Birmingham Alabama Regional Workshop

Recap of meeting on January 16, 2006:

We met at the Moonlight with at least 24 folks there - our biggest meeting yet. We had a great, diverse group of songwriters, ranging from traditional country to folk to just this side of jazz! For the first half of the meeting, we discussed methods that songwriters can use to craft effective choruses, including vocal range contrast, line length and meter contrast, chords and chord progressions, rhyme scheme contrast, content, hook placement, rhythm contrast, and lifts/pre-choruses. We listened to 5 songs that have recently charted (Nothin' 'Bout Love Makes Sense, Mayberry, Georgia Rain, I'm Tryin', and Speed) to analyze how those songwriters had used these tools to write *big* choruses * and see when they *followed* the *rules,* and when they didn't. We then critiqued about 6 songs of those in attendance, with some bringing CD's of their work, and many performing their songs live. We had 14 completely new faces who had not been to a meeting before! Thanks everyone for keeping this thing rolling.

Please join us for our next meeting on February 13, 2006 at 6pm at the Moonlight Music Cafe, Birmingham's premier venue for songwriters. If you hope to have a song critiqued at the meeting, please bring approximately 20 lyric sheets. You may perform your song live, bring a cd, or just have lyrics critiqued. The Moonlight hosts an open mic at 8pm so any and all are encouraged to stay and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and support our local musicians.

Stay tuned as we hope to update this page with our progress as a new and expanding group, and as we highlight our members and their accomplishments along the way.