SONGWRITING SCHOOL!

Kathy Mattea Multiple Grammy winner (Rave reviews on her new Coal CD) Kathy has had 37 songs and 14 albums on the top 100 Country charts in her career.

Kathy Mattea Topic: Kicking off the school, (Keynote) how she has been successful in the music industry, and tricks of the trade. (1 hour)

Song Sessions I: Faculty panel will listen to selected participants' songs tweaking and tinkering with them to make them even more effective than they already are. Many writing issues will be raised, including melody, harmony, lyric issues, prosody and the relationship between music and lyrics, as well as performance aspects. The focus is to deal with issues that everyone faces in every song they write. Students will watch the tools being applied, and watch each song grow and transform creating dynamic learning experiences for the student. Due to time restraints, every person’s song can not be individually reviewed. (Two hours)

If you are interested in submitting a song for these sessions, email the lyric to ppattison@berklee.edu in advance. If you have a Myspace link to a recording, please include it too.

Lunch

Breakout Session I:

Kathy Mattea: Vocals
Jon Vezner: Songwriting
Pat Pattison: Songwriting
(Three hours)

Saturday (10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.):

Jon Vezner Published Nashville Grammy winning songwriter. Jon has had 24 of his songs recorded by over 15 different artists including Diamond Rio, Faith Hill, Ronnie Milsap, and of course, Kathy Mattea. Jon’s Grammy came with his song “Where have you been?” which was named country song of the year.

Jon Vezner Topic: Kicking off Saturday and how he got here and how he has been successful in the music industry. (One hour)

Song Sessions II: Faculty panel will again listen to another set of selected participants' songs. Many writing issues will be raised, including melody, harmony, lyric issues, prosody and the relationship between music and lyrics, as well as performance aspects. The focus is to deal with issues that everyone faces in every song they write. Students will watch the tools being applied, and watch each song grow and transform creating dynamic learning experiences for the student. According to the faculty, this part of the school is the most powerful learning session for the student. (Two hours)

Breakout II:

Kathy Mattea: Vocal techniques or topic TBA
Jon Vezner: Demo Process – How to make effective demos.
Pat Pattison: Structure supporting message and emotion. Important tips on music/lyric phrasing, creating and supporting emotion, as well as effective marriage of lyric and musical rhythms.
(Three hours)

Jon Vezner and Kathy Mattea perform on the Singer Songwriter Stage At 9 PM in the Festival on the Singer Songwriter Stage. Students will have reserved seating.

Sunday (10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.):

Pat Pattison Professor of Music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and author of three books on songwriting: Writing Better Lyrics, The Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure, and The Essential Guide to Rhyming.

Pat Pattison Topic: Kicking off Sunday with Writing from a Title - How to center and develop you song by starting with a central idea and making it evolve as the song progresses. (One hour)

Closing Session: Pat and Jon will review the techniques and principles of songwriting for success and how to polish your song art. Advanced workshops are in the making for Wildflower. (Two hours)

"Thanks to Pat Pattison for listening to all those songs and helping me hone the craft."
- David Wilcox -

"This was the best 2 days a songwriter could spend. By lunchtime Saturday, after two and a half hours, I learned more than I had in 35 years of playing and writing music. And it just kept getting better."
- Brian Ralston, Byron Bay, Australia -

At no additional cost:

• Hearing and seeing nationally known singer songwriters and performers on 4 stages at the festival. Each student will receive complimentary 3 day passes to the festival valued at $45.
• Swapping songs with fellow students, finalist in the songwriting contest, and nationally know artist and songwriters in the hotel after the festival is over….not responsible for sleep depravation. (Priceless)
• Making music friends for a lifetime. (Priceless)
• Coordination for who want roommates to share the expenses of the reasonable hotel expenses.

Apply Today!