The students were asked to write essays for This I Believe, the essay series that is read on NPR every week and is based on something Edward R. Murrow used to. They also have their own website with a full database of the hundreds upon hundreds of essays.
The children have come up with some wonderful ones. Here are a few of them with more to come.
I believe in playing guitar.
by Julian Soltes
Guitar is really fun....
Guitar is fun and exercises your fingers. I also like it because it makes my fingers flexible. I can make really cool sounds with playing guitar.
I began playing music on the piano, which influenced me to go to a camp where I started getting interested in guitar. My guitar teacher's name is John. He is really nice and cool. I can communicate with playing guitar with another guitarists. It is pretty hard to explain in words why guitar is really fun, but I will try my best to describe it.
The children have come up with some wonderful ones. Here are a few of them with more to come.
I believe in playing guitar.
by Julian Soltes
Guitar is really fun....
Guitar is fun and exercises your fingers. I also like it because it makes my fingers flexible. I can make really cool sounds with playing guitar.
I began playing music on the piano, which influenced me to go to a camp where I started getting interested in guitar. My guitar teacher's name is John. He is really nice and cool. I can communicate with playing guitar with another guitarists. It is pretty hard to explain in words why guitar is really fun, but I will try my best to describe it.
Guitar is ƒun because you get to move your fingers and pick your pick
at the same time, and hear music that will sound like your favorite
band depending on your personality and what you play can help you enjoy
your music. Express yourself and what kind of music you like and it
will be extra fun.
The way I communicate with my guitar teacher is I play some notes or a riff (a part of a made up/song you heard) and then after you're done with the notes or riffs, my teacher or me will answer to that, which would be something a little bit similar, like if I played a high lead guitar like the chorus high octave in Seven Nation Army, he would do something in the high octaves like that too.
John is nice and cool, he always plays a cool made up riff before we practice a song or practice a scale or something like that. He teaches me how to do awesome riffs like him, and high note string bends like pro guitarists like Angus in AC/DC. We get to just jam together and play high notes, parts from scales, low notes, high notes, anything we want to match the rhythm and beat.
The place where I got influenced in guitar is a summer camp and also the same place I go to take my lessons. The place is called BMA (Burbank Music Academy). You get to form bands, decide on a song to do, learn the song, practice it with your band, and every Friday when we practiced enough, we have a concert and all of the bands play the songs they learned for all the parents including the teachers at the summer camp. They record it onto a DVD and sell it to the parents to keep. I have all the DVDs since I went there, and I'm going again this summer, because it is really cool and EXTREMELY FUN!!!!
This is why guitar is really cool and why I enjoy it. I hope I learn more about guitar and also hope some of my classmates and friends will go to BMA with me.
I believe in guitar.
I Believe in Happiness
by Lily Rose Leatart
My whole nine years of life have been happy and full of laughter. I feel if there were no happiness there would be no joy, no kindness and no fun.
I try so hard to keep full-hearted; but I learned that it's okay to have your feelings too. Being happy is just like jumping into feeling and emotion.
If there is anything I want to be as a kid I would want to be happy because when you're young, you're supposed to start out a clean life. You have to remember that you can never be sad forever. Sometimes you just have to break out in laughter and be happy again.
I Believe in Curiosity
by Emma Stone
I believe in curiosity. The kind of curiosity with sharp eyes, the kind of curiosity with huge ears and a small face, the kind of curiosity that follows me wherever I go, that's name is Blue Girl, the kind of curiosity that is mine.
When Blue Girl first went out or snuck out, that is--wait, backup. Not yet! How did she get out? She, well, we, well I left the door open for a while. When I stepped outside, she was in the driveway. There was a moving car!
I was with my neighbor and when we saw her I screamed, "you go find Frosty," I said. "Sure!" she said and ran. Frosty was my other cat and she must be out too. I picked Blue Girl up and put her in the house. My neighbor found Frosty, "she hadn't been far," she said.
I was mad at them at first. I didn't let them sit on me for a week. But I also learned something from that. If someone's curious, let them be curious. They want to see the world, let them. There's no freedom without curiosity, so I believe in curiosity. This I believe.
The way I communicate with my guitar teacher is I play some notes or a riff (a part of a made up/song you heard) and then after you're done with the notes or riffs, my teacher or me will answer to that, which would be something a little bit similar, like if I played a high lead guitar like the chorus high octave in Seven Nation Army, he would do something in the high octaves like that too.
John is nice and cool, he always plays a cool made up riff before we practice a song or practice a scale or something like that. He teaches me how to do awesome riffs like him, and high note string bends like pro guitarists like Angus in AC/DC. We get to just jam together and play high notes, parts from scales, low notes, high notes, anything we want to match the rhythm and beat.
The place where I got influenced in guitar is a summer camp and also the same place I go to take my lessons. The place is called BMA (Burbank Music Academy). You get to form bands, decide on a song to do, learn the song, practice it with your band, and every Friday when we practiced enough, we have a concert and all of the bands play the songs they learned for all the parents including the teachers at the summer camp. They record it onto a DVD and sell it to the parents to keep. I have all the DVDs since I went there, and I'm going again this summer, because it is really cool and EXTREMELY FUN!!!!
This is why guitar is really cool and why I enjoy it. I hope I learn more about guitar and also hope some of my classmates and friends will go to BMA with me.
I believe in guitar.
I Believe in Happiness
by Lily Rose Leatart
My whole nine years of life have been happy and full of laughter. I feel if there were no happiness there would be no joy, no kindness and no fun.
I try so hard to keep full-hearted; but I learned that it's okay to have your feelings too. Being happy is just like jumping into feeling and emotion.
If there is anything I want to be as a kid I would want to be happy because when you're young, you're supposed to start out a clean life. You have to remember that you can never be sad forever. Sometimes you just have to break out in laughter and be happy again.
I Believe in Curiosity
by Emma Stone
I believe in curiosity. The kind of curiosity with sharp eyes, the kind of curiosity with huge ears and a small face, the kind of curiosity that follows me wherever I go, that's name is Blue Girl, the kind of curiosity that is mine.
When Blue Girl first went out or snuck out, that is--wait, backup. Not yet! How did she get out? She, well, we, well I left the door open for a while. When I stepped outside, she was in the driveway. There was a moving car!
I was with my neighbor and when we saw her I screamed, "you go find Frosty," I said. "Sure!" she said and ran. Frosty was my other cat and she must be out too. I picked Blue Girl up and put her in the house. My neighbor found Frosty, "she hadn't been far," she said.
I was mad at them at first. I didn't let them sit on me for a week. But I also learned something from that. If someone's curious, let them be curious. They want to see the world, let them. There's no freedom without curiosity, so I believe in curiosity. This I believe.
