The workshop was a success, thanks to the Ketchikan Arts Council, Creative Hustler, Kayhi Culinary Arts, plus the Saxman Tribal House, all six workshop students (four from Ketchikan, one from Anchorage, one from Denmark) and the radio stations, teachers, and people of Ketchikan, Alaska.
WORKSHOP BASICS:
It was a four-day program, with three hours of instructor/student interaction each day, plus at least one, three-person co-write session. This was augmented by at least one solid hour of individual time with me to refine a new song for optional performance. On the fifth day, a previously scheduled local show provided the opportunity to join me in the second set for the performance of a song that did not exist a week prior to the show. All six workshop students in Ketchikan performed new songs at the Saxman Tribal House to a wonderful audience.
I break my personal workshops down into these elements:
- Study the past, history, and styles of folk and pop music forms.
- Form variations: Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge or no bridge, instrumental section, ending.
- Meter, melody, and rhyme techniques to help get you there.
Thanks also to Kathy Peavey at the folks out on Prince Of Wales Island for inviting me to play WHALEFEST, and taking me out to see amazing Humpbacks feeding on Herring.
The 2020 CAMPFIRE PROPAGANDA WORKSHOP will take place in HOMER, ALASKA. Please send all correspondence to me and we shall sort out what it takes to participate. There will be at least one scholarship given out to a local songwriter who applies. More info on all of this very soon.
Well done, congrats, and all the best to you songwriters out there. Keep on working, keep on writing.
Tim Easton, Eureka Springs, Arkansas