Expedition #4 - Music Writing & Production

Words & Photos - Aneissa B.


The Music Production cohort had a very exciting Expedition Day, as we got to welcome back SMUS alumnus and professional musician Emily Reid. Since graduation, Emily has been pursuing a music career in Nashville, and has a major studio album set to release this spring. We were all very excited to have the opportunity to work with her for the day.

We started off by meeting Emily Reid and Kyle Shearer, her partner who is music producer, and learning a little bit about them. We then started our first project of the day, our recorded song. We started with a piano part, added guitar, drums, and even a rap. We made lyrics with help from Emily as we went. By lunchtime, we had our completed song “Take Me Away” and were all very proud of what we accomplished with help from the creative Emily and Kyle’s amazing producing. I was blown away with how professional it sounded, and that we were able to complete it in such a short amount of time!

After completing our big group project, we ate some lunch then broke up into smaller groups. Some learned more about the producing program Logic with Kyle and some made up some guitar rifts Some students chose to work with Emily to create harmony to Billie Eilish’s “when the party’s over”. We worked in our groups to create music and do what we enjoy.

To end the day, we came back as a group to listen to our song. We were all very impressed at what we were able to create, and we couldn’t thank Emily and Kyle enough. We are very excited that we may have the opportunity to connect with Emily again this year!