The Masters' Workshop: Feedback from Master Songwriters

The song workshop culture at The Songwriting School is one of the essential elements to the growth and success of our community. If you've seen Songland, the NBC TV show about songwriters, you have witnessed first-hand the power of workshopping the draft of a song. In this Master-led and peer-driven setting, get input on your songs to learn to trust what's working and address what's not. And learn to do the same for your peers--a skill that, once developed, equips you for a lifetime writing and rewriting songs.

Format : The Masters' Workshop is a non-curricular setting designed to give you professional input on your songs and how to improve them, and to equip you with the critical understanding to participate in constructive discussions about those songs.  Your task is to decide how best to use the room to advance your work. Some use it for the accountability to show up with a song per week. Still others take the input and return with re-writes of the same song. Still others might use the room to discuss the arrangement and production of a song further down its life-cycle. 

However the room serves you, your job in serving your fellow songwriters involves offering thoughtful, respectful, specific feedback on their work. In this way each member benefits from and is a benefit to the room. There will be 1 or 2 Masters in the room each class meeting to lead the discussion and offer their considerable input. 

Why a Workshop Setting is Valuable: The feedback from the Masters is incisive, insightful, thoughtful, and informed by decades in the craft and business. But that's the icing on the cake. Here are just a few aspects that make this such an essential, professional setting:

• it can be difficult to get objectivity about your own songs; you develop a fit critical muscle by offering thoughtful feedback on your peers' work; you bring that keen eye and ear home with you each week and aim them squarely at your own work
• the accountability of a weekly setting will have you showing up prepared
• you get to decide how you will use the room: you might choose to generate a new song each week; you might bring existing songs in each week to vet before a recording project; you could bring the same song a few times, presenting revisions; you might do a hybrid of any of these strategies to best serve you on your path, right now
• not only is the conversation about the songs empowering, but the conversation of styles in the room pays creative dividends for each writer
• you will expand your network to a trusted room of fellow songwriters
• you will benefit from the weekly mentorship of true Masters of the craft

Limited to 10 songwriters. We will sell out in advance so please reserve your spot early. We look forward to welcoming you to this invaluable, community-building, professional songwriting experience. 

Eligibility:  There is no audition requirement for this class, but songwriters should be graduates of THE ROOTS, our foundational course for song study, or receive special permission.  Class is limited to 12 songwriters. More experienced writers who are concurrently enrolled in THE ROOTS may be considered for the term of The Masters' Workshop.