Eddi will be joining our songwriters’ panel, listening to new work written during the week, and performing a special one-off show for us here in Bath. Here’s her recent single ‘Dragonflies’.

SWF 2009 - Final Performance Night!

We’re very excited to announce that the University’s Master’s degree in Songwriting has a new home, in the form of a purpose-built songwriters’ studio at our Corsham Court campus. The next enrolment is for September 2010 and we’re taking applications (subject to interview and songwriting portfolio) from now.

To find out more about the course visit http://www.MASongwriting.com.

You might also want to check out Pat McIntyre’s blog – he’s a student on the course (2009-10).

SWF 2009 - Final Performance Night!

We’re now taking bookings for SWF10. The secure e-store is now live, so you can guarantee your place on the course. We’re taking up to 50 songwriters this year, but bookings will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Note – the SWF Studio option has only 12 places. If you want to discuss your booking give us a call on

Booking info link

Secure e-store

Barry plays his trademark upside-down guitar chords for one of our songwriters.

We have a songwriting room which has a great view over the lake. Boo Hewerdine is our tutor today and he has just flown in from Glasgow and is straight into it! Weíre going round the group and playing from back catalogue.

Claire has just played a beautiful song that she wrote on the way back from Ireland after the applause dies down she is talking about wanting to break into different styles of playing and Boo recommends writing with other people and the benefits of this. The conversation turns to having to write quickly and it being getting into the practice of it.

He also encourages trying to write about things that you havenít written about before and having a solid reasoning behind them.
Antonia contributes a song, quite an up tempo number with a great theme and great tune.
The conversation turns to three chord songs and how strong they can be. The longer you hold the chord the bigger it sounds when it changes. Other chords can then be used for flavour. This is good news for me!
The next songwriter talks about how he finds the process of songwriting and Boo advises giving yourself a limitation just to get going for example having three verses and having an idea of what you want to say eg verse 1 introduce it, verse two develop it and verse 3 conclude it and make sure every line counts. He advises writing the song first before starting to produce it and maybe using ordinary language.
Kristian comes up with a title that he was thinking about developing which Boo thinks is a brilliant tile. He advised working on it and ensuring theres a beginning middle and an end. The point comes up about melody. Boo advises writing melodies without many notes if you donít have the range and says itís really good to give yourself boundaries when youíre writing to give you some focus.

Another great song is performed and the critique is that itís a great song and Boo gives some structural feedback around doing a solo after the bridge and do a short chorus and finish on the big note.
Chloe performs a song that she has given a new arrangement to which goes down well and we break for coffee before finding corners to write in to complete our task for the day. Luckily the sun is shining and soon there are fragments of melody coming from all around the place and new found friends are collaborating on new songs.

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http://garyewer.wordpress.com/

Thanks to all of our long-serving supporters who have mourned the demise of the old forum. Well, rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated. We’ve resurrected the whole database, user list and all, so you should be able to log in, post lyrics, critique others’ work, advertise projects you’re involved in, find collaborators etc. Enjoy!

Register

Link to forum

I think many of us here are a mix — it’s interesting to me because I sometimes find myself trying to write generic lyrics that can have universal appeal and singability but I worry that they are a bit bland.

Then I might write a more personal song that only I would perform and is probably borderline unintelligible.

How do you find the right balance?

/edwin

Songsville — One Song Per Week For A Year

Chris will be joining us and contributing to our demo panel and workshops in the daytime, and performing an SWF gig here in Bath – free to all Festival visitors. His current album ‘The Last Temptation of Chris’ was produced by Boo Hewerdine, who will be joining the SWF tutor team all week.

Biography

Double Ivor Novello Award-winning Chris Difford has been writing lyrics for over twenty five years, most notably with Squeeze. After 13 albums and many top 20 hits, 32 American tours, 30 UK tours and various trips around the globe, Chris decided to stop the merry-go-round and test the waters. His first solo album, I Didnít Get Where I AmÖwas released in 2001; a live release, South East Side Story, soon followed before reconvening with songwriting partner Glenn Tilbrook in a Squeeze line-up also featuring early bassist John Bentley for their first UK tour in nine years (ìitís hard to remember when Squeeze were ever quite as good as this first time around,î enthused US trade bible Billboard).
Diffordís second solo album on Stiff records came out earlier this year, co produced and written by Boo Hewerdine: The Last Temptation Of Chris received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and further secured Chrisís position as one of the greatest lyricists of our time. Songs like ìTemptedî, ìUp the Junctionî, ìCool for Catsî and ìBlack Coffee in Bedî still find steady airplay on UK and US radio. Squeeze released The Big Squeeze, a compilation of singles and B sides that went straight into the UK Top 10 album chart , proving the timeless appeal of their music. A live album from their 2007 tour soon followed.

Chris has written with Elton John, Trilok Gurtu, Marti Pellow, Lamont Dozier, Willie Mitchell, Bryan Ferry and many others. He continues to run his own songwriting workshops and pass on the benefit of his weighty experience as a died-in-the-wool song man. Hurst House in Wales is the new venue for his songwriters week, and this year 19 writers came together to create 35 new songs. This is a passion he has been working on for 16 years. Helioscentric, a studio he built in 1995 still runs today; it has attracted such names as The Pet Shop Boys, Paul Weller, Keane, Scouting for Girls, Elvis Costello and many others.
Five years ago Chris scripted the lyrics for the film Still Crazy, this won him his first Ivor Novello Award, a proud moment for the mantelpiece. The film documented the insane life of a rock band in the 70s, something he knew a little about! His second Ivor was presented by Mark Ronson, a life long fan – Chris and Glenn accepted their Lifetime Achievement in June this year. A Nordoff Robins Silver Clef Icon award soon followed , presented by Lily Allen, also a huge fan ñ who compared herself presenting an award to them with an Eastenderís actor presenting an award to Robert DeNiro.

In 1984, Chris, with Glenn Tilbrook, wrote a musical called ëLabelled with Loveí; it ran for three months in London and this remains one of his fondest memories of working with Glenn. Squeeze are resting before summer dates in 2009 and a new album early 2010. In the meantime Chris is working as Creative Director to Hurst House in Wales, a hotel with a rich musical menu, including a live TV show and studio in progress! He is also writing new songs for his next album while teaching songwriting at BIMM in Brighton. A busy creative time. The tour in ë09 will showcase new songs and will be performed alongside a projector and screen, from which will be shown images relating to the songs of the set.

Chris Difford biography on wikipedia

Official website