CMHOF Words & Music 5.18.16

Since 1979, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has helped students tell their stories through its innovative Words & Music program. More than 100,000 students have learned to write song lyrics while developing key skills in language arts. Not only does Words & Music teach core curriculum, but it also connects young people to Nashville’s music community, pairing classes with songwriters who transform student lyrics into finished songs that are performed in an interactive workshop.
Words & Music also provides classroom teachers with new resources, tools, and techniques that get students excited about writing. The foundation of the program is the Words & Music Teacher’s Guide, a ten-lesson unit that educators use to guide their students through a step-by-step lyric-writing process. Multimedia classroom materials—including PowerPoints, videos, and primary source materials—are available in the Digital Resource Portal.

The Words & Music songwriter workshop can occur in the Taylor Swift Education Center during a field trip to the museum, or it can travel to schools in Middle Tennessee. Words & Music is also available to schools far from Nashville via Distance Learning videoconference.


The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum also offers a precursor to the Words & Music program through Songwriting 101: An Introduction to Words & Music. In this workshop, students learn songwriting basics, express creativity, and write a song with a professional writer.

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