STUDY SONGWRITING (AND MORE) WITH JONO MANSON
Jono Manson’s songs have been recorded by Grammy Award-winning artists. His music has been featured in major motion pictures, as well as on network television. Manson wrote his first song at the age of six and formed his first all-original band at the age of seven. For over thirty years he has been recording and performing his growing catalog of original music and has collaborated, both as a co-writer and producer, with a wide range of artists on three continents.

Subjects Offered:

Songwriting - Explore the various aspects of song construction including the craft of lyric-writing. Learn how harmony and melody can help you to articulate the essential meaning of a song, and the best ways to adapt chords and progressions to suit your songwriting style and ideas. Learn about what works and why. There is no one “right way” to write a song but, as in any other craft, there are skills to be developed and tools to be sharpened which apply whether writing in “conventional” song-forms or engaging in “outside the box” experimentation. Also, learning to be a good co-writer means cultivating yet another skill unto itself, and a potentially very valuable one at that.

Performance/Presentation - Not all writers care to perform their songs, but for the “singer/songwriter” putting the song over in performance can be more than half the battle. Explore techniques for singing and playing in front of an audience. Moreover, being able to effectively transmit the message (and more importantly, the emotion) of your song and move your listeners means tapping into, and unleashing, something (some call it your “voice”, others “soul”, I personally don’t have a name for it) that lives within each of us. It may take time and practice to access this “thing”, but I believe that everyone can do it.

Arranging - Learn how to arrange your songs to be played by ensembles of varying sizes and how to wrangle your accompanying musicians into playing something close what you’re hearing in your head.

Recording Demos - Learn techniques for making good recordings of your songs and how to potentially modify these methods to appeal specifically to recording artists, music supervisors, film directors, and producers.

The “business” of Songwriting - Navigating the business of being a songwriter can be tricky and, at times, confusing. For the professional, it’s important to understand how to establish a writer/publisher entity, how to properly register your intellectual property, how to go about pitching songs to recording artists and music supervisors, how to balance the business side of co-writing, the ins and outs of filing taxes as a professional musician, and much more.

Group workshops:
Jono will be leading an intensive weekend class in the fall of 2012.
This comprehensive  workshop will be held at GiG Santa Fe and all songwriters, regardless of level of “accomplishment”, are encouraged to participate.

Private instruction is also available. 
Contact Jono for details. 

 Recording: A special discounted package rate will be available for students who want to make demos of their songs with Jono at The Kitchen Sink. Rates determined on a “per project” basis.

Individually tailored, all-inclusive Stay/Study/Record packages are offered for students who want to travel to Santa Fe and do intensive work while enjoying all that the great American southwest has to offer. Contact Jono to discuss the details of your trip.