WonderKids: Songwriting Workshop!
Presented by Let’s Make Good Productions
and One Parent Families Association
When: Sunday July 14, 2013 and Sunday August 11, 2013 2pm-4pm
Who: Suggested ages: 6-13
Where: The Central, 603 Markham Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada
How: $10 per child per session or $15 per child for both sessions
$7 brunch special offered by The Central for parents to enjoy
What: Parents of workshop participants expected to stay onsite and merrily eat while the children participate in the songwriting workshop. When the workshop is done, children and parents will enjoy a performance presentation of what the children created during the workshop.
Event Outline:
-Intro/welcome for participants and parents; performances by workshop leaders.
-Kids break off for workshop; parents remain in dining area for brunch/relaxation.
-Workshop involves: Improv session to warm up to play and experimentation; intro to songwriting- demonstration of song structure and lyric play; kids break off into groups to work on a song for presentation.
-Kids and parents reconvene in main stage dining room area for final presentation of songs the groups came up with.
– If time allows, there will be an open mic for further performances by participants should they wish to continue being stars.
-Extro/goodbyes
Workshop leaders are singer/songwriter/performers:
ArlenePaculan.com
KatLeonard.com
BryanPickell (brytunes.net)
MattGerberMusic.com
Limited spaces. For reservations and more info:
letsmakegoodmail@gmail.com
www.WonderWomenWorld.tumblr.com
ASCAP Expo: My Take
Report: ASCAP Expo! The lovely Heather Hill did a bang-up writeup on our adventures at ASCAP Expo and all I did was hit “Reblog”. Love, KAT! XO
I See The Light! I Smell Cake!
I see the light!
I made it! I submitted my final peer evaluations for Pat Pattison’s course this morn! This songwriting course has introduced me to a whole world of what I don’t know. But now I actually know what I don’t know, and what I should know. And knowing is half the knowing! Now when I discuss songwriting, I have new musical vocabulary as well as deeper definitions for common vocabulary like stable and unstable. I’m able to absorb song execution tactics with more profound saturation. I see a door to a valuable toolshed, a door beckoning me like freshly baked cake to a whole new world of songwriting. Knowing that door to the toolshed is there, and that I have access to it whenever I find the initiative to flick the latch, is as comforting as eating half that freshly baked cake and knowing the second half of the cake is there for dessert!
Thank you to SAC for instigating yet another great blogging challenge, and thank you thank you thank you to Berklee College and Pat Pattison! An unstable hero is just what I needed!
Pat Pattison-a sung hero!
(Get it? He’s not unsung? ‘Cause he sings and stuff? Get it?)
Resistance is Fertile
(SAC Songwriting challenge-Week 5)
Resistance is fertile and insidious and endemic. During this week’s songwriting assignment, I found myself quivering with defiance. Every moment was a battle of the nitwits (myself, me and I). Even my shoulder devil and shoulder angel were harmonizing, “I don’t wanna do it!” I managed to cough up an assignment submission, but resistance has now crept into my will to finish this blog entry.
I don’t wanna do it!
To Stress or Not to Stress…
SAC songwriting challenge-Week 4
Oh man, during this week’s Pat Pattison songwriting lesson, I got lost by “industrial strength magnets” when a squirrel hopped upon my windowsill… or rather I was drawn vegetatively to the windowsill in hopes of luring a squirrel to hop on by and entertain me. This week’s lesson felt like someone forced me to go camping against my will. And camping is ALWAYS against my will. Ugh. Perhaps I’m over-exhausted from Canadian Music Week shenanigans.
Me saying goodnight to CMW 2013 and dreaming of CMW 2014!
To stress or not to stress… within music, means to analyze the syllables and whether they’re nouns or articles or verbs or squirrels. I tried sooooo hard to pay attention. Okay, to be honest, I can’t precisely qualify how deep my effort to pay attention was, for I kept winding up unconscious. I felt a tangible resistance to attention paying. It felt like the times I’d feigned attention while being scolded for something I planned to do again anyway. The stress was definitely ON.
I didn’t like it. So I shifted my attention to something else important to me: my next live show, for which I plan to perform new songs that are in various stages of incompletion. The most amazing thing happened! I was working with lyrics and– guess what! I found myself employing the tactics of syllable stress in my writing– and– I altered the chorus of one of the songs so that the chorus’s title was more defined! I couldn’t believe it! It worked! Pat Pattison’s songwriting tools had hoed their way into my songwriting process and it wasn’t painful or numbing! Weehaaaaahoooooooey! I believe there’s hope for me yet! I CAN use tools outside of myself! Needless to blog, I am thrilled with the prospect, and recharged with vigor! I feel like I’ve benefited from a long-needed nap! Yowza! Yowza!
And on the songwriting note– ha! Get it?! If you’d like to be among the first to hear these new songs, you should come out to Smiling Buddha Bar next week! There’s even some open mic slots, so you could play a song new or old as well! I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be a smack-on good time! Come if you can!
The Four Winds Collective smiles at Buddha Thursday April 4th 9pm!
WonderFest Report Day 4: Wowza!
Oh, man!!! There is so much of the spreading of empowerment through art happening during WonderFest that I feel I can’t do it justice in prose!
For fuller details on our experience, see our WonderWomenWorld blog!
In a nutshell, Day 4 brought us:
Workshop: Turning Wounds Into Wisdom lead by Nova Browning Rutherford.
The group learned to accept the discomfort of change, to focus on actions that lead toward our goals and values, and that life is in fact long and not short therefore we have plenty of time to figure things out and follow our path!
The Workshop group!
Super Men Concert! Wowza Wowza what a lineup of talent to digest! The evening was jampacked with music and words to move the soul, friendship to fill the heart, and laughter to jiggle the belly!
Arlene and I with the wonderful Super Men!
Which brings us to tonight! Tonight is the WonderFest finale: Wonder Women in Concert! Gladstone Hotel 7pm (doors) 8pm (show) with art displays, videos, vendors, a special comic book photo booth for all, and of course the lineup of Wonder Women! I’ll be performing my new song Love Mania! Wakawakawakawaka! We hope to see you there spreading empowerment through art!
The foundation of friendships is a force for mountain moving! (Arlene Paculan and I, WonderFest co-conspirators!)
WonderFest – Help Spread Empowerment!
WonderFest – Help Spread Empowerment!.
YOU can help us spread empowerment through art!
How? Like this:
1) Choose ONE WORD of EMPOWERMENT
2) Take a PHOTO with your word
3) Tweet @LMGProductions “I’m spreading empowerment through art! #WonderFest”
or email ImWorthItInfo@yahoo.ca
If you wish, there is also opportunity for you to make it into our next video as well as onto our Wall Of Empowerment at http://www.WonderWomenWorld.tumblr.com!
WONDERFEST IS COMING!!!
MARCH 4-8, 2013 is International Women’s Week, and LMG Productions celebrates by presenting Wonder Women VI: WonderFest, a weeklong series of workshops and concerts to spread empowerment through art. This International Women’s Week edition of Wonder Women will be the largest Wonder Women event yet. With four free workshops and two concerts involving approximately 50 wonder women and super men of varied media, WonderFest is certain to make a positive artistic impact on the community.
At LMG Productions we truly believe that we are in this together, and we would be honoured if you would join us in our passion towards encouraging and empowering individuals through art.
Introducing our new blogsite:
www.WonderWomenWorld.tumblr.com/
WONDERFEST SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Monday March 4, 2013
Workshop: Business Planning for Artists; Heather Hill
7:00pm at The Central, 603 Markham Street
FREE
Tuesday March 5, 2013
Workshop: Playing With Music; Collaboration/Jam/Open Mic
7:00pm at The Central, 603 Markham Street
FREE
Wednesday March 6, 2013
Workshop: Healing Through Art; Lisa Anita Wegner
7:00-8:30pm at Fringe Creation Lab, 720 Bathurst Street
FREE
Thursday March 7, 2013
Workshop: Turning Wounds Into Wisdom; Nova Browning Rutherford
7:00-8:30pm at Fringe Creation Lab, 720 Bathurst Street
FREE
Thursday March 7,2013
Show: Super Men in Concert
Doors 9:30pm Show 10:00
The Central, 603 Markham Street
$10 at the door- receive $5 off Wonder Women VI in Concert
Friday March 8, 2013-International Women’s Day
Show: Wonder Women VI in Concert
Doors 7:00pm Show 8:00pm
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West
$10 at the door
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! XOX WW XOX
FUCK CANCER!
I am an active member of the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC), which offers various workshop opportunities and resources for songwriters. I meet regularly with a group to showcase works in progress and sometimes collaborate and exercise skills. One SAC exercise was to take a song that we love and play with the lyrics and/or musical components. Playing with music and emulating others is a helpful exercise in developing our own talents. As children, we learn task, behaviour and language by imitating those around us. It’s important for artists to find their own voice, but I believe experimentation with something that inspires us is a great playground and springboard to our own possibilities.
I chose Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. kd lang’s rendition changed my relationship with music. I had the opportunity of soaking in an intimate performance of hers. I sat 5 feet from her on the same floor. From the moment she inhaled her first singing breath, I knew I was forever changed. Watching her use her phenomenal instrument to allow the release of such a beautiful and powerful spirit, to feel it move about the room, that spirit souring on a wave of soul that carried me to another dimension was… (sigh) enigmatically indescribable. But I blissfully digress. I love the work of Leonard Cohen. He’s a true music-smith and storyteller. I also love that his first name is my last.
The lyrics I wrote for the SAC exercise are Fuck Cancer, but I have since gotten more mileage out of Cohen’s incredible Hallelujah sound bed. I was asked to sing Hallelujah at both a wedding and a funeral this summer, so I changed the lyrics again and again to suit each of these events.
Excuse disclosure: This was an exercise in writing, not singing, so these aren’t slick recordings of the songs. But if I wait until they’re made spiffy, I may not ever get to it. My to-do list is way longer than the lineup for an iPhone 5!
Here are my three adaptations– with lyrics and link to sound in case you’d like to sing along!
FUCK CANCER
The lyrics “Fuck Cancer” are pretty severe. The words “Fuck” and “Cancer” individually have pretty stirring effects on the ear and heart (also that other “C” word, but I’ve not made a lyric of it.) So when Fuck and Cancer are put alongside each other, juxtaposed with the haunting splendor of Hallelujah’s sound bed, there’s a palpable reaction from the crowd I sing it to. Some people read the lyrics before hearing the song and immediately thought, “No, don’t do this,” until they heard it sung and changed their tune to, “Oh, yes, do this. Don’t even come up with an original song bed and melody to this. It’s gotta be wedded to the sound of Hallelujah.” Others suggested maybe toning down the “fuck” to “damn” or even “darn” or “screw”. I wrestled a bit with the concern of harshness, because I don’t strive to offend. However, I do strive to affect. Yeah, Fuck is harsh. So is Cancer. So when Cancer’s less harsh, I’ll agree to soften the lyrics. Until then, Fuck Cancer!!!
Hallelujah FUCK CANCER
(Leonard C. adapted by K. Leonard)
I had an aunt with guts of gold
A hefty laugh and warm hand to hold
You’d fall in love before you knew it
Her smile was bright, her humour sharp
Her encouraging words could dispel the dark
With cruel notice, she was gone before we knew it
Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer
Grampie fought the great evil abroad
He’s the old kind of brave we’ll forever applaud
He fought for freedom from might
Taught me I was never alone
Gave a lonely young girl a place to belong
And in the end he surrendered to only one enemy
Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer
I have a friend who’s been fucked before
She’s battled the devil who comes back for more
She struggles inside but she doesn’t show it
She’s a buoyant wave on a frantic sea
And the kind of friend I strive to be
If she’s gone too soon, the world becomes less worthy
Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer, Fuck cancer
We all know that your end will come
And though the path be snarled and long
We’ll find our way and fight you strong
Sing a battle cry with all our might
Stun the dark to succumb to light
Sing with perpetual echo: Fuck you, cancer
Fuck you cancer, Fuck you cancer, Fuck you cancer, Fuck you
Fuck you cancer, Fuck you-ou-ou… Fuck you cancer
Fuck you…. Fuck cancer
HALLELUJAH FOR A WEDDING
I sang this in Germany to a German congregation in an itty bitty delight of a village. There were less than 10 people who understood the meaning of the lyrics I was singing, but there were many a tear streaming down from the effect of the melody and soul of the song. The wedding and funeral versions of Hallelujah both begin with Cohen’s original lyrics and deviate from them.
HALLELUJAH For a Wedding
(Leonard C. adapted by K. Leonard)
I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
It’s amazing how music goes through ya
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your love is strong and you live the proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She took your hand and won your heart
Gave your life a brand new start
And from your lips she drew Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I’ll do my best and love you much
With all I feel I need your touch
It’s truest of truth, I wouldn’t fool ya
I’ll stand by you through right and wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
And raise my voice in hallowed Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
HALLELUJAH FOR A FUNERAL
I also added a splash of Charlie Pride’s Crystal Chandeliers because it was my aunt’s favourite song to dance to. Singing it a cappella in the church, it was easy to break into Crystal Chandeliers. But I am really pleased with the result of breaking into the different song whilst remaining in the sound bed of Hallelujah. I was even able to retain the original melody of Crystal Chandeliers and then meld back into the melody of Hallelujah. Isn’t music amazing?!
Hallelujah For a Funeral
(by Leonard C. adapted with love
and a splash of Charlie Pride by K. Leonard)
I’ve heard there was a secret chord
David played and it pleased the Lord
It’s amazing how music gets to ya
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
It baffled the king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Listen, I’ve been here before
I know this room and I’ve walked this floor
But all that was familiar is new
The legacy you’ve built is strong
I stand before the Lord of Song
And raise my voice in hallowed Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your love is true and your friendship such
You can mend a heart with a simple touch
The power of the spirit runs through ya
And even though you can’t stay long
Your love and light to us belong
It echoes in every heartfelt Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
The crystal chandeliers light up your paintings on the wall
The marble statuettes are standing stately in the hall
But will the timely crowd that has you laughing loud
help you dry your tears
when the new wears off your crystal chandeliers
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
So that’s an example of a SAC music exercise that resulted in much play and education for me! What are your thoughts on playing with music in this way? What are your thoughts on the harsh lyrics of Fuck Cancer? Do you think I should play with creating original music to go along with the lyrics, perhaps even just for the exercise of it? Or do you prefer it this way? (This is an academic question, of course, because it’s not my music bed to use beyond an exercise. ;p) I think I’d really learn from your opinions!
As always, wishing you much music and play!
WONDER FEST!
As Artistic Director of LMG Productions and the Wonder Women series, I am pleased as sangria punch with big chunks of saturated fruit in it to announce the first-ever week-long Wonder Women Festival happening during International Women’s Week March 4-8, 2013!
As always, the aim of Wonder Women is to help spread empowerment through workshops and performance in order to share talent, ideas and encouragement through art– music, dance, comedy, spoken word, visual art, etc, etc, and art as yet to be invented.
For Wonder Women blurb and photos from the most recent event, Wonder Women V, visit my page dedicated to it: katleonard.com/wonderwomen
If you know of any wonder women, or are one yourself, interested in being involved with the Wonder Women series, please contact us at ImWorthItInfo@yahoo.ca. We ask that submissions to be considered for the March 2013 Wonder Women VI event be received no later than September 30,2012.
I’m really, really, really looking forward to WWVI so much that I may get a tattoo to commemorate it! Or finish another bag of Doritos.
And just because this post is so woman-centric, I leave you with a nice chunk of man to muse over.
Enjoy!
KAT LEONARD (Kat & The MP3) 