STEVIE WONDER By Hannah Haag EARLY LIFE Born

STEVIE WONDER By Hannah Haag

EARLY LIFE �Born on May 13, 1950 in Saginaw Michigan �Born premature and lost his eye sight �By the age of 10 Stevie taught himself how to play the harmonica, piano, and drums.

DISCOVERY �Age 11 Ronnie White discovered little Stevie �Had an audition with Berry Gordy, the Motown founder. �His harmonica playing won his audience over. �Started getting called Stevie “A Little Wonder”

FIRST BIG BREAK � 1962 released first album “Little Stevie Wonder the 12 year Old Genius” �In 1963 Stevie released Fingertips Part 2 which took the public by storm.

SONGWRITING �Hits include Uptight, With A Child’s Heart, Blowing In The Wind, The Miracles, Tears Of A Clown. �Bigger hits were Signed Sealed Delivered I’m Yours, For Once In My Life, and I was Made to Love Her.

CONTRACT EXPIRES �Contract with Motown expires. �Branches off and makes two albums of his own. �Wrote songs that pertained more to life. �Song “You Haven’t Done Nothing” threw punch at Richard Nixon. �In 1972 Berry Gordy signed Stevie with a $13 million contract with Motown records.

1973 CAR ACCIDENT �August 6, 1973 Stevie was in a collision with a flatbed truck that sent him into a coma. �The Jackson 5 visited Wonder the day after the accident. �At a concert in November 2008 Stevie thanked God as well as the Doctors who saved his life in 1973.

TRIUMPHS � Stevie Wonder has won a record breaking 25 Grammys in his career. � Youngest person to be honored by Kennedy Center. � First blind person to receive an Academy Award with the song “I just called to say I love you”. � In 2008 when Obama won the presidency, Stevie performed the song “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”.

“Isn’t She Lovely” � Song off of the 1976 album Key of Life � Wrote this song to celebrate the birth of his daughter Aisha. � Gregory Phillinganes played the keyboard and all other instruments were played by Stevie Wonder himself.

LISTENING GUIDE 0: 00 - Intro starts with piano and drums right on the first beat of the measure we know right away its in a major chord. 0: 08 - Verse 1 the dynamics have built from the introduction. 0: 40 -Verse 2 1: 13 -Interlude 1: 45 -Verse 3 begins and then Stevie plays harmonica, music fades 3: 19 -Ending

“For Once In My Life” � Composed by R. Miller and O. Murden and produced by Henry Cosby. � Stevie was quoted saying “Even though it was a ballad and I loved it as that, I felt the tune could be done in the form of rejoicing in meeting someone who needed me. I was excited and recorded it that way”. � The Funk Brothers helped Stevie with the music.

LISTENING GUIDE 0: 00 - Introduction goes for 6 measures in a major chord 0: 17 - Verse 1 begins with guitar, tambourine, and drums making a full sound 0: 34 - Verse 2 0: 52 - Verse 3 background singers have joined Stevie. 2: 07 - Verse 3 repeated 2: 24 - Verse 4 2: 53 - Ending

“Superstition” � First single taken from the album Talking Book in 1972. � “When you believe in things you don’t understand then you suffer”. � Steve Madaio- trumpet, Trevor Laurencesaxophone other instruments- Stevie Wonder.

LISTENING GUIDE 0: 00 -Intro has drum pickup line and is joined by a clavinet. 0: 20 -Verse 1 shows song is in major chord. Lines 1 and 2 rhyme and lines 3 and 4 rhyme. 1: 00 - Chorus begins and has building effect. 1: 19 -Verse 2 begins 2: 00 - Chorus repeats here. 2: 38 - Verse 3 starts again but is building up more with more ad libs by Stevie. 3: 17 - Chorus 3: 40 -Outro was purely music with the trumpet playing a descending scale over and over while clavinet and drums play same funky beat.

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” �In 1970 made the album Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours. �composed by Stevie Wonder, Lee Garrett, , Syreeta Wright, Lula Mae Hardaway. �The Funk Brothers helped Stevie with the music.

LISTENING GUIDE 0: 00 - Intro shows us it’s a duple/metered song. Stevie screams the words “hey” a few times before verse starts. 0: 08 - Verse 1 starts with the rithym really steady. Guitar and piano play as trumpet joins in. Form is ABC 0: 43 - Chorus begins, trumpet stands out and background vocals join in. 1: 01 - Add-on with more of a talkative section 1: 12 - Verse 2 1: 46 - Chorus is same as before 2: 02 - Add-on another talkative sing-song voice but with a few different words. 2: 11 - Outro the main phrase of the song are sang over and over as song fades out. 2: 41 - Ending

BIBLIOGRAPHY Striano, Bruno. Winberg, Thomas. Gould, Kenny. Haraguchi, Makoto. Richardson, Pete. Bertrand, Joachim. Glowacki, Piotr. http: //www. steviewonder. org. uk/biography. html 2012 A&E Television Networks. http: //biography. com/people/stevie-wonder-9536078