When his son was born, he wrote “Lull.”
It’s a lullaby about being a father.
He didn’t plan to write it, but it just happened.
English teacher Daniel Dubois has been singing for 15 years, and writing songs such as “Lull” for 10 years. His students are lucky enough to hear some of his songs during class.
“I bring my guitar to class every day, and it’s a de-stressor for me, even if I just need five minutes to play,” Dubois said. “I think it’s a two-way street, because it’s not only good for me, but it’s good for my students too. It’s an honor and a pleasure to play for my kids in class, and I love playing.”
Dubois’ students enjoy hearing his music. When they were able to come in the classroom last year, seeing the guitar was a constant reminder that he plays, and they would ask him to. Dubois was playing almost weekly for them.
“I’ve found that no matter how old people get, they like to be read and sung to. When we’re little kids we get a bedtime story read to us, or a lullaby,” Dubois said. “I don’t think that desire ever really goes away. Even though we act all mature and grown up, deep down we’re all kids in that respect.”
Sometimes, students that aren’t even in Dubois’ class feel welcome to come in and play his guitar, which Dubois doesn’t mind. It allows them to express themselves musically, which relaxes both him and the students.
“You’ve got to walk the walk if you want to encourage creativity and risk-taking in my class. Don’t be afraid to be wrong, don’t be afraid of something sounding stupid.” Dubois said. “It’s a remarkably vulnerable thing, to get up and play music for the first time to strangers. Putting myself in a position where I could potentially embarrass myself is very disarming, and comforting to them.”
More so than playing music, it’s being a songwriter that elicits vulnerability among Dubois’ students. He’s had some feel comfortable approaching him with issues, and sharing things like writings with him.
“I find there are a couple emails saying, ‘This kid doesn’t show up to my class,’ and I think, ‘Well, they always show up in mine,’” Dubois said. “Maybe it’s because they like my class, or maybe it’s late enough in the day that they wake up for it, I don’t know. I always tell myself it’s because of my class.”
For Dubois, it’s all about integrating music into his classes and sharing his personality with them, made clear by his Edward Scissorhands movie poster visible on camera, showing his love of movies. His students give him music recommendations, and he listens to every single one.
“I don’t like a lot of it, but there’s some that I really like, like Post Malone. I didn’t even know who that was until last year. I listened to him and actually really liked him,” Dubois said. “Conversely, I’m more of a faux country guy, so I throw them some Bob Dylan or Fleetwood Mac, and they think it’s old person music, but they appreciate that I share some of myself with them.”
Dubois learned to appreciate music from a young age. His mother once spent $350 on a used acoustic guitar, disregarding her and her husband’s promise to communicate before making major purchases.
“We had a five-disk CD changer, and she’d play Peter Gabriel, The Beatles, Neil Young, and all these 60’s/70’s rockers,” Dubois said. “My dad was a painter, so I was surrounded by art as a kid.”
While Dubois’ mother was learning to play guitar, she was diagnosed with cancer and eventually passed away. Seeing the guitar sitting in the living room inspired Dubois to pick it up and start learning, at the age of 13.
“My guitar strap was actually customized by my sister as a wedding present, and it has my mother’s name, Annmarie, on it,” Dubois said. “I started singing when I was about 22, and writing songs when I was about 27, and they were horrible.”
Dubois has learned that songwriting isn’t a straightforward practice. As nice as it would be to be able to pick the topic of a song, that’s not how it works.
“A lot of times it’s serendipitous. It happens out of the blue, unplanned,” Dubois said. “Some of my best songs were written at my kitchen table in Korea with a cup of coffee in the morning, and they were finished within 20 minutes. They were much better than songs that took me two weeks to deliberately write about a specific topic.”
Dubois doesn’t play as much for his students this year. It’s more difficult to connect with them through Zoom, and the songs don’t sound as good through the computer.
“The whole performance angle has changed. I try to perform on my camera, but it’s a hard year. I really miss my kids, and I hate the black rectangles on the screen,” Dubois said. “Undoubtedly the kids I’ve had the closest relationships with have been the ones actually in my classroom.”
Being only a second-year teacher, Dubois doesn’t have a strong sense of what he would “normally” do if everybody was in-person. He teaches his class his own way, with his unique musical style.
“Everybody has their own way of dealing with things. It’s not an assembly line, and I think that’s one of the tough things about becoming a teacher,” Dubois said. “They have all of these ideas of, ‘Try this, try that,’ but ultimately it’s like cooking; it’s your own recipe.”
By Annabelle Podmore.