc 13226
• Ballads of the Civil War, Compact Disc 9534

Sheet Music of theCivil War

• The Civil War Songbook, M 1637 .C6
• Singing Soldiers: A History of the Civil War in Song, M 1637 .S5748
• Soldier Songs and Home-Front Ballads of the Civil War, M 1637 .S64 1964
• Songs of the Civil War, M 1637 .S6683
• Historic American Sheet Music: 1850-1920, a searchable archive of .pdf versions of over 3,000 pieces of sheet music at Duke University (hosted by the Library of Congress' American Memory site)

Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. Check out our poetry month displays on the Music Collection Counter.

Why would the Music Collection celebrate poetry month?  Songs are poems set to music, and in some cultures poetry and music are inseparable.  This was true in Ancient Greece, for example.

To see whether the Music Collection has songs set to your favorite poet's works, go to CardCat, and do a subject keyword search on the poet's name AND musical settings.  For example, Goethe and Musical Settings.

April in Song

Count Basie Orchestra cameo in "Blazing Saddles"

April in Paris is a jazz standard that is particularly associated with Count Basie's Orchestra (really a big band).  It is familiar to audiences thanks to a famous cameo appearance by the Count Basie Orchestra in the film, Blazing Saddles.  Among the famous vocal performances of this song are those by Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan.

Another classic song is"April Showers," which has been popular for almost a century.  It was recorded by Al Jolson and popularized in the film, The Jolson Story.  More recently, it was recorded by Sugarland.

For a different take on April, check out "April Skies" by Jesus and Mary Chain.