It’s that time again.
Each year Boo Hewerdine and I get together and spend time working with participants to hone their song skills.
This one is at Halsway Manor, in Somerset.
Topics covered include:
Structure — Verse / Chorus / Bridge
Clarity in lyric
The importance of meter and rhyme scheme
The power of telling the truth in lyric using simple language
Collaboration
Writing from your life — The importance of telling your story
Creating writing projects for yourself
The habits of a successful writing life
Recognizing and building on your strengths as a writer
Boo and Darden take time during the week to sit one-on-one with each participant, helping to identify goals and create a path to success for their writing. That will look different for each student. To some it might be a roadmap to recording an album, or steps to doing more shows, making it a career. Others want to re-waken their creative energies, make a life more based around music. For many, it’s simply to become a better writer, to finish more songs.
At the end of the week, each participant records at least one song on-site with a professional engineer. The highlight of final evening is a listening party of songs written during the week.
Through a week of collaboration, group meals, evenings spent passing around songs, a sense of community is created. Many past participants keep working together long after the workshop has ended, writing songs and singing on each other’s projects.
For pricing and reservations, contact audreyripleymusic@icloud.com