This summer, I decided to do something for the kid in me. I signed up for camp! In July I spent five days at SummerSongs East, a songwriting camp in Stony Point, NY. Although I teach songwriting myself, it was great to get the chance to be a student and learn from other nationally-known touring artists and work on my craft.
We spent the days sitting out at picnic tables, under the shade of big, leafy trees and immersing ourselves in every aspect of songwriting from song arranging to co-writing, performing and more.
I also took a guitar/music theory class with musician extraordinaire Vito Petroccitto. Vito is an amazing teacher who insists on keeping it simple and relaxing. I found a lot of comfort when I realized I knew a lot already, and it was a wonderful refresher.
Abbie Gardner was another favorite teacher/artist of mine who taught a class entitled How to Get Unstuck. It was like taking thorns out of songwriters’ paws!
But my favorite class was called Shadow Songs with Steven Prasinos.
Dr. Steve started class with a guided meditation. As he spoke, I had a vision of a woman rising up out of the water. She was wearing a green dress and had long, flowing hair and long arms, and I couldn’t quite tell if she wanted me to pull her up from the water or whether she was ascending, like a goddess. In my meditation, I reached over to her and took her pulse, feeling strong and confident as I helped her.
When I awoke from the mediation, I was confused about exactly what the vision was trying to tell me, but I knew it would make for a great song. Dr. Steve was trying to encourage us to embrace both our dark and light sides, but for me, his class really inspired me to write a song that connected with something deep and soulful within me.
A few days later, I was driving home, still mulling over my goddess song, and I got a call from my marketing maven, Lauren, who said she had written a song called that she wanted to collaborate on. When I listened to her sing it on my voicemail I had to laugh. Here I’d gone to song camp and wrote this deep, Jungian song and Lauren, back here in Chicago with her newborn, Betsy, wrote a fun, upbeat song called, “I Wanna Go To The Beach”! Love that.
The entire experience at SummerSongs was so much fun, and I was grateful to be able to return home with lots of great ideas to share with my songwriting students at the Music Institute of Chicago, as well as for my own writing.
If you would like to write a song, come to one my songwriting classes or contact me and let’s get started!
We spent the days sitting out at picnic tables, under the shade of big, leafy trees and immersing ourselves in every aspect of songwriting from song arranging to co-writing, performing and more.
I also took a guitar/music theory class with musician extraordinaire Vito Petroccitto. Vito is an amazing teacher who insists on keeping it simple and relaxing. I found a lot of comfort when I realized I knew a lot already, and it was a wonderful refresher.
Abbie Gardner was another favorite teacher/artist of mine who taught a class entitled How to Get Unstuck. It was like taking thorns out of songwriters’ paws!
But my favorite class was called Shadow Songs with Steven Prasinos.
Dr. Steve started class with a guided meditation. As he spoke, I had a vision of a woman rising up out of the water. She was wearing a green dress and had long, flowing hair and long arms, and I couldn’t quite tell if she wanted me to pull her up from the water or whether she was ascending, like a goddess. In my meditation, I reached over to her and took her pulse, feeling strong and confident as I helped her.
When I awoke from the mediation, I was confused about exactly what the vision was trying to tell me, but I knew it would make for a great song. Dr. Steve was trying to encourage us to embrace both our dark and light sides, but for me, his class really inspired me to write a song that connected with something deep and soulful within me.
A few days later, I was driving home, still mulling over my goddess song, and I got a call from my marketing maven, Lauren, who said she had written a song called that she wanted to collaborate on. When I listened to her sing it on my voicemail I had to laugh. Here I’d gone to song camp and wrote this deep, Jungian song and Lauren, back here in Chicago with her newborn, Betsy, wrote a fun, upbeat song called, “I Wanna Go To The Beach”! Love that.
The entire experience at SummerSongs was so much fun, and I was grateful to be able to return home with lots of great ideas to share with my songwriting students at the Music Institute of Chicago, as well as for my own writing.
If you would like to write a song, come to one my songwriting classes or contact me and let’s get started!
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