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Workshops / Critiques

"Rockstar Image" with John Battaglia
A Joint SAW/WAMA Workshop

Date: Sat. Oct. 23rd - 1:00-3:00 pm
Location: Levine School of Music, 2901 Upton St NW, WDC
Price: $20 WAMA & SAW members; $25 non-members

To register, click on Order Workshop Tickets above

It's not just for "Rockstars" and it's not just about your wardrobe! It's about your entire image - inside and out - so it relates to everyone no matter what music genre. John Battaglia has worked with Beyonce, Jessica Simpson, and others at that level. www.rockstarimage.com

Nashville Songwriters Workshop, "Writing with the Pros"
with Sally Barris, Don Henry, Craig Carothers

Date: Mon. Oct. 11, 2010 -- 7:00-10:00pm
Location: The Lab at Convergence, 1801 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22303
Price: (pre-registered) $40 SAW, WAMA, BMI, NSAI, or BSA members, $45 non-members; (at-the-door) $45

To register, click on Order Workshop Tickets above

Join us and get small group mentoring and hands on feedback of your songs from these professional Nashville songwriters. Sally Barris, Don Henry, Craig Carothers have received multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM awards and their songs have been recorded by Kathy Mattea, Lee Ann Womack, Martina Mcbride, Trisha Yearwood, John Michael Montgomery, Ray Charles, Patti Page, Conway Twitty and many more.

SAW Songwriter Toolbox Session

The SAW Songwriter Toolbox Session is held on the fourth Saturday of each month from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM.

Please join me September 25 in welcoming a new format for SAW that we’re calling “Songwriter’s Toolbox”. Why “toolbox’? Glad you asked…

Songwriting is truly a craft and requires dedication and hard work. If you are waiting to be “inspired” you might get lucky once in awhile and come up with a winner. But the truth is, the songwriter has to be tenacious and go after what it is they want to say in a methodical and calculated manner. As songwriters, we constantly strive to engage an audience and present them with material that is unique and offers a fresh perspective. The SAW Songwriter’s Toolbox is a series of monthly workshops that will engage the attendees in such a manner. At the end of each session they will leave with a new “tool” in their songwriting toolbox to help them access what it is they want to say and dig deeper to create uniquely
engaging material. The more of these you attend, the more tools you’ll wind up with.

The format for each morning is as follows: We’ll kick off each Toolbox session with a guest artist. The guest artist may discuss their own experiences, inspirations, and successes, as well as play some of their own material to support the discussion. The first six attendees to sign up will have a song critiqued by the guest artist. Bring plenty of lyric sheets if you plan on participating in this.

The second part of the session will be conducted and monitored by me. We will conduct exercises that focus on a specific element of songwriting… rhyme scheme, external voice vs. internal voice, use of metaphor, and so on.

I’ll ask attendees to bring a note pad, pen, lap top, instrument of choice (a piano is available)… whatever, but come prepared to write, contribute, share and be challenged.

Hope to see you there,

Kevin Dudley

Directions: The Lab at Convergence's address is 1819 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria VA, at the intersection with Crestwood Drive. The Lab is a brick building facing Crestwood. It has no address on it, but 1781 Crestwood Drive pinpoints it in Google Maps. Map: http://tinyurl.com/5wnz9g. Take the Shirlington exit off of I-395 and follow the signs to Quaker Lane, then take the second left on Crestwood Drive. The Lab at Convergence is the first building on the left.