FARMINGTON – Martin Swinger said he was “always the kid with the guitar” when he was growing up.

Swinger, a singer and songwriter from Georgia now living in Augusta, recently led a diverse band of would-be and established songwriters in a song-writing seminar for Foothills Arts in Farmington.

“Songs of Personal History,” scheduled for four evening sessions in September and October, was extended to six when Swinger and participants agreed they had more work to do.

Swinger encouraged his students, ranging from seasoned musicians to home-schooled teens, to write about the things they know. Through guided writing exercises, participants discovered which topics moved them most.

Message music

Annette Backus was the oldest of four girls growing up in New Hampshire. Her father inspired his daughters by playing classical music at dinner and asking them to guess the piece’s title and composer.

“If it was Mozart, I got it,” said Backus, who started her music career playing the viola but later switched to the clarinet, which she continued through college.

Attending college in the 1960s, a time when Backus said women weren’t permitted to play in the marching band, she was influenced by folk music, particularly the Kingston Trio. Later she was inspired by Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan. She taught herself guitar and also learned banjo.

“Folk music is a wonderful way to get a message across,” she said.

The retired speech clinician also spent one week during the last four summers at Meadowlark Music Camp in Washington learning banjo.

Backus recently watched her mother die from Alzheimer’s disease. In a recent interview, she said she “was angry that a wonderful mind like that (of her mother’s) had to end life in a state of confusion and fear.” This then, became the vision for her song.

Group fun

Sixteen-year-old Kealeigh Bradford said she writes a lot of stories and sometimes “really bad poetry.” She had never written a song before.

Bradford recently moved to an old farmhouse in St. Albans with her family. In 2007, the house will be 100 years old.

She chose to write a song about the house, locally known as “the old Ballard House.” The family named it Blessing Moon Farm after the moon in July, when they moved in.

“It’s big enough for all of us,” she said of the eight-room house, still with the original wood-fired cook stove in the kitchen. With four bedrooms and 10 acres of land, it offers not only plenty of space but also plenty of history.

Bradford said she is not musically inclined, but learned a lot about song-writing from Swinger. She said she will continue writing lyrics, maybe even learn guitar.

“It was the realization that I could write songs if I wanted to, and have people hear them and sing them and enjoy them,” she said of her experience. “It was fun to do in a group.”

Adult first

Swinger admitted to his class on the last night that while he had taught songwriting to children, he had never taught adults before. He said the experience helped him learn how to pace a songwriting class and how to lay out lesson plans.

He said he also had to learn to let go sometimes.

“Not every effort will be a shining success,” he said, “but every effort is an effort and deserves support and recognition.”