How did you pluck my signed card from inside that balloon?

How did all those coins come out of your armpit!

Oradell Challenger Baseball League

Is that your signed card?

This rope looks normal to me

Deal 20 cards into my hand

Flip the card you're thinking of over in the deck

Several times throughout the year I have the rare opportunity to perform for special needs kids, and over the fast few weeks I performed two very special shows. One was for the Oradell Challenger Little League baseball group and the other was at Montgomery Academy which is a state funded special needs school.

Never underestimate the abilities of these wonderful special kids!

I’ll never forget about ten years ago how terrified I felt the first time I looked out into an audience filled with kids confined to wheelchairs and leg braces or dealing with conditions ranging from various degrees of mental retardation to autism to Cerebral Palsy.  Although the director of the facility assured me that the kids had the capacity to understand me and follow along, I still proceeded with caution.

As usual, in these types of performances, an important lesson was taught to me… never underestimate the abilities of these wonderful special kids! Not only do they follow along and participate and laugh and react appropriately at all the right places, they react in such a unique way that leaves me with a indescribable feeling.

Their reactions are priceless and their expressions of gratitude and appreciation following the performance are just as special as they are and rarely seen with typical audiences.

It’s times like these that I appreciate how fortunate I am that I was blessed with three healthy thriving kids. I also appreciate how fortunate I am to perform for kids like these and to add a little bit of happiness to their lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7EqpBAi_gY

Realizing the need

For ten plus years, 30-minute interactive songwriting workshops have been a staple of my performing repertoire which are usually done in addition to my 50-minute “Magical Songwriter” performances. I’ll never forget the day about seven years ago when a student in one of the workshops suggested that we write a song about the school. After learning from many school officials that their school songs were ancient, non existent, or simply song parodies of old standard tunes I realized that there was a need to update or create newer “cooler” school songs.  The rest as they say is “History”.

Since then, I have performed more than 100 “Write a Cool School Song” assembly programs and without a doubt, they are the most creative, original and unique school assembly programs that I offer.

It’s a collaborative effort

This one-of-a-kind all-day program is a collaborative effort with myself and the students and begins with three 30 minute morning songwriting workshops.  Each group works with me to create a different part of the song and by lunchtime we have a complete, original, school song complete with two verses and a chorus of customized, personalized  lyrics backed up with original guitar music and a drum pattern.

In the afternoon, the entire school assembles for a 40-minute  high energy assembly program unveiling the school song as it is performed for the very first time. Several recordings of the songs are created including participation from dozens of students. The assembly ends with a bang as the teachers assemble in front of the entire school to sing their rendition of the school song.

Satisfaction, pride, and a sense of ownership

The students not only gain the satisfaction and pride that goes along with creating a school song, they gain the once-in-a-lifetime experience of participating in the creation of a song. It took me many years of trial and error to learn the craft of songwriting and the songwriting process until I finally developed a system that worked for me. If only I had been exposed to a songwriter at an earlier age who showed me how to do it, it would have been much easier for me.

Please watch this video highlighting an actual  ”Write a Cool School Song” workshop and assembly. Ask yourself if your school song is in need of some revamping. If so, give me a call.

Jeff Blum

I saw this quotation on a poster in my doctor’s office the other day.

“In one hundred years, it will not matter what house I lived in, what car I drove, or even what my clothes looked like. What will matter is that I made a difference in the life of a child.”

Sometimes I try to explain and understand why I do what I do. What is it that keeps me motivated? What do I think about and remember most about the performance on my way home? The answer is below… the smiling faces of the kids from a recent performance. This is proof positive that I am achieving what I set out to achieve, to make a difference in the life of a child. Once I have their attention, they don’t even realize that they’re learning positive messages.

Deep down I know that even though I may never see the direct results of the children’s lives I have affected, I know I am making a difference in their lives every day.

Jeff

This is what it's all about.

How did that quarter get in your ear?

Amazed and engaged!

Don't be such a grouch, get off of that couch!

Laughing and singing along...

Singing along!

The Most Important Minute of My Day

As a motivational performer, each day I am faced with the monumental challenge of having a life changing impact on a group of several hundred elementary, middle or high school students… in 50 minutes. Realistically, experience tells me that when I am performing one of my school assembly programs, I have exactly one minute to capture and engage their attention or else the next 49 minutes will be an eternity of wandering eyeballs, private conversations and lack of attention. Because I never get a second chance to make a first impression, it is clearly the most important minute of my day.

Finding the Perfect Blend of Entertainment and Education

The best way to get these challenging groups on your side is to engage them by making the school assembly programs educational and at the same time fun and entertaining, but this is easier said than done. Putting together a fun and entertaining age appropriate school assembly program is relatively easy. The greater challenge is to cleverly combine the fun and entertainment with important, life changing, positive messages in such a way that the students are engaged and at the same time, the administration is satisfied that the students are receiving a benefit beyond pure entertainment.

The Importance of Knowing my Audience

Over the past ten years, I have created and delivered thousands of age appropriate, meaningful, topical school assembly programs for students of every grade level from K-12. Truthfully, I shudder at the thought of presenting a program without having the assistance of some form of entertainment to include in my presentation.  However, I must choose my material very carefully because  what may be considered fun for one age group may be considered “babyish” or too advanced for another group.

Appropriate Programs for Every Age Group

It is for this reason that many motivational performers remain pigeonholed into one specific age group. For example, when I first started out, my programs were suitable for K-3 audiences. However, when I tried performing the same program for a group of 4th 5th and 6th graders, wandering eyeballs and private conversations made it obvious to me that changes were needed.  Over the years I have had similar issues with middle school and high school students but now I can proudly say that I have age appropriate school assembly programs for every group of students from K-12. The above “Magical Songwriter” school assembly program performance is suitable for a K-5 audience.

Everybody Needs to Hear Positive Messages

Watch for future blogs where I will highlight some of the performances for middle school and high school students. Not surprisingly, I also have motivational programs for adult audiences because everybody needs to hear positive messages.

Thanks for reading and watching and please comment and pass it on to others. For more information visit my web site at www.magicalsongwriter.com

Thanks, Jeff Blum