It’s interesting when you get 35-50 songwriters together for a full day, as we do at these annual Songwriting Days, one of which we had this past Sunday.  A lot of surprising experiences happen…  People connect with others – maybe potential collaborators – that they wouldn’t otherwise have met; presenters bring up ideas that make you think, “I never looked at it that way…”; workshops create experiences that shake things loose; and just chatting with whoever’s next to you at the moment can open up a new idea, a new approach to writing, recording, etc…

It’s certainly more than the sum of its parts, but the parts this year were very interesting.

Nhu An Do (Creative People NYC) gave a talk laying out ways that songwriters can use social media to promote their songs and careers.  She helped demystify a subject that, for a lot of people. is more intimidating than it needs to be.

One of the most respected members of the international songwriting community, Phil Galdston, gave a passionate and down-to-earth talk about the joys of being a songwriter and the challenges of bringing one’s songs to the world.  Because he almost always writes with others, he spoke eloquently about the his pleasure in collaboration and what it takes to do it successfully.  I loved that he made it clear that, even for a songwriter with his track record, he still has to make it all happen anew every time he sits down to write (true for all writers)… and then he still has to get out and sell the song too.

I gave a talk focused on three stages of the songwriting process – Starting, Improving, Finishing.  I looked at areas can be a struggle for me (along with many other songwriters I’ve worked with), and gave some practical tools and approaches to help make progress with a song… and finish it!

Barbara Jordan rocked the house with her experiential Songwriters Playground workshop.  We put the chairs in a circle.  She got everybody making unexpected lyric connections, then she broke the group down into subgroups of 5 or 6 people – each of which wrote and performed a song (intentionally rough) in about 20 minutes!  It got everybody’s creative energy flowing… which I think was the point.

Martin Briley gave a very interesting talk about how his career led him from being a solo artist to writing for other artists, some of whom are vastly different in style from him.  He talked about how he works to understand the key points of an artist’s style and then create material that would fit them like it was their own.  And not just for solo artists; for bands too.  He also talked about adapting some of these approaches to one’s own music.

Then we had a Songwriting Panel, where Barbara, Martin, and I (joined by the great singer and songwriter Dana Calitri) spent an hour listening to and giving feedback on as many songs as we could.  It was great to hear the creative energy coming from the songs of the writers in the room.

With all the presenters there was Q & A, which took us to useful, pertinent, and sometimes unexpected areas.

All in all, a special day.  It inspired me and made me consider different approaches to writing and marketing songs.  And I think a lot of the people who attended left feeling the same.