21. Songwriting & Vocal Joy Workshop Podcast

Hi there,
This is a project that has been on the burners for about two years, and now I've made it to this point - I'm holidng my breath - Is this a thing? Does this work?
For about two decades I have attended so many songwriting workshops. I love word games, heart games, writing, creative writing, all the things.
And for the last two years, I have been teaching songwriting workshops in Byron Bay (NSW Australia), whilst also making the Singing Lessons for No One Podcast (sporadically...)
I wanted to make the Workshops in to SOMETHING... An online course? There's so many... Ideas are endless.. But really. My podcast is nearing 100k streams. I feel like that might mean people, like, actually,  like it? I dunno.
Anyway.
Does Songwriting exercises on a podcast work?
Would a classroom listen to this?
Is this useful to you?
If even, say, a person, one single person said yes, then, there's more where this came from.
So, if you can, lemme know ok?

This Podcast Episode holds:
Vocal Warm Up - Major Scale,
Songwriting Exercise: Introduction
Singing Exercise - Major and Minor Chords
Songwriting Exercise - Vegetable
Songwriting Exercise - Alphabet Garden
Singing Exercise - Mood Indigo

xx
Shelly


Cover Art by Jay Kingdom
Podcast Music by Shelly Brown ("In We Dive" - Avail on Bandcamp & Streaming Platforms)

Transcript

Hi, can you hear me? Are you there? Beautiful.
Welcome to the songwriting and vocal joy workshop podcast. What even is that? What does that even mean? Well, you might know me from such podcasts as singing lessons for no one.  It's this little podcast where I teach your singing lesson and you're sitting right there or you're driving or you're walking or you're doing whatever you're doing.

And we do these singing lessons and it's really cool and it's really fun and I'm particularly silly. It's not on purpose. It's just how it is. Well, in my other secret life, I actually teach songwriting workshops. I've been doing it for a couple of years and it's pretty fun and it's pretty silly and it's pretty delightful.

And so I wanted to make this podcast for the people that might've already attended that workshop and wanted to recap. What the heck I was talking about,  or just for my friends around the world that listen to that other podcast that might like this podcast, we're going to see if it works because this is going to be a little bit different.

You might need a pen and a paper or a little screen to write ideas on. You might need a voice memo recording system or a whole bish bosh sound situation, microphone, whatever works for you. You might need a drink of water.  You might need to breathe and relax and sit up straight and roll your shoulders.

Cause it just feels good.  And we're just gonna do songwriting exercises. I really just like songwriting exercises. They don't always work for me to get a song out. I just like them like some people might like crosswords and Sudoku and Wordle and all those things. I just like diving into my brain and seeing what comes out when I play all of these kinda little games.

And it helps me do so many things. It's not just related to songwriting. It might work for something else for you. I'm going to not be too cheeky or anything. You could probably play this for your classroom if you wanted to. You could take it all the places that you could take things and not be too worried.

I won't be too weird. Um, I'm just a  So let's dive in and have a little look  and total workshop this week and I wanted to start off there and work backwards through everything I've ever taught  and I'm pretty sure some things definitely won't translate into just an audio medium. You might need to see my face going  like that while I say it,  but anyway, let's have a go.

So the first thing is, is that, uh, if you mishear me. You have the added benefit of being able to go back and see what I meant, but actually I encourage you not.  I encourage you to  do what you think you thought I thought you thought I thought I said, and have a go and just see where you end up.  Um, and I relate a story about when I went and I did,  you know, those classes you do when you're pregnant and you got to go and do the lessons about having a baby, whatever those are called, getting ready to have a baby classes.

And um, and the teacher that was running it, the lady that was facilitating  gave us each a piece of paper. I think it was a big piece of newspaper. And then she asked everybody to fold it in half.  And then she asked everybody to rip off one corner.  And then she asked everybody to fold it in half again.

And then she asked them to rip a circle out of the left bit.  And then she asked everybody to fold it in half again and to rip off another corner. I probably went for another few steps, but you see where I'm heading. And at the end she said, okay, everybody open up your piece of paper. And so we all opened up our pieces of paper and every single person in the room had a different piece of paper.

Because we all listened to the advice. We all listened to the instructions. We all followed the instructions, maybe.  And then we all got different results.  And I thought that was such a beautiful exercise and she was relating to that, that to having a kid  and raising a human in the world. We all get parenting advice.

Um, and then your kid ends up however the heck your kid ends up,  but I think that's really beautiful advice to so many things in life, but particularly for when, uh, a lady is sitting with a microphone,  looking out at her chickens and suggesting that you could try to do this, this and this to do songwriting exercises and you end up wherever you end up.

Your piece of paper is your piece of paper. It's going to be alright. Write a song. Makes you feel better. It literally will make you feel better unless it makes you feel angry. Anyway, I'll stop. Okay. So  when you come to my songwriting and vocal joy workshops, I alternate between singing exercises and songwriting exercises, and  those two things could mean.

So many different things. I could line up a hundred people to teach you singing and a hundred people to teach songwriting And I think everybody would do it in their own special wonderful way and so I try to dive in in lots of different ways every time so  My usual way to teach singing and vocal joy is to sit up straight and do a bubble and warm your voice up So let's do that first.

Can you give me a Oh yeah,

beautiful, lovely. And then I'm going to just go and find a note down somewhere where I'm talking. Hello everybody. My name is Shelly. Da da da da da one. And I'm going to sing a major scale from there, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Let's do that again, ready? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Let's go down. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

I wonder if I'd picked a totally different note from where I said I was going to start and then I said it, I was going to set it, I was going to start. And I think that's one of the most common things that happens. I did that on purpose because When I say we're gonna sing a scale and you ascend, most people will start lower than they talk.

Hello everyone. It's Shelly one,  because you know that you're gonna have to ascend. Your voice is your voice and my voice is my voice, and that's the way that goes. But  it's an interesting thing to note that usually most people kind of,  uh, duck down 'cause they don't want to go too high to begin with, and that's fair enough for a warmup.

Just warm up the middle bit of your voice. So let me get a guitar, hang on a second.

Okay, I'm back. Today I'm going to play an acoustic nylon string guitar. I'm going to play it in the key of G for reasons that might become obvious later on.  But let's do our warm up again. Let's just do our major scale.

My one  ready, let's go 1,  2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,  6, 7, 8.

7, 5, 4, 3, 2.  Start in your chest voice where you speak and say hello. How's it going? Goodday, how's going?  2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

I wonder if it goes into the soft part of your voice, your head voice. 7, 8, a little bit more air comes out and chesty and matey.
Matey. Let's try it out. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. It's got a 9,  you know you want to. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

3, 2, 1,

and  again, be  two  seven.

Beautiful,  can you give me your sob quality? Can you yawn for me? Or say, oh I'm really tired. It's been a hell of a week. Woo! Open up the back of your throat. Can you say, oh I love what you've done with the place. Woo!  Can you say, oh, oh, oh, oh. I love gold. ho ho ho ho ho Ho ho ho berry Christmas ho ho ho ho ho  Gimme

some quality on the bottom of your major scale. Up to the 9, here we go 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Oh,  nine, eight,

And again.  1, 2, 3,  4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Beautiful. Can you give me your twang quality?  Can I have your eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. Sorry, it's horrible.  Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh. Can you give me your, G'day mate. Getting around full of people who do that is one of the joys of life. G'day mate. I rarely talk like that.

Can you give me, uh,  your duck? Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.  Can you give me a, uh, uh, uh, uh, I love to count.  It's a different sound, but it's the same thing. Uh, uh, uh, ah, ah, ah. I love to gulp. Ask your nose to do all the work, baby.  Okay, from sub to twang, up, here we go.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I'm so nervous. Sorry.  Eight,  seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. I forgot the nine. Let's go nine. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two,

one. Oh. Oh. Oh.  Oh. Oh. Oh  You

jamming with me,

so pretty well done. Lovely. That's a warm up. Okay, cool

Okay now from here  and what I usually do is I have like a  document open in front of me on the computer  And I open up a blank page and I make a table, and all the way down the table in different rows I write singing, songwriting, singing, songwriting, singing, songwriting, and it's my intention to go back and forth between singing and songwriting and then sort of hopefully they weave together and at the end you're singing the thing that you wrote and thus you have song written.

And so we just did a warm up, that was our singing. And then the next thing that we'll head on to is songwriting. And because this is our first one, and it was the first workshop that I started yesterday, then it was introductions time. We had to introduce ourselves to each other because you make a little community when you all dig into your heads and share things.

You all get to know each other and start friendships or just start community of trust and listening and caring. It's a really beautiful thing.  And so for introductions on this group, I decided that I wanted to soften the idea of going around in a circle and just saying your name and where you're from and why you're there and da da da da da da.

I wanted to You know how that feeling, I don't know about you, but sometimes that feeling of that coming around the circle at you makes your hands clammy and your heart race and it's just a little anxiety inducing. For some people I think that it must be quite, um,  comforting to know the people in the room, instead of just being with strangers.

And for some people, I'm very sure that that feeling of, I've got to introduce myself next is, just makes your brain blank. And so, with your pen and your paper, your little writing journal that you've got in your hands, and your pen or your pencil that you love so much in your hand, I asked the participants to write down your hello.

I would like you to write your name and where you come from  and however you describe yourself and however you describe your home.  I'd love you to write some of the few things that I'm going to say now or just something that took your heart and start writing on that and go with that, okay?  So write what brought you here  and write your loves,  write  your dreams.

Write  how you want to go forward.  Share a goal.  Share a hope.  You can share your vibe if you can.  When it's your turn, I want you to be hungry to share it. And I want you to try not to read it, so you might only read some of the little things that you wrote.  And I want you to listen to how you phrase things when you talk,  compared to how you write.

Because often I write in one way and I speak in another.  And so listen to how your language changes what you have written.  How your heartbeat,  blood and bones change what's written on the page.  So I think that you could  try doing that even though  we're not sitting in a circle. You could write things down and then read it.

And I wonder if you read it exactly as you've written or if you change any words.

Love you to write  what kind of genre you think your music fits, that you love listening to.  Love you to write what strikes a chord in your heart.

I wrote, Hi, my name's Shelly.  I was born to sailors and aviators  who flew high and only sailed in safe seas.  I want to write songs about how I feel,  smells and sound.  Senses,  crickets and fresh grass.

Well think about singing for a second now.  I want to play two different chords to you.  And on my nail and string six string guitar,  I'm gonna play you an E major chord.

I just want you to hear the sound of a major chord

and sing that major sound with me. The thing that makes a major a major is the 3 1 3, the 3 1, 3 5.  You sing that with me,  1, 3, 5.

So with your paper and your pen, I'd love you to write whatever comes up for you as you listen to that major chord, because I'm going to change it in a second,  and then it'll leave something this way.  But for this one,  what colors come up?  What images.

How'd you go? Some stuff? I feel a little bit like this.  I feel earthy, makes me feel like.

Next I'm gonna play the minor sound. The E minor chord.

Makes a minor chord a minor chord is the flat 3. I've taken that 3.  One, two, three, four, three.  One,

three, five. Sing it.

What does minor sound like to you? Beautiful.

Major and minor, see how it feels. I mean so much of what's going on is how I'm playing it. And I know that that's a thing and I could do it different every week and you would feel different depending on how I played that minor or that major chord. But that's it for today.  That's where it's at. That's the feel for today.

Back to a songwriting exercise.  Uh, for this exercise, I took a freezer bag to my songwriting class. That had many freezer packs in it,  and a bag of potatoes. They were pink potatoes, I don't really know kinds of potatoes, I could probably go and check, they're upstairs in the fridge, they're back home now.  I offered for everyone to keep their tater, but anyway, they're home now.

Anyway, nice, pink,  soft potatoes. Not soft, soft pink.  They're cold potatoes, and it's been particularly hot and humid here lately, so handing everyone a cold potato felt really, really good.  And I asked everybody to hold their potato for a second.  A  little while ago my, um, my brother in law started this  An app, he started to build an app and it was about gardening and he told me that when he started to build it and he met with the app developers that he gave all of them a potato and he asked them all to take it home  and to plant it and to watch it grow and to love it and care for it and to see something grow and build and flourish and then produce the vegetables and I thought that was such a beautiful. 

I've always thought that was a beautiful thing.  Just pictured how that all went. I wonder if that changed any lives, handing those potatoes over.  And I was also thinking about how all the different cultures of the world have different kinds of ways they wrap up food,  like empanadas  and gyozas and And sausage rolls and all the things, all the ways that cultures wrap up food and so I was thinking about the humble potato  and all the ways that different cultures take a tater and, uh, and, uh, and sort their taters out.

And I was just thinking about how taters  would be different for everybody. You might have a different emotional attachment to your tater than someone else.  And so I would like you to imagine a tater. Or go and fetch yourself a nice cold tater.  And to hold it in your hand and just to look at it,  and think about it, and hum upon, think about your potater. 

Hum upon. That, that sounds like something I would say, but it sounds weird if you don't know me. But you know me now, so we're cool. We're cool. It's cool. We cool.  And, uh, I'd like you to just write for your tater. Maybe I'll play you some chords. You write for your tater.  I gave everybody about six or seven minutes to write for their tater.

So I'll just give you a second. You maybe press stop. 

By about here in my little workshop, I could see where time was rolling. And so I'm going to do one more songwriting exercise and finish on singing. Because finishing with singing makes you walk out of the room elated. and happier than finishing on writing and looking at paper. And that's just how I feel about it.

That's just how I feel about it. So for this next songwriting exercise, I asked everybody to write out the alphabet from A to Z  on their piece of paper.  And then I'd like you, I'd like to give you a theme that you're going to write to.  And in doing so, in writing about your theme, what I would like you to do is to start each word that you write with one letter from the alphabet, in any order,  and to use the whole alphabet  as the starting letters of each word. 

Ah, one person took this  and ran off with it in a totally different direction and that's totally okay. I'd love to know what you do if you  Do something different to what I think you're going to do by those instructions. I'd love to know how this ends up.  Send me what you do. I'm so excited. Send it.

Anyway.  So, there's the alphabet written in front of you. Yes, there is. And you're going to write words down about this theme. Maybe in sort of a poetic, poetic way. Kind of vibing form. Maybe you'll write sentences. I don't know how you'll write words and just see what phrases and words come out of you on the theme. 

And each first letter of the word is from the alphabet. And so once you've used that letter, you cross it off and don't use it again. Okay?  Okay.  So the theme is  In the garden.  In the garden.  Okay. Go. Good luck.  Take about five minutes. Deadlines are good. I promise. 

Okay, beautiful. How'd you go?  Okay, cool. For our last little exercise is a singing exercise. And it was my birthday on the weekend and we were chatting at my little birthday soiree about the biggest gigs and your first gigs and your, your big thing, your big gigs you've ever been to. And,  uh, I don't know what my biggest geek I've ever been to was, but I do know one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen at a gig was Wynton Marsalis playing Mood Indigo. 

And so I was thinking about that as I was walking in to do this workshop.  And so I'd love to know if you wrote any little words about potatoes or about in the garden using the alphabet.  And I'd love you to just go back and underline any little words that you wrote, or actually. It's going to play anything that we wrote.

So you introduce to yourself with your introduction words and then your potato words  and then your in the garden words and go back and underline the little words that came out. Cause now I'd like to play just the first little bits of mood indigo. I'm actually  pretty sure I'm allowed to play a song if I'm playing the song, but not if I'm playing the song. 

I think that that's how  that goes and I hope Duke Ellington, Duke Duke, oh my god, I hope Duke Ellington, oh lordy, might be in all kinds of trouble. You never know, somebody. Don't dub me in. Okay, so, the song goes, Do you  ain't been blue? No, no.  Let's do that again, ready? You  ain't been blue? No, no. 

The next line goes like this.  You  ain't been blue 

till you've heard that mood indigo. 

You  ain't been  blue till  you've heard that Mood  Indigo.  So, from the top. Ready? You ain't been blue, no You ain't been blue Till 

you heard that Moot and Indigo  I probably might be really stuffing all of this up  But you and I, we're friends, so you're gonna forgive me  If I've got some of the words or some of those notes wrong  Cause it's just music, we're gonna be alright  So what I'd like you to do is Look at your words that you've written  and sing them  to these chords. 

Cause they're pretty chunky chords. B flat major.  Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do Shining through, yeah 

yeah yeah yeah.  Yellow Zucchini It's  so hard to do.  Yeah! Carnivorous Heliconius Leaping  more Nourished. Your turn.  Doo, doo, doo, doo Doo, doo, doo, doo 

Anyway,  that's how this goes. Singing and songwriting together at last.  Thanks for coming along. I mean, 

what do you think? Only if you liked it, though. 

This has been a Twigbird Productions podcast.  You have been awesome.  See you soon