background

I arrived at the decision to teach songwriting because of receiving feedback from young people who made it clear that I had something to offer them.

I have been writings songs and performing since I was 14 years old, although my life as a writer began much earlier. When I was two, I used to pull books down from the shelves and “read” them, making up a story as I looked at the pictures, and pacing myself by the amount of text on each page. I’ve been writing poems, stories, essays, letters, and articles ever since. Coming from a family of musicians, it was a natural transition to begin playing music and switch my focus from writing in general to songwriting in particular. My history with writing and music is one of both vital necessity and of diligent practice; they have simply always been a part of who I am.

Through the daily push and pull and passion and struggle with the craft of songwriting, I have developed a large array of tools and techniques to better myself as a writer, and I am finding that they translate naturally into a strategy for advising and supporting other songwriters. In addition, my experience as a performer has given me tools to offer a songwriter who wishes to take writing to the next step, and get their songs out there in the world. I have facilitated workshops at music festivals, teahouses, and teen centers around the state of Michigan, and the dynamic experiences I have shared and positive feedback I have recieved in these settings have lead to offer private, one-on-one songwriting lessons to individuals of all ages and musical backgrounds. Private lessons are now my primary focus as an instructor.

approach

To me, development as a songwriter is most of all about loving the very process of writing, and making songs that you love, and playing them because you love to. To put it tritely yet truthfully, it’s about writing from your heart. Depending on the student, my approach would involve either a structured lesson plan that builds on itself, or a wide range of areas and methods to focus on one at a time. Ultimately, however, the direction the lessons take is in the hands of the student. I believe in working as a team together to choose which areas of songwriting we want to address, and developing a rapport with each other that allows lessons to flow in the most spontaneous, direct, and beneficial way possible. The ultimate goal is for the student to never have to sit through the learning of material that bores them or strays from their interests, and to never have “homework” they wouldn’t want to do for their own sake.

I address writing music and writing lyrics as separate dimensions of songwriting. However, equal importance is placed on each, and the integration of the two are a key focus. Because writing music and writing lyrics are each worlds unto themselves as art forms, it can help simplify the learning process to carefully examining each separately before fusing them back together.

It may not be emphasized or even addressed at all for some students, but if the student is interested, performing is another area in which I offer tools, methods, and guidance. I particularly focus on the uniting of songwriting and performing, for the purpose of developing one’s vision as a public artist and the particular qualities required of performing songwriters.

For a detailed list of the different approaches I use and topics I cover, please click the “topics & concepts” link below.