music with a social conscience
Young songwriters workshop with Sarah McQuaid
Tuesday 8th November 2016
Golden Hind Cambridge, from 4.15 to 5.45
Tickets £10, including free entry to evening concert
Acclaimed songwriter Sarah McQuad, is running a workshop for young songwriters, aimed at secondary-school-age students.
Thanks to the support of Cambridge Music Service, Strummers is able to offer this workshop at the special price of £10 per student, including free entry into Sarah’s evening concert.
Sarah will start the 90-minute workshop by telling participants a bit about her own development as a songwriter, playing a few songs by way of example. She'll talk about the different ways a song can start (e.g. with a phrase, a melody, an image, an emotion, a guitar riff), about the building blocks of a song, about song structure and about lyrical content.
Telling Stories Through Songs
The ‘meat’ of the workshop is an exercise using a stack of recent newspapers and magazines and looking through them for a story we can turn into a song.
The excise will explore how to turn a story into poetic lyrics that the listener will remember and want to hear again and again.
The excise will explore how to turn a story into poetic lyrics that the listener will remember and want to hear again and again.
What is it in a story that makes it worthy of a song? An image? A phrase that resonates? Is there a message we’re trying to deliver? What are the elements (chronological, geographical, thematic) of the story and how will they determine the structure of the song we write? Does the story have a climax? A repetitive theme? A dramatic twist? Who tells the story?
Students are invited to bring along their own compositions to share with the group, if they wish!
Tuesday 8 November, 4.15 to 5.45, Golden Hind, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 1SP
Tel. 07903 521412 Email: [email protected]