Joe will be teaching 2 classes on Saturday and Sunday of the Retreat
“Songetry” – Poem to Song
Join us for an E-ticket ride upon the pursuit of possibility. You’ll be asked to write a poem to share, jumpstarting a song in 5 minutes! The goal is learning how to write in timed creative movement and spontaneity – while your inner critic is tucked away in the trunk!
You won’t be able to prepare for what we’ll be creating, so just get ready to have fun and be surprised with what you and your friends’ ideas create under pressure. Joe will give you a recipe on how to cradle these poetic puppies in a variety of musical landscapes to explore and connect the intention of word to music.
Artful Arrangements & Production of Your Songs
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Sadie will be teaching 2 classes on Saturday and Sunday of the Retreat
Improvising your way into a song: Some songs come from a place of deep introspection and the lashing of teeth over a perfectly consistent rhyme scheme. Alternatively, some songs flow out more intuitively, letting the subconscious draw connections in real time to give us the pieces for a raw and imperfect song! In this workshop we will use audio recording to explore the process of songwriting from the starting point of improvisation. We will experiment with what happens when we loosen the lyrical and melodic reigns and accept what comes out!
Jazz guitar chords! (aka: using extensions and 7th chords to spice up your folk songs): It can be easy to get into root position guitar ruts, or to feel like exploring the neck is too daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! In this workshop we’ll learn simplified 3-finger voicings of movable jazz shapes that add extra beautiful notes to the mix, and sound great in any genre!
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Abby will be teaching 2 classes on Saturday and Sunday of the Retreat
Guitar and Music Theory… How to make it fun, and how it can help your songwriting
In this class we will unlock some of the mysteries of chord families, scales/modes, and fretboard theory so you can feel more confident in your playing and more free with how you approach songwriting, improvising, and playing in groups in general.
Songwriting and Meditation
We will start this class with some breath work and a mind, body and heart check in. From there we will pull out lyrics and write a song together as a community.
Yosemite Songwriting Retreat 