West Music Staff Blogs

<p>I have now completed two months of my six month internship here at West Music.  One of my projects to complete during my time here is to start a new group to use the conservatory room in the Marion store.  I have decided to start a Signing Choir.<p>I have taken four semesters of American Sign Language during my time at the University of Iowa, and we had a unit to learn how to sign songs.  I really enjoyed working on that, and I thought that other students would enjoy learning how as well.  For example, in my ASL class, I chose to sign the song "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer.  I had to learn the signs and the correct order of the signs so that they made sense.  There was some creative leeway and interpretations that were up to me, and that was something that I really liked about it.  Two people could sign the same song and come up with different signs and interpretations for it. 

I have decided to open up the class to typically functioning high school students who have an interest in either learning ASL, or in a helping career. The class will start on April 1^st, 2008 from 6:00 PM to 6:45 PM and end June 3^rd, 2008.  There will be two possible performances; one would be with the Sound Reach Choir.  The students will learn songs to sign together, and then will choose one song to learn individually.  I am still in the marketing phase of this project, and I am very excited to start this class!