We Write the Songs: WriteGirl Songwriting Workshop and Showcase of Songs
“Songs happen when words alone are not enough,” WriteGirl Executive Director and songwriter Keren Taylor said during the opening remarks of WriteGirl’s 21st Annual Songwriting Workshop and Showcase of Songs on March 19, 2022. “When the feelings are enormous and powerful, it is music that is needed to lift those words off the page and soar them into our heart because of the super power of words and music, together, to move us.”
Nearly 200 WriteGirl mentees, alums and mentors, as well as 16 special guest songwriters, gathered together on Zoom for the WriteGirl Songwriting Workshop to celebrate the magic of putting words to music! Incorporating elements of a workshop, writing time, interviews, dance party and even live music performances, this was a show-stopping, fast-paced event!
Mentees participated in a few writing activities throughout the workshop portion, including the “Doors of Inspiration”, a digital portal with 18 different doors to choose from. Behind each door was a writing activity that could potentially lead to the creation of a new song! Writing activities ranged from “Make a list of things you want more of. Create a song about one or all of these things” to “What is a lesson you wish you could teach the adults or older generations?”
Singer-songwriter Michelle Lewis
Teens also had the chance to hear from one of WriteGirl’s very special guests Michelle Lewis, a songwriter who has been volunteering with us for almost 20 years! She recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Song for her song “Unsaid Emily” from Julie and the Phantoms.
“Even if you’ve never written a song before you’ve heard songs. And if you’ve heard songs you know what’s special about them,” Lewis said during her instructive segment. She dived deep into an exploration of the same techniques that she uses in her own songwriting process: getting the initial inspiration to write a song, generating titles and hooks, structuring a song and creating natural rhymes in her lyrics.
“Be aware of cool-sounding words and phrases in fodder writing and circle them or write them in the margin. Those could become your title or your hook,” she explained to the teens.
WriteGirl Songwriting Workshop Dance Party
By the end of Lewis’s segment and two rounds of breakout rooms where mentees worked with other special guest songwriters on their songs, everyone had learned an additional strategy to lyric writing. The Zoom chat flooded with everything the mentees had absorbed:
“For repetition: one is a thing, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern,” said WriteGirl mentee Sophia S.
“Create the journey for your listener; write a story in your song and have a beginning, middle and end,” added WriteGirl mentee Summer H.
One of the highlights of the event was our annual dance party! Using pop star Camila Cabello’s hit song “Don’t Go Yet,” mentees learned to perform a different dance move depending on the part of the song that was playing. Step back for the verse, row the boat for the chorus and fist pump for the bridge!
WriteGirl Alum Arielle Davis interviews songwriter Kara DioGuardi.
WriteGirl alum Arielle Davis then introduced our next very special guest–GRAMMY-nominated songwriter and former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi! Throughout her career, Kara has worked with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars and Dua Lipa. The two women shared a conversation that absolutely wowed our mentees and mentors.
“What an honor for somebody to tell you what’s in the depths of their soul or heart and put that into a form that the world gets to experience, whether it’s music or poetry. You’re healing people,” DioGuardi said when asked about how she writes songs with other artists.
To close out the interview, DioGuardi gave an essential piece of advice for our mentees: “Be bold, live your lives, be true to yourself. You’ll see that the world can be amazing.”
Songwriter Clare Means performs a song written by a WriteGirl mentee.
The whole event came to a head with our annual WriteGirl Showcase of Songs! This portion of the event featured all of our special guest songwriters, including Clare Means, Laurie Geltman and Janice Robinson, setting our mentees’ lyrics to music and performing them LIVE before our very eyes. We saw a variety of genres, from pop to soul to a funky guitar number from Janet Robin. Keren Taylor also performed a couple numbers using lyrics from the chat and WriteGirl mentees!
The reactions from mentees and mentors alike made the Zoom chat move at lightning speed.
“I WOULD STREAM THIS,” said WriteGirl mentee Althea A.
WriteGirl member Crystal Powell agreed, “Wonderful lyrics! Absolutely love the title and opening word play.”
To close out the workshop and Showcase of Songs, Keren celebrated all the attendees for their incredible work throughout the event. “This showcase was amazing because of YOUR emotions and stories,” she said. “Thank you for your courage in facing the page!”
Janice Robinson, a songwriter who has worked with legends like Tina Turner, Deborah Cox and Taylor Dane, was similarly blown away by the lyrics that mentees had written, the enthusiasm and joy they brought to the workshop and how much they had learned about songwriting in a short span of time.
She said of the experience in an interview with Michelle Lewis and songwriter Rhonda Nicole, “This is a sacred space. That’s the great thing about songwriting. You know every singer-songwriter you meet is giving a piece of themselves. To be able to share space with these young ladies and watch them blossom before my eyes was so special to me.”
Thank you to our sponsors E. Gluck Corporation and Armitron, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund! Special thanks to the Find Your Light Foundation for your support of WriteGirl programming!