What do YOU know about the place where you grew up ? Make a list of interesting places--use any category you can think of: famous people who live there or were born there; landmarks or historical places; churches; lakes, rivers, beaches, etc.Take this list and mix up all of the categories to come up with a new list. (For instance, make groups of 2-4 place names)Use your revised list as the inspiration for a piece of music.The above is exactly the steps the composer Thomas Farmer went through to come up with his score for the SC Dances cycle--10 books of"imaginary dances" using place names, latitude and longitude coordinates, zip codes, elevations and counties from the Palmetto State as his inspiration. Books 1-9 contain cakewalks, waltzes and square dances--none of which sound like traditional cakewalks, waltzes or square dances.Book X is the culmination of the cycle, incorporating all of the methods of transcription of the text items into music utilized in the prior nine books. But instead of cakewalks, waltzes and square dances, we now have fanciful pieces like a"Catfish Stomp," a"Chitlin Strut," and a"Watermelon Roll."