songwriting Taster workshop
From the love of song to writing better songs and back again
Pleae contact us for details of future workshops.
An introductory one hour online workshop led by Adam Holden, at the special price of £5 per person. This is an excellent way to learn about songs and work through your questions about songwriting and hopefully engage in a course or lessons.
The workshop is in three roughly equal parts.
Part 1 – participants sharing initial reflection on their songwriting journey and goals (see below for details on preparation needed). To this end, participants will need to bring three things (ideally in a document) to the taster workshop:
- a brief outline of what you’d like to get out of a songwriting course and your priorities for your songwriting
- a short list of favourite songs (and maybe some songwriters)
- a musical biography – a few paragraphs or a page which might include, your first memories of music; how you listened to music now and in the past; landmark songs, albums and gigs; when did you start playing/practising music and how has that changed over time? when did you start/stop writing and sharing songs?
We’ll use this as a way to get to know each other and establish a sense of what the group of songwriters have in common and what our differences are.
Part 2 – introduces a deceptively simple question: what makes a good song? We will explore this question along with some ideas about the essential elements of a good song through the topic of song appreciation. Appreciation is a doubled-jointed form of understanding, that is to say a “recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something”. Completing the workshop you give you access to a set of resources and practical ideas to help with further learning and appreciation.
Part 3 – is a Q&A discussion that briefly explores the workshop outcomes and next steps you might take.
What’s next?
After the taster session one you have several options:
- access the taster workshop resources on song appreciation – there’s no obligation to do anything else
- sign up for a six week workshop course on songwriting (with related resources on each topic that will be added on the course is live)
- sign up for 1-1 lessons of half an hour or an hour (or paired lessons)
If you’re interested or have any questions please email me at adam@phoenixfolk.co.uk