Sunday 20 April 2014

Songwriting Bootcamp

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I was offered the incredible opportunity to go to Muni Arts Center in Pontypridd to work with some other local musicians and a few industry professionals as part of a songwriting masterclass. The three days were run by Amy Wadge, an incredibly talented professional singer/songwriter who has worked with the likes of Ed Sheeran and it was honestly such an incredible few days.

I've been writing songs for a good few years now but I've never experienced co-writing beyond writing with a few friends for a bit of a laugh. I had no idea what to expect from my first experience of it but it was amazing. Seeing the way other musicians approach songwriting and being pushed to write the best songs we could in a limited time was definitely a challenge but I already feel like it's changed the way I write. Over the 3 days I wrote with around 7 different people in various groups ranging from a group of 5 to a group of 2. Through working with so many people we were really able to see the different ways of approaching things and everyone definitely had their own techniques of doing so.

I left the course on Wednesday after showcasing every song we had written together over the few days feeling incredibly inspired, not only to write more songs and take more risks with my song writing but also to work hard to be the best musician I can be. Every single person I worked with was incredibly talented but at a different stage with music which made me realise that, if I work hard, there is a possibility that becoming a professional singer/songwriter could become more of a reality than just a dream of mine. And even if I don't pursue it as a career, I know now that I will never stop writing.

The masterclass made me want to try co-writing a lot more and after meeting so many incredible people, and exchanging follows on twitter, I'd like to think that is a definite possibility for the future.

Thank you so much to Amy Wadge and SONIG for running the course and Young Promoters Network for contacting me about it. It was an incredible experience that I feel incredibly lucky to have been involved in and I hope to be able to do it again!

Lucy x

Click here to go to the playlist of the songs that we wrote!