Événement

Buddy Mondlock Songwriting Workshop

Buddy Mondlock Songwriting Workshop
Saturday, January 26, 10am-2pm
Rainshadow Recording
$50 per person, Friday concert half-price with workshop admission

Sparking in the Gap

How do you talk about creativity? Making something out of nothing. What could be more mysterious? And yet Buddy Mondlock is wonderfully articulate about writing songs. The process is clearly fascinating to him and he has paid careful attention to what goes into making a good song. Hes able to communicate what he has learned in 25 years of writing songs. In one of his workshops you will hear about the many elements involved with bringing a song to life and how to communicate feelings and ideas through music and words. Using his own songs as examples he talks about things like layers of meaning, the effective use of imagery and detail, storytelling, technical aspects like structure and rhyme scheme, the importance of editing and knowing when not to edit, the integration of music and words, and even the up sides and down sides of collaboration. His fifteen years as a staff writer in Nashville show up in his insights about publishing and the business of songwriting as well as his tips for songwriters who are interested in getting started down that road. In the longer four hour workshop youll also get a chance to play a song of your own for Buddy get some comments from him and the group. There are also likely to be some fun songwriting exercises that everyone will participate in. But in the end what he will tell you is that a great song has to come from the heart. All the cleverness and technique in the world will never be a substitute for true feeling.

Buddy Mondlock has given songwriting workshops across the country from the Napa Valley Folk Festival to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Most recently he led several workshops across the Atlantic at the Belfast-Nashville Songwriters Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The aim of that festival was to use songwriting to find common ground and bring communities together there.

Buddy Mondlock's songs have been recorded by Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Garth Brooks, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, Janis Ian, David Wilcox, Edwin McCain, Cry, Cry, Cry... the list goes on. His latest is The Memory Wall which hit number 3 on the Folk DJ chart.

Cost: $50.00 per person

Participants should bring a song for critique. They can either perform the song or bring it on CD. They should also bring enough copies of the lyrics for all the attendees.