Workshop

Songwriting for Artists
with Eric Lindley

Wednesday, February 29, 7 PM.
Course Fee: $15 | $12 for DAC Members

Please register in advance here or by calling 718-694-0831
Workshop takes place at 111 Front Street, Ste. 212, Brooklyn, NY

This workshop will explore songwriting through an artistic lens for people with a broad range of musical background, from people who have never picked up an instrument, to those who have been playing for years. Basic and essential ideas such as melody, harmony, rhythm, lyrics and song structure will be discussed in terms as they relate to the bigger ideas in songs, and how they fit in to larger musical landscapes.

Lindley will present brief survey of various "songs," including Ravel, Radiohead, DNA, Nguni singers, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Yoko Ono, and protest song, with a particular emphasis on setting of song, and the use of song. Next, particpants will go on an exploration of basic song structure that uses broad ideas that non-musicans as well as musicians can understand:  Rythm as groupings/organization in time, Melody as groupings in sequential pitch space, harmony as groupings in simultaneous pitch space, large-scale structure as organization across time that uses long-term memory. Next, lyrics and how rhythm of speech are employed differently in songwriting than they are in other forms will be examined,
especially the pretense to effortlessness and the "natural" in songwriting. Finally, the clas will bring it all together by looking at the songs that we had examined in class and then make a basic song structure
collaboratively.

Participants are encouraged to bring tools for taking notes, and a
musical instrument if they have one, but otherwise nothing is required.

Eric Lindley is a musician, artist and writer living in Brooklyn. His work has appeared, as performance, print, or object, at CMJ, Machine Project, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, The Knitting Factory, STEIM (NE), FENCE Magazine, ApexArts, and The Smell, among others. His 2010 album, "Oh, Light", recorded as "Careful", was a Critic's Pick in the New York Times. He has another release, "Because I Am Always Talking", planned for 2012, and is currently working on a project integrating biofeedback, machine learning, and collective musical improvisation.

More about Eric Lindley can be found here.

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