This seminar ran in Sydney and Melbourne in November 2011
In this weekend seminar, you will gain knowledge of melodic, lyric, and structural tools and techniques often found in successful songs.
Want to know how to market your work? Gain insight from internationally successful songwriter/publisher Jason Blume.
Topics covered in the seminar include:
· Crafting Melodies Listeners Can’t Forget; Publishers Want to Sign; and Artists Want to Record
· Lyric Techniques to Express What’s in Your Heart – So Millions of Your Listeners Can FEEL It
· Analysis of Successful Demos
· Taking Care of Business
· Understanding Royalties
· How & Why to Get a Publisher
· Self-Publishing
· Pitching & Placing Your Songs Internationally
· Pitching & Placing Your Songs in TV and Film
· And Constructive Critiques of Selected Participants’ Songs
Selected participants will have an opportunity to receive constructive critiques of their songs and lyrics. The Saturday critique sessions will run in order of registration, so register early to help your chances! The Sunday critique sessions will be randomly selected.
You'll leave inspired, and armed with the tools to take your songwriting to the next level, and understand how to pursue the “business” of the music business.
Verse Development with Pat Pattison
This seminar ran in Sydney and Melbourne in January 2011
Solve
"Second Verse Hell" quickly and easily by learning to what to look
for in a title and how to develop the flow of ideas BEFORE you waste time
writing a lyric that dead-ends is some dark alley. Learn how to advance your
ideas so the song gains rather than loses interest as it moves forward. Find
out how to create a chorus or refrain that can be repeated effectively without
having to change the words each time. This seminar will save you time and
channel your energies efficiently, allowing you to write more songs and better
songs.
A portion of
the seminar is a song session where participants are able to play their
material. It is an opportunity to apply the tools and techniques
developed from the weekend, demonstrating how they can improve the lyric's
impact. We will focus on the strengths of the lyric, with suggestions for
taking the next step to make it even better.
Three Chords and the Truth
Songwriting with Mary Gauthier
This one day event ran in Sydney in December 2010
In the arts, and particularly in songwriting, the Why is every bit as important as the How. This class explored WHY we write, and discussed our motives behind the impulse to write songs, enabling us to understand how to move forward in our writing. Drawing from Mary's own experiences as a writer and recording artist, she highlighted important elements of writing for the class.
Points that are covered in the weekend:
- Emotional honesty in songs
- Respect for the listener
- Becoming a better writer
In the song session segment of the workshop, Mary provided professional, personal feedback of participants’ original material. Feedback focused on strengthening the songs in any style.
Multiple Streams of Music Income
with Artists Edge founder Debra Russell
This one day seminar ran in Melbourne and Sydney in November 2010
Everyone agrees that the Music Business has changed – and
many experts, including the big music execs, are running around yelling
the sky is falling, the sky is falling! But there are indie musicians and smaller boutique labels who are taking
advantage of this new level playing field. What do they know that you
don’t? They understand the power of Multiple Streams of Music Income. The Multiple Streams concept is more than a marketing technique. It’s a
highly leveraged and extremely powerful business model for today’s
Music Business. And in this one-day class Debra Russell will teach you:
· The 8 steps to developing a Multiple Streams Music Business
· How to turn existing work into additional income streams
· How to use the power of Social Media to expand your fan base and deepen your connection with your fans
· How to create lifetime fans who will purchase from you over and over again
You will leave this workshop with specific tools and techniques that you
can start using right away to build a successful and sustainable music
business that honors your creativity, your ethics and your passion.
360˚ Songwriting
Creative strategies for more versatile, productive, and innovative songwriting
This seminar ran in Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney in August 2010
This highly participatory seminar provides an intensive introduction to the discipline of 360º Songwriting. We’ll practice specific techniques for catching song seeds from the “full 360”— rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, and lyrical sources of inspiration—and learn to use transformations and structure to support overall integrity of emotion and meaning in our songs. We’ll pay particular attention to the almost-lost art of melody; explore ways to build compelling harmonies that tell their own story while complementing song theme and structure; and expand our musical palettes with modal resources to express a range of moods and themes.
In the music business these days the term "360" is mostly applied to new kinds of deals that record labels are offering artists, partnering for (some would say demanding) a share of publishing, tour revenue, merchandise, etc. In contrast, 360º Songwriting is a philosophy of creative work that specifically helps songwriters adapt and thrive in the face of their changing roles in today’s diverse—and increasingly global—music industry. In this new landscape, writers and artists with highly individual voices are finding significant audiences through new avenues such as digital distribution and promotion, or film and TV placements open to alternative sounds and styles. Rather than relying on limited (and limiting) formulas and prescriptions for hit songs, success in songwriting now requires both high levels of craft and versatility: to write within a stylistic idiom or out of the box; to draw on unique sources and influences rather than cater only to so-called “mainstream” formats; to be at ease collaborating with writers and artists who have varied processes and creative ways of working. To help develop these skills, the 360º Songwriting approach is founded on detailed attention to songwriting process, building on intuitive practices used by many master songwriters to spur their creativity.
With detailed examples, exercises, demonstrations and discussion, and facilitated peer critique of selected participants’ songs, this seminar is bound toprovide new insights and perspectives on your writing.
Point of View: Choosing the Best Lens With Writing Better Lyrics author Pat Pattison This seminar ran in May and June in New Zealand and Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney Illuminate your songwriting: Involve your audience more deeply in your song by creating the most potent lens for them to look through. This weekend seminar will focus on Point of View as a tool, illustrating and understanding all the possible angles for viewing, and their effects on the listener. Choosing the right Point of View is the difference between “Wow!” and “Next.” Let everyone see your songs shine like they should.
The workshop on "Point-Of-View" that Pat taught in Austin, Texas was nothing short of AMAZING. This seminar was the best one yet. Pat's wisdom and humor make him a wonderful teacher, and the techniques that he showed us are simple and efficient additions to my song writing toolbox They expand the possibilities of my lyrics and my songs. They are not just solutions to problems or ways to overcome obstacles in song writing; they are basic and incredibly effective techniques that I will be using on a regular basis from now on. With his seminars, workshops, and books, Pat's pool of knowledge and wisdom can make ANYONE a better songwriter! Ian Egan
Pat Pattison’s week-end seminar on Point of View was an incredible adventure and Pat is no ordinary teacher! He doesn’t simply tell you about songwriting and leave it at that. You experience the tools that make the difference between great songs and mediocre writing and you “Get it!” It doesn’t seep in slowly, it’s like “Bam!” Now I’m wondering how I ever wrote songs at all without this knowledge. Mo McMorrow
Your Songs: A
Producer’s Prospective
A Weekend Seminar with Emmy Winning Stephen Webber
This seminar ran in May in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney
Have you ever wondered
what top record producers look for in songs? Get your material into top shape,
and take your records and demos to the next level as Emmy-winning producer
Stephen Webber reveals Ten Essential Skills and Most Common Pitfalls designed to sharpen your writing and
production tools. Taken from Webber’s award winning, standing-room-only classes
at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, this weekend workshop is full of
concepts that can literally save you decades of trial and error in your craft.
In the master class segments of the weekend, Stephen will provide professional,
personal feedback of participants’ CDs, demos, rough mixes, pre-production
recordings, or live performances of original material. This feedback will focus
on strengthening your material; codifying your artistic vision, identity, and
intention; finding your voice; focusing your record’s arrangement to emphasize
your strengths, and realizing professional standards of production and
engineering. Recordings (or performances) can be in any style of vocal or
instrumental music, including rock, folk, country, metal, World, R&B,
hip-hop, dance, house, techno, etc.
Songwriting Seminar with Beth Nielsen Chapman This seminar ran in April in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney
Topics Covered included:
Dating
the Muse/Training The Brain
Lifting
Off With the Muse:
Fasten your seatbelts as you embark on the spacious, limitless journey of
writing a song letting the creative spirit to guide the process along the path
of “not knowing”, eluding the pitfalls and limitations of your ego and your
brain and opening the channels of
intuition.
The
Care And Feeding Of The Creative Spirit: Cultivate and nurture that gift within you.
Protect, defend and develop a healthy Muse .“Four Food Groups”, “Setting Out
The Tea”, “Weightlifting in the Gym of Creativity”, and “Planting Your Garden” are some of the many tools and
tips you can learn.
The
Art of Creative Survival In the Face of
Commerce and Fear.
There’s
Got To Be A Morning After: Beth
will critique songs and talk about looking at what you’ve written in the ‘light
of day’. Learn to let‘the critic’
within you speak out to nip and tuck…. this is one of the most incredible ways
to grow as a writer. Learn how to re-write….and
un-re-write!
The
Jungle Of The Music Business: “Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!” Dropping breadcrumbs, tapping your heels
together and other methods of finding your way back to your creative
center. Art vs. Commerce: How and when to wear your armor.
Talent has no compass: mustering determination.
The
Three “R’s”: Recover, Rejuvinate, and Re-write again! (nothing to lose but a sheet of paper and
some pencil lead) Sacred Waiting: Facing the ‘great white’
{blank piece of paper-just think of what Paul Simon has to live up to!).
And….Singing With Your Speaking Voice/Writing With Your Singing Voice.
