| |
Songwriters from 4 states from Vermont to Florida gathered for a weekend in
the woods, overlooking Billings Lake in North Stonington, CT.
Three days of intensive master classes , good meals, and good company proved
to be a refreshing, renewing, and inspiring time for all in attendance.
Below are some photos and comments from attendees.
___Great weekend. We had some talented people in
various stages of their development as songwriters. Everyone enjoyed the new
relationships we were able to build and the things we learned from each
other. I thought the sessions were extremely informative, and definitely
improved our understanding of the basics of our craft. I strongly recommend
that anyone who has the opportunity to attend one of these events in the
future certainly do so. Anyone who is not a member of Connecticut
Songwriters should seriously consider joining. – Jim Hendricks,
singer-songwriter, Connecticut
___I had a great time. It was a productive
weekend and I think we would all agree. What's interesting is that despite
our varied backgrounds and experience, we all came away with some valuable
experience. Also, I found the sessions on creativity, business, and
Myer-Briggs to be as helpful as the songwriting sessions. Overall, I came
away inspired and see the experience as a valuable step on my journey as a
songwriter. I'm sure I'll be seeing you at CSA events over the course of the
year. – Gary DeMichele, Singer-songwriter, Connecticut
___Thank you for a very special weekend. The setting
was beautiful, the hospitality fantastic, the accommodations were very good
and the food was great. However, the best came with the very
knowledgeable and helpful instruction along with the honest and productive
critiques and advice. Everything exceeded my expectations. It was a
very worthwhile weekend.Ü Thanks again for the opportunity to attend and
your efforts to make it so successful. – Art Meister, singer-songwriter
Essex, CT
___ I have never been captivated by a textbook like I was by this one
and when I saw that Bill was conducting a songwriters retreat in
Connecticut, I knew this was an event I definitely wanted to attend.
The weekend was everything I had hoped for and more.
The group was small (12 songwriters all at varying levels) The setting was
beautiful.. The course followed the text (and beyond) and also included
several critique sessions where direct constructive feedback was given to
each individual songwriter about their own work.
It was a “bonus” and a surprise to me that Bill’s wife
Kay is also an accomplished artist who has a wide reputation
as one of the premier vocal instructors in the Northeast. Kay conducted
several sessions during the weekend including vocal coaching and a workshop
on what she has dubbed the “Creative Compass” (designed to outline the
cyclical nature of the creative process). She and Bill together also
conducted a very interesting session on the selection of vowel and consonant
sounds for songs. Kay was a highlight of the weekend and the two of them
together are an incredible teaching pair. Throughout the course, Bill
instructed us on what he calls “The Seven Foundations of Effective and
Successful Songwriting"
We had the privilege of performing
our own songs for the group and receiving direct critique from Bill. This
was the part of the session that I had the most angst about before leaving
home (particularly because I have not written many songs or shared them with
others). The critique session quickly became one of my favorite parts of the
weekend as Bill and Kay created a very safe environment in which to receive
constructive feedback. Bill emphasized that there will always be someone who
will like any song, but also, that all songs can be improved to appeal to a
larger audience.
Good songs deserve to be worked on and good audiences deserve
to hear songs which have been crafted with thoughtfulness and effort. The
feedback was not about right or wrong, but rather about choices and a desire
to improve. As it turns out, my songs need a lot of work, but I’m grateful
that I have received the feedback and I now have some knowledge with which
to move forward and make improvements with my own "eyes-wide-open" – I have
done some work since and the songs are better (Bill was right!)
Finally, the last exercise of the weekend was a
collaboration project. This was the perfect ending to the perfect weekend.
One of the things that we discussed is that because a song is a form of
communication. In order to write a song that reaches the largest audience,
there needs to be input from people with different communication styles.
Bill used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to pair us up with our opposites
and sent us off to write a song. It was VERY interesting, and VERY fun. I
never thought that I would be able to collaborate on a song, but this
exercise opened my eyes to collaboration and I’m looking forward to the
opportunity to do more of it. After reading his book and
attending his workshop, I have a great respect for Bill Pere as an artist
and a teacher. -- Cecilia Dahl, singer -songwriter, Boston,
MA
___It was an eye-opener and provided invaluable tools on effectively
honing a songwriter's skills. I realized the areas where I can significantly
improve; having this retreat provided more options for me to utilize. Most
importantly it pushed me to be and do better as songwriter and artist. I
really do wish the retreat was longer; the setting was ideal, and the
relationships formed reflected a musical bond that was natural. Its really
up to me. I have the choice - more choices I see now. Thank you isn't enough
BIll & Kay. But thank you. – Melissa Ternier, singer-songwriter,
Stamford CT
___ It was a blast and we had pizza and
pillow fights and ghosts stories and… well maybe not ghost stories, but it
was a lot of fun and man did I learn a ton of new stuff about writing good
songs and making my songs even better.
I went there to get help with my lyric writing mainly.
I wanted to learn how to write more easily and with some purpose and I think
I got some good ways of doing that. There sure was a lot to write down and
talk about!
It’s a great idea because we were really isolated from
everything else – you know – school, the Mall, boyfriends, girlfriends, and
we had to really concentrate on writing songs. Bill and Kay sure know their
stuff too. It’s a humbling experience to play a song in front of a bunch of
strangers and then, have it dissected and analyzed. But that’s what I went
there for. Mom and Dad paid good money so I could get good advice and
not to have someone say – Great Job – I can get that from Grandma plus a
pinch on the cheek.
Bill was a great teacher (you should check out his book
called The Songcrafters’ Coloring Book) and he taught us cool ideas like
prosody, semantics and phonetics. I never really think about a lot of this
stuff when I sit down to write a song and it’s probably why my head feels
like it’s gonna explode when I am trying to finish a song. But I sure will
use it now because it really makes sense and I hate feeling like I’m looking
for something in a dark closet when I’m writing (ha that’s funny, a dark
closet…).
I also got a cool vocal lesson from Kay (Bill’s wife).
I need to learn how to really make my words be understood and she had some
fool-proof techniques for making the words come out right!
We also did some collaboration which was fun – want to
do more. It was a weekend well spent – new friends, new ideas, new songs to
come! – Darryl Gregory, singer-songwriter, Sandy Hook, CT
|
