Songwriting - from Basics to Brilliant! (Workshop Wednesdays)

So many songwriters get stuck in habits and patterns, simply because they haven't been shaken out of their rut.

You've been listening to music all your life, but now it is time to delve deep into your brain and label and learn about the musical toolkit you've been ignoring.

We'll use popular jam song examples (think Beatles and Tom Petty) to discuss songwriting, and what works.

Learn about the impact of time signature choice, key, rhythm, and tempo, all before the chords and changes even enter play. Learn about chord choices, and why some are better and safer than others, while others might be too bothersome to work with.

Learn structure and arrangement options, so that both you and your audience have a chance to cleanse your palette and really enjoy your song!

Learn melody tricks to break you out of pentatonic drones, and explore how the best melodies appear to fly almost independently above the changes, rather than slavishly follow them along.

Learn lyrical choices beyond "hard rhymes", and explore rhyme scheme patterns and how they impact the song's flow, and explore softer rhymes, or non-rhyming passages. Discuss the impact of motif and theme, as well as word choices and audience reception in a multi-gender, multi-racial listening environment.

Songwriting involves an entire suite of tools, all of which may be explored in more depth, to give your songs a deeper and more impactful presence. So let's all write some better songs, together!