Mark Stampley is a renaissance musician for the new millennium. He is a multi-style guitarist and vocalist, who has a "Cariblujazzean" sound. His solo CD, Here Comes Big Poppa Stampley, features a blues/folk/rock/Caribbean mix. Mark has covered a lot of musical ground over the years as a soloist, a front man with Eclypse of the Moon since the 80's and as a sideman, studio guitarist and educator with his Music History-Motion arts programming company. Mark has performed and recorded with a wide variety of entertainers in the areas of blues, jazz, R&B, hip-hop, reggae, rock music, film, television, and theatre.
Music History In Motion 5-Day Residency
An action-packed, process-driven series of classroom workshops for grades 5 – 8
SESSION 1: “Meet the Stars of Music History” Live Talk Show
It’s a live talk show in your classroom! Mark Stampley impersonates, in full costume, several of the performers who shaped the development of African-American music, including live performance samples. Selected students serve as hosts and work from prompt cards provided while the rest call out questions from the “audience.” A discussion of how music history relates to life today ensues.
FOCUS: African and Caribbean influence on American music and culture
SESSION 2: Introduction to Writing & Songwriting
Mark Stampley, performs several styles of American and Caribbean music as examples of creativity. Students are then instructed to write at least three poetic verses or three prose paragraphs about a person, place, event or dream that has had a strong emotional impact on them. Surprise! Stampley randomly selects one or more of the writings and improvises a song in an African-American music style using the student’s work. Finally, students are given the opportunity to add to or edit their work for inclusion in their writing portfolio.
FOCUS: Communication through Narrative Writing
SESSION 3: Writing & Songwriting, Level II
Stampley passes out lyrics for a Blues song which he plays and then explains how the Blues uses emotion to tell a story with music. The he repeats the process with a reggae song, and explains how reggae often focuses on spiritual and resistance themes. Students then are asked to pick one of the styles and use it in writing a song based on their personal thoughts and feelings about life. Stampley assists the students throughout the process, including helping them complete a finished product.
FOCUS: Writing a themed piece on the human condition, Blues & Reggae
SESSION 4: Student Writing & Songwriting Presentation
It’s time to let the world know about this! Students are encouraged to present their songwriting work to others, using background music provided by Stampley and/or student musicians. The presentation can be for audiences as small as the individual class or as large as a parent/family event. Student work can be presented in published form as well (great extension project!) and sold as a fund-raiser.
FOCUS: Presentation of student work
SESSION 5: A Reverse Look Into the Future
Stampley discusses with the students a variety of careers in music and writing, and talks about personal and professional goals in life. Students are asked to write down what their present goals are for career, job title, and personal achievements they want to accomplish by adulthood. Stampley leads the students in an exercise to help them put reasonable dates on their goals, working backwards from the end result to see what milestones they will have to achieve along the way, and what they should be doing “today” to ensure success. A discussion of career goals and achievement methods ends the residency.
These activities directly address Kentucky Core Content for Arts & Humanities:
AH-06-1.1.1, AH-07-1.1.1, AH-08-1.1.1 (rhythm, tempo, form, timbre)
AH-08-1.1.2 (brass, string, percussion)
AH-08-1.1.3 (gospel, blues, jazz, popular)
AH-08-2.1.1 (African & African-American music styles)
As well as cross-curricular applications in Social Studies and Language Arts.