Songwriting with Darrow A.

Darrow (28) is an encouraging and patient music teacher who’s passionate about building creative confidence in children! As a recording and performing musician, he plays guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, and percussion, and he has had the joy of teaching elementary school music, grades Kindergarten through Sixth. He's also putting together an interactive musical “mommy-and-me” workshop that he calls Cultivating Children’s Creativity, Darrow’s interest in teaching kids comes from his progressive understanding in the developmental processes of music in the human brain – something he studied extensively during his degree in Ethnomusicology. Children, especially between the ages of 3-12 have great potential during what psychologists call the critical period in their brain development, a point at which it is very important for them to develop their creative mind, which greatly helps them succeed in all aspects of their life, on into adulthood! He also discovered that mastery of music in one’s own unique way is a human birth-right, that is, everyone has access to it! Beyond this, Darrow has a playful attitude that jives well with kids, keeping them engaged with the material and excited to play music instead of looking at it as something they have to do. While Darrow's lessons are geared toward children, he loves teaching beginners and intermediates of all ages, too. Anything that's good for kids is good for everyone! Darrow seeks to mend two major issues with common music education: The first is that, because students in a typical music class are graded on how well they play music, there unknowingly is an anxiety built around playing it instead of building their confidence to make mistakes – which is an essential element in the creative process! Secondly, becoming a successful musician in this day and age is very different than it was previously – being talented at playing an instrument is good, but now more than ever it’s necessary to develop further musical skill-sets, making them well-rounded musicians in the technological age. An awesome feature of one-on-one studio lessons with Darrow is learning the ability to craft and record your own songs. Darrow provides a professional recording studio lesson space in the historical district of Columbia City with state-of-the-art equipment that allows students to not only learn their instrument, but apply that knowledge in the studio to develop a deep understanding of songwriting - the processes of crafting, recording, and producing music all the way to it’s final product! Can you imagine your child bringing home a copy of their very first song that they wrote, recorded, and produced? What a proud moment for any parent or child! “I’m excited to help build your creative confidence, set goals for your practice, and realize your musical dreams. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to live mine!” -Darrow