WORKSHOPS

 

Songwriting Works™ offers participants of all ages an unique opportunity to be seen, heard, honored, and celebrated through their own words and music. The process and resulting songs can be profoundly life-affirming, especially when they give voice to those who are rarely heard from or little known.

 

Participants collaborate with a professional songwriter to compose original, performable music with their peers. No formal music background is required. The division between trained experts and “everyday folks” dissolves as everyone unites around a common goal: to write a meaningful, memorable song which reflects its makers and can be widely shared.

 

Making original music collectively is less common in today’s Western cultures than it was in ancient times. Yet the impulse and capacity to sing, dance, tell stories, and pass on wisdom to future generations is still alive within us; it can be accessed and expressed through ritual and performance (the oral tradition), and through the many ethnic traditions which make up our society’s diverse roots.

 

Songwriting Works’ failure-free approach taps into this wealth of creativity. Workshops give elders, youth, families, caregivers, artists, clergy and others new ways to explore and celebrate identity, sense of place, time, and culture. Songwriting draws out the stories, humor, wisdom, imagination, hopes and dreams of those who come together in the workshops. The process often invokes laughter and tears and is referred to as “therapeutic.” In fact, scientific studies are proving that participation in hands-on art and music-making experiences lead to positive physical and cognitive outcomes as well as social, emotional, and spiritual benefits.

 

Contact us to find out more about how Songwriting Works can have a positive impact in your life or community.