in-patient songwriting

 

In 2011, Purple Songs Can Fly created a portable recording studio which enables the composers to work with in-patient children at their bedsides to write and record their own songs.

 

In this program, any child being treated as an in-patient or a sibling is welcome to participate, and no musical training or experience is required. Before getting started, parents are asked to complete consent and release forms for both Purple Songs Can Fly and Texas Children’s Hospital.

 

From songs about hope, to songs about kittens, from medicines to being thankful, best friends to dancing and everything in between, the children’s songs can be written on any topic imaginable. Every song is unique, but very often the Purple Songs Can Fly staff will work on capturing the child’s words first, and then move into creating a lyric and its underlying music. The children are involved each step of the way, choosing the rhythms and sounds they want to hear and even composing their own melodies.

 

Once the underlying music is created, the child is able to practice singing the song before recording a vocal track. The music and vocal track are then mixed and burned to a disc. Each child is given the CD recording of their original song to share with hospital staff, family and friends.