A weekly online course with Paul Durham

5 hours over 5 weeks for beginners and experts alike. Live via Zoom, evenings starting mid-February.

Together we'll work on dissolving creative blocks and move through an intuitive process of writing 1-2 songs. This process emphasizes authenticity, spontaneity, and unlocking artistic flow through iteration and improvisation. You'll learn powerful techniques for getting unstuck and staying unstuck, for granting yourself permission to take risks and deepen your work.

If you're an experienced songwriter, it's always useful to revisit the basics — specificity, repetition, and types of rhyme. If you've never written a song but want to learn how to structure your musical ideas, the basics provide an excellent scaffolding.

We will talk about how to get started, how to build on what you've got, how to work with transitions, hooks, and bridges to create an arrangement, and how to take your first draft to the next level. We'll talk about the importance of objects, of names, of questions, of commands, and other secrets to catching and holding a listener's attention.

Each class will include instruction, examples, and stories from a life spent writing songs — as well as Q&A where you'll have a chance to get detailed answers to difficult questions. There will be assignments to help you integrate the instruction and start drafting songs, one step at a time.

The course includes a private Facebook group where you'll be able to ask me questions, share your work (if you want), and connect with other songwriters for support and collaboration. I have found the group to be a powerful way to build creative momentum and provide accountability for what we want to achieve.

Classes will be recorded so that if you can't make a day you'll be able to catch up at your convenience, and you'll have access to the recordings in perpetuity.

Registration includes one songwriting critique in the future. We'll talk about recording approaches, and once you get a song recorded I'll listen to it and make a personalized video saying what I like about the song and what I would suggest to make it better.

A great gift for yourself and your creative life — or for that musical someone you love.

Cost is $185. Minimum 10, maximum 25 participants.