FREE Event: Awakening the Muse, Creativity Workshop, Tuesday 5/21, 8pm, with Songwriter & Psychotherapist Jerry Zieger!
You don’t have to “get more creative.” You already are creative. In this free workshop with respected Bay Area psychotherapist and songwriter Jerry Zeiger, you will learn some fun ways to tap into your natural gifts. You will also learn how to keep yourself from getting stuck again.
- Find & communicate with your own personal muse
- Let your creativity flow
- Free your “inner artist”
If you would like a positive, inspiring setting that will help you access your creative potential, we hope you will join us for this wonderful free event.
The Songwriter's Workshop Alums ZIBBZ & Dhana from Taxi Doll Score Charting Record in Europe and Beyond!
ZiBBZ, the Swiss-based brother-sister duo of Corinne and Ste Gfellar, have been regulars around the halls of The Songwriting School of Los Angeles for the past two-plus years during trips to LA. Their popular Swiss MTV-style reality show even followed them into their class The Songwriter's Workshop. This month all that work began to pay off as their latest record Ready? Go! hit #14 in the European Album Charts and #2 on European iTunes charts.
Join Us for the Spring Student Open Mic, Wednesday 5/8, 7:30pm!
Join us Wednesday, 5/8/13 for the Spring Student Open Mic at The Songwriting School of Los Angeles. Open to all, but you must be a currently or previously enrolled student to perform. Special guest performers including a couple of chart toppers!
The Paul ZOLLO BLOG, "LINKS in the Chain": On the Meaning of Meaningful Music
The Songwriting School of Los Angeles is honored to have respected author, photographer, & songwriter Paul Zollo as a regular contributor in this blog, LINKS in a CHAIN.
“All songwriters are links in a chain.” – Pete Seeger
ON THE MEANING OF MEANINGFUL MUSIC
“They just don’t write songs like they used to.” How many times have you heard that one? When I was a kid, people from my parents’ generation would often say this, referring to the great songs of Tin Pan Alley they grew up with as rendered by great vocalists like Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, and comparing them to what they saw as the musical junk food we kids were then consuming, your Beatles, Stones, Monkees, etc. To them the possibility that some of these long-haired scruffy young men like Lennon & McCartney were writing great songs didn’t exist. The visuals then, perhaps as they do now, distracted from the music. And though all of us were intent never to turn into our parents, I hear my friends and peers frequently making the same kind of judgment – that nobody writes great songs anymore.
FREE Event M 4/22 7:30pm: MENTOR MONDAY ROUNDTABLE with Phil Cody (2-time ASCAP Song of the Year), Alan Roy Scott (30+ Yrs/Hundreds of Cuts), Clay Drayton (Motown Hit Writer)
Please Join us Monday, 4/22 at 7:30pm for this remarkable Mentor Monday Roundtable as we assemble four of the most significant songwriting minds in the past four decades in one room, one night to answer your questions and help you find your way.
FREE Event: Mentor Monday, 4/8 7:30pm w/#1 Hit Writer John Keller on Writer's Life and Student Mentors on Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns
Please join us for the April installment of Mentor Monday with #1 Hit Writer John Keller and student Mentor Eric Shouse. Discuss the writer's life, balancing being an artist with writing for others, and learn how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign. FREE!
THE PAUL ZOLLO BLOG, "LINKS": On the Courage of Songwriters
LINKS: The Paul Zollo Blog.
“All songwriters are links in a chain.” – Pete Seeger
The Songwriting School of Los Angeles is honored to announce that respected author, photographer, & songwriter Paul Zollo will be penning a regular blog. This first entry celebrates the courage of songwriters for the important work we all do.
New Year's Resolutions & Tensions
Part 1. With the start of each New Year, many of us make resolutions in the hopes of becoming the people we hope to become, of living the lives we hope to live. Of resembling a version of ourselves we might pin on Pinterest. A thinner waist, a thicker wallet; more songs, less tv; smaller blind spots, bigger hearts, whatever. And there is plenty of chatter and text about the folly of such resolutions, stats on how many people fail. Perhaps your song a day (a week? a month? a…) has fallen by the wayside? Despair not.
March FREE Forum: Hit Pop/RnB Writer RYAN TOBY! Thursday 3/21, 7:30pm!
As a kid he stole the show in the movie Sister Act 2. As a teen-ager he co-wrote one of Will Smith's biggest hits. In the years since he has built a reputation as a Grammy-nominated artist, ASCAP Award-winning writer, and in-demand producer. He shares all that collective wisdom in a single night, FREE, at The Songwriting School of Los Angeles, on Thursday 3/21, 7:30pm.
ATTEND THE 2013 ASCAP EXPO 4/18-20 In Hollywood & Save Up To 50%
It is the premier songwriting industry event of the year, and students of The Songwriting School of Los Angeles are eligible to take half off the full admission price to the three-day conference, taking place April 18-20, 2013 at the Loewes Hollywood Hotel.
Win a Full or Partial Scholarship to the Durango Songwriters Expo, 2/28 - 3/2 in the Santa Barbara Wine Country
The Songwriting School of Los Angeles is proud to be able to offer again this year a Full Scholarship and multiple Partial Scholarships to the Durango Songwriters Expo in the wine country of Santa Barbara, 2/28-3/2. This event affords songwriters the chance to be heard by and receive direct feedback from music supervisors, publishers, label A&R, and more. Special guests and panelists also include hit writers, among them our own Tim Fagan, Grammy winning songwriter.
Join Us TONIGHT (Wed 2/20), 7:30pm for this FREE Voice Event: How to Give an AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE, with Michael Goodrich
Join us for another FREE event, this time with one of LA's best voice teachers and vocal coaches, Michael Goodrich. Michael will talk about what makes an Authentic Performance and how singers can get there, night after night. Not to be missed.
Monday, March 4th, Nashville 101: Nashville Songwriting & Music Business Workshop, w/Grammy-Nominated Songwriter Amanda Williams
Learn the ins and outs of becoming a working writer on the Nashville scene from a Grammy-nominated songwriter who has developed a detailed curriculum on the subject. Amanda Williams will teach you all the aspects of copyright and how we might derive income from those copyrights. In addition she will explore writing, demoing, pitching, placing, networking, and more in Nashville. One night only, on-campus or online, and not to be missed!
Author, Teacher, Mentor, Friend: Remembering John Braheny
The songwriting community lost one of its chief advocates and mentors in January. Author, teacher, songwriter John Braheny was perhaps best known as co-founder of the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase and as author of The Craft & Business of Songwriting, often referred to as "the songwriter's bible."
At The Songwriting School of Los Angeles, students can read that considerable work as well as countless other volumes on the artistry and industry of songwriting at The Braheny Bookshelves.
FREE Event: MENTOR MONDAY, 2/4 7-9pm, Hit Writer Phil Cody & TSSLA Student Alisha Zalkin on Releasing & Promoting an Indie Record
Oh sure, MENTOR MONDAY sounds a bit like a Bangles song title outtake. But the first Monday of the month at The Songwriting School of Los Angeles now affords members of our community the chance to learn from successful faculty writers as well as up-and-coming student leaders.
The Holidays May Be Over, But These Student Holiday Songs Are Timeless...
Your playlists are likely giving the holiday songs a rest by now, but we wanted to give one last spin to some remarkable Christmas songs written or recorded by student members of The Songwriting School of Los Angeles community.
Below are links to studio recordings or live video performances from our December 2012 Open Mic night.
FREE Event 1/14/13: Learn What LOVE IS... to a #1 Hit Writer. The Professional Songwriter, with John Keller
Love breaks your heart...or so sings Vanessa Williams in the #1 smash duet with Brian McKnight "Love Is." Let's mend those hearts, shall we, with writer of that hit and January Forum Special Guest John Keller!
Join us Monday, January 14th, at 7:30pm for the January Free Forum: a conversation with John Keller about songcraft & the music business in the Life of a Professional Songwriter.
School-Wide OPEN MIC: Monday, December 10, 7:30pm!
Random Acts of Art: A Thanksgiving
When an anonymous street artist gifts you with something original and inspiring, sometimes the only way to respond to art is with art.
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FREE EVENT Th 11/8, 7:30pm: Songwriters Hall of Fame Nominee Holly Knight!
The Difference Between Vocal Technique & Vocal Performance
FREE EVENT Sa 9/15, 1-3pm: HIT WRITER/TEACHER MENTORING Open HOUSE
Before the Michael Goodrich vocal event Saturday, 3-4:15pm, we hope you will join us for a Fall Open House and a chance to meet some of the remarkable instructors of The Songwriting School of Los Angeles, learn about their classes, and receive valuable mentoring advice. Already know and love a teacher on the list? Come visit and use the time to reconnect and to ask important questions about the art & business of creating your music. FREE EVENT Sa 9/15, 3pm: WHAT'S IN YOUR HEAD & WHAT COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH: BECOME A BETTER SINGER w/ MICHAEL GOODRICH
Michael Goodrich is one of LA's best voice teachers and vocal coaches, and The Songwriting School feels honored to have him teaching private lessons and two remarkable classes each semester, Vocal Technique and Vocal Performance (see below for more on each class).
Join us for a powerful FREE Vocal Event, Saturday, 9/15 3-4:15pm. Learn more about the connection between the thoughts in your head and the voice coming out of it--and how to make positive strides with each. Some attendees will have the chance to work with Michael in front of the group.
What Interests You Will Lead You to Your Truth.
"What interests you will lead you to your truth."
This is one of the fundamental principles of THE ROOTS, the foundational course for song study at The Songwriting School of Los Angeles. When your sound, your message, and your style come together, the audience experiences your truth. Accessing and expressing that truth, memorably and powerfully, is the daily work we engage in here.
As we gear up for a fresh season and another School year, it can be useful to reconnect with why it is we need to write songs in the first place. The following little multi-media nugget is from THE ROOTS.
Here's to you and to all that comes from seeking and honoring your truth, in song.
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