emPower Music & Art’s
Totally Cool Song School

Wednesday, March 27, 2019
All Day!

The Beautiful Westshore Grand

BOOK YOUR ROOM HERE!

8th Annual Totally Cool Song School!

Beginning or seasoned songwriters will have the opportunity to take their skills to the next level. Small classes and award winning hit songwriters make this the ultimate learning and fun experience.  This year’s faculty includes: Sloan Wainwright, David Roth, Scott Ainslie, Jana Stanfield, Glen Roethel.

$199 (2 meals included)

REGISTRATION IS OPEN AND CLASS SIZE IS LIMITED.  DON’T WAIT TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT>

Classes are small, allowing lots of “one on one” time with the instructors.  Most classes are 8 people or less.  Each class is two hours long and you have 2 to choose from in two time slots, along with optional classes, song circles, and private mentoring ( for a nominal extra charge)

Schedule:

Session One:  10 AM-Noon

Sloan Wainwright: 

SING! HEART, BODY and SOUL!
Inside each of us lives a beautiful and unique instrument! In this workshop we will learn about what we’ve got and how to use it!  We will move our bodies, soften our hearts, open our mouths and let our voices  out to play.  

With an emphasis on vocal health and self-care, we’ll use a combination of vocal warm-ups and work-outs – traditional and non-traditional – to help relax, release and strengthen the voice, making it more flexible and reliable.  Individual attention is offered as well as to the group as a whole, and each student will be supported in developing their own personal vocal practice.  This class is for singers AND non-singers alike.

Scott Ainslie: For Guitarists: A Song Accompaniment Lab

This is a participatory class where participants learn by being listeners, as well as, performers. Rather than asking you to learn both a new repertoire and new technique, I am essentially offering to go play in your sandbox, instead of making you come play in mine.

Participants will bring a song and accompaniment that they know and present a portion of the song for us. I will then be offering options that I think will strengthen the musical and emotional impact of the song. Ideally, these will be small additions which can be integrated into the existing accompaniment with a minimum of fuss, and will make a significant difference in how the song performs for listeners.

Over the past half century, as an instrumentalist who has always used the guitar to accompany the voice, I have learned a thing or two about setting a songs in ways that are effective. These will be five to ten minute guitar lessons aimed at your song, your level of experience, and your accompaniment.

In the course of the workshop, you will see and hear how we think about accompaniments, the tricks of the trade in guitar playing, and I am sure see how we deal with different common guitar ‘keys’ in ways that simplify the hand skills required and amplify their impact.

Jana Stanfield: KISS Songwriting Practice:

• Would you like it if songwriting felt easier?
• Would you like to work with the #1 Super Secret Songwriting Formula used most frequently by hit songwriters?
• Want to totally understand how to make your songs stick in people’s minds like ear worms?

Jana Stanfield’s workshops are easy and fun, and you’ll have a small support group of fellow writers who’ll help make your songs shine like stars. Bring a song that could use improvement, or start a new one, but this will be a course of action, where you’ll be walking away with a new or improved song.

David Roth: If YOU Had a Hammer

 If you’ve ever had occasion to sing the iconic anthem by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes (both of the Weavers), you may have felt the outright power of these words and music bring you to your feet.  Let’s step on the gas once more and (very quickly) get OUR thoughts, our passions, our convictions, and our beliefs into easy, energizing, and engaging songs.  If what’s going on in this world seems obvious to you and not others, we’ll explore how to communicate and create our themes in such a way as to build communities, not polarize them.  Time is precious, so come ready to write.  We’ll start with a chorus that soars.

Lunch:  12:15 PM-1:30 PM

Second Session:  1:45 PM-3:45 PM

 Sloan Wainwright:  SING! HEART, BODY and SOUL!
Inside each of us lives a beautiful and unique instrument! In this workshop we will learn about what we’ve got and how to use it!

We will move our bodies, soften our hearts, open our mouths and let our voices out to play.  

With an emphasis on vocal health and self-care, we’ll use a combination of vocal warm-ups and work-outs – traditional and non-traditional – to help relax, release and strengthen the voice, making it more flexible and reliable.  Individual attention is offered as well as to the group as a whole, and each student will be supported in developing their own personal vocal practice.  This class is for singers AND non-singers alike.

Jana Stanfield:  Make Your Co-Writing Easy and Fun

The rules of co-writing are the same as the rules for improv comedy.  The more you practice them, the more you’ll see how  these simples principles set the stage for laughter, creativity and collaboration. In this workshop, we’ll practice the rules of improv while at the same time practicing the craft of co-writing. Expect to walk away from this fun, interactive and collaborative workshop with either a new song, or one that’s newly improved.

 Scott Ainslie: Lessons from a White Blues Singer

This workshop outlines specific phrasing and expressive techniques used by Blues singers and then drops them into a song you already sing.

The virtuosity and vocal power of iconic black singers is undeniable.

From Bessie Smith to Aretha Franklin, from Son House to Otis Redding, black singers have consistently delivered powerful, emotional performances. In performances of Spirituals, Gospel, Blues, Jazz, R & B, Soul music audiences seem to be literally drawn into the songs. Listeners become incapable of being passive music consumers. They respond emotionally, and sometimes bodily.

In addition to whatever raw talent they bring to the table, black singers are culturally encouraged and trained to use the phrasing and expressive techniques–customarily used in speech–in song.

This is not a ‘talent,’ but a technique. And it can be taught and learned.

The workshop will begin by lining out familiar techniques we commonly use for communicating emotion in speech. That done, we’ll look for places to use them in songs. Simple. 

But, there is some alchemy to this. To do it effectively, we need both a singer and an audience.

In the spirit of play, we will rotate through singers one at a time. Participants will have the opportunity to sing a verse or two, and then at my suggestion, to try out small, specific changes in the delivery of a particular line or verse.

Over the course of the workshop, both the singer and audience will develop an appreciation for the emotive power of specific techniques, as small changes in phrasing/delivery affect how we hear the song. The voice is our most personal instrument, tender and powerful. I will be the only person offering feedback on phrasing and delivery and I promise a safe and playful space for some experimentation and play.

As a white Blues singer, with the approval of my black mentors and the old people, I have learned something about our very personal instrument. This participatory workshop is a bit like letters from the front, from across a cultural border that I have had the privilege and honor to cross. I bring this work to you with the utmost humility and respect for my teachers and friends, now gone.

Glen Roethel: Guitar Strumming Immersion – A Flat Pick Approach

Ever wanted to be a more fluid, dynamic and creative strummer? Wondered how to hold the pick? Which pick to use; how to find sweet spots and vary tones from your strings? We will cover that. 

Want to strum more evenly, mute strings and add percussion, vary rhythms to avoid “one strum all the time” syndrome, and use a pick without overpowering your vocal?

Yes, you can!

In this participatory guitar class we will address those crucial skills. Then, using familiar songs to illustrate we will experiment with strums and “feels”  in various rhythms and meters. We’ll also create a wider landscape of sound by learning to play “bass,” “rhythm” and “percussion” parts simultaneously.

We will examine a troublesome song or two – written by you, the class participants – applying Glen’s “WHAT IF?” chart to see if we might jog your creativity and help you get unstuck. Then we will team up to help each other experiment with our new skills and use the “WHAT IF?” chart to spark inspiration.

*** This is a jumpstart for all levels, but basic chord skills would be helpful. Bring your guitar, tuner, notebook, pen, flat picks, audio and video recorders. The pace will be quick! ***

Optional Mentoring: $25 for 20 minutes   4:00-5:00 PM

Sloan Wainwright

Scott Ainslie

Jana Stanfield

Glen Roethel

 OR: Optional Class:

David Roth: Grain of Salt

Stuck somewhere in the middle? Here’s an interactive and participatory workshop for any songs or parts thereof that you might wish to have some input on. We’ll hear these songs-in-progress and become a collective think-tank about what’s working so far and what might be improved upon. It’s also an opportunity to hone your listening and feedback-giving skills as we work with each person, and an opportunity to ponder the many elements – lyric, melody, rhythm, chord progression, key, arrangement, etc. – that make a song click.

Dinner:  5:30 PM-7:00 PM

Song Circle: 7:30-9 Share a song in a supportive circle, no critiques
Jana Stanfield (limit 8)
Scott Ainslie (limit 8)

OR  Sloan Wainwright: Swimming in the River of Your Song
Writing from prompts

 Teacher Bios:

Jana Stanfield’s compositions have sold over 5 million CDs worldwide, earning her gold and platinum albums.  You’ve heard her music on 20/20, Entertainment Tonight, Oprah, and the movie 8 Seconds, recorded by Reba McEntire and others.  A multiple Posi Award Winning Artist, and winner of the Grace Note Award for Outstanding Achievement in New Thought Music from Unity Worldwide Ministries.  Jana has shared stages with performers ranging from musicians like Kenny Loggins and The Dixie Chicks, to speakers like Deepak Chopra and Lily Tomlin.  Through her Keynote Concerts, Inc., Jana performs at events like TEDx India, TEDxNASA, and she leads volun-tour trips around the world.

Scott Ainslie

As a traditional musician with expertise in Piedmont and Delta Blues as well as Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, Ainslie has specialized in performing and presenting programs on the European and African roots of American music and culture in community and educational settings.

His performances present a wonderful palette of sounds and stories that will delight the ear, awaken the mind, and satisfy the heart.

Sloan Wainwright

Defying standard categorization, singer/songwriter Sloan Wainwright, consistently demonstrates her easy command of a variety of American musical styles — pop, folk, jazz and blues — held together by the melodious tone of her rich contralto, with the end result being a unique and soulful hybrid. 

David Roth

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