Boyd Holmes, the Writer

One of the more perplexing assignments I gave a graduate class in songwriting was to write a memorable, solid song for five-year-olds.

The kind of song you would find little kids humming while they were coloring.

The class was stymied by the concept of simplicity. Typical compositional complexity and a "higher education" approach wasn't going to work in this scenario.

I thought I was giving them a lifeline by limiting them to the first five diatonic notes of a major scale but it only made it harder for them.

I even suggested that they get some crayons, do some coloring, and randomly start softly humming.

Furrowed brows.

Sometimes "the more you know" refers to authoritative fact-based knowledge but not situational wisdom.

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