When Richa first emailed us asking whether we'd like to conduct the songwriting workshop at the premises of the Victoria Memorial on the 5th of January, we were stunned. We'd known that another lady was coming to hold this workshop which would be followed by a video making session. Unfortunately the lady had been called away on work, and since we'd shown a great deal of enthusiasm when discussing a prospective songwriting workshop, Megha and Richa decided to give us a shot at it.
After sending them 'thank you' mails, we decided that we needed to decide on the lecture and activities then and there. No dawdling. We got to work researching some of the theories behind songwriting and then planned some activities that would put the theories into practice. We hoped we'd get a good crowd.
Being so reliant on technology means we're ever so slightly unconventional but as they say, if you have it flaunt it. Or in this case, use it. The first activity required the members to differentiate between verses, choruses and the bridge, which would eventually help them write their own song. After an exhaustive search of our music library, a good six songs were found and their lyrics duly emailed to M and R. That is the other M and R.The songs we decided on were Invisible Sun by The Police, If I Ever Lose My Faith In You by Sting, Sealed With A Kiss and three songs by a-ha. These songs best fit the 6 basic musical forms that we wanted to teach the members. Most of the members got all six correct, others five.
By the end of the day we'd emailed the 'lecture' and the activities to Megha and Richa as well. After receiving their approval we spent the following week tweaking the lecture, adding song lyrics to it, and making charts to better explain our points. What I'd reckoned would've been arduous turned out to be incredibly fun.
While making the chart on 'What is a song?' we consulted an interesting source; 'The Doctor' aboard the Starship Voyager. Let me explain. Star Trek Voyager is a favourite of Ron's and mine, and one episode deals with meeting a species who have never heard music. The Doctor explains what it is, and indeed he seemed to make a great deal of sense. So cheers to the creators of Voyager!
I won't say we were overly anxious about the workshop, we were more worried about the members not turning up. Thankfully, come 5th Jan, a bright sunny day lay ahead. We circled the VM for a good 45 minutes hoping for a parking space. We didn't find one, of course. But once the members arrived we got out all the equipment; charts, ipods, docking stations, tripod, folders, and we were ready to go.A good 15 members turned up and it was a wonderful session. Interactive and interesting. The second activity required the members to use a song name and song line that we had provided to write a song of their own. Song titles included Rain, Wolf, Adventure and Ride with corresponding lines 'falls down over me', 'time to worry', 'for so many days' and 'where I want to go'. The resulting songs were fascinating and proved that most of the members had a flair for imaginative and creative song-writing. Do we see some Grammy winners in the future?
The final activity turned out to be the toughest! Apart from losing most of the members to the long line for the washroom, we found that the members had considerable difficulty deciding on a tune for their brilliant songs. However, Aditya, our guitarist for the day, was most helpful and readily gave the sparring pairs advice on singing. Chirag, our cameraman for the day duly took videos of the pairs singing and the session ended with the last pair's 'music video'.Music is something most people love and understand and that definitely helped make our session a success. Playing some songs also added some spice to it. Indeed, at the end of the session one of the members complained that there should be more such sessions, every weekend! As Richa said, we do have a life.
No comments:
Post a Comment