From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V3 #90 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Sunday, April 11 1999 Volume 03 : Number 090 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- susan at berklee today [Paul Kim ] wachusett folk cafe ["Gail Vaillette" ] Falcon Ridge [Sherlyn Koo ] Re: Falcon Ridge [KatieWow ] Re: susan at berklee today [Charisse Lowe ] Re: Falcon Ridge/berklee workshop [Paul Kim ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 03:51:24 -0400 From: Paul Kim Subject: susan at berklee today damn. susan's workshop today was more fun than a barrelfull of drunk monkeys. It was great to hear her talk about how her career came about and how she approaches writing songs, performing, and looking at life. I think that she'd be a great teacher here at berklee...and i think she could do quite well on the lecture circuit too :) She said that she had a great time doing the workshop...she didn't have to do too much preparation and she had done some assistant teaching before at Temple while she was working on her degree there. susan revealed a lot of stuff that i'd never known, including stuff about the influences on her songwriting and performing. there was a good sized crowd that seemed very interested in what she had to say and it seemed like a lot of the people enjoyed her music. That made me so happy and relieved (i was of course fearing the worst - that no one would show up) and one of the staff who was in charge of videotaping the workshop (for the school's educational purposes) commented that the crowd response for susan was one of the best he'd ever seen. congrats should go out to kellie lin knott, the student here who basically made this thing happen. i think i should go to bed now Paul "the most important part is when you think it up" Kim HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 16:11:42 -0400 From: "Gail Vaillette" Subject: wachusett folk cafe Susan put on a great show last night in Gardner, Ma. We were fortunate to see a solid 2 plus hours of Susan with no opening act. This was Susan's first time at this venue and the audience seemed very impressed. She was in rare form, conversing with the crowd about the Wachusett area, "chair city" of Gardner, Johnny Appleseed, etc. She performed 2 sets, ending the night with her rendition of the Beatles song "Help." Great song! Any other believers at the show? Wish we had our pins ... :>) HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 11:28:58 +1000 From: Sherlyn Koo Subject: Falcon Ridge Hey everyone, I was wondering, is anybody on this list planning to be at Susan's show on July 22 in Readington NJ and also at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival? I'm trying to figure out economical ways to get between the two... I'm also tossing up the idea of going to the Winnipeg Folk Festival - hmm... - -sherlyn =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-= a+e=ig Sherlyn Koo - sherlyn@fl.net.au [Sydney, Australia] "Have you seen? The world outside is turning - and it's yours - We were put here for the learning..." - Ellis Paul HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 21:39:55 -0400 From: KatieWow Subject: Re: Falcon Ridge nope. it'll be falcon ridge for me all weekend. i'll be getting up there on thursday night for early-bird camping and hopefully a moxy früvous show in the area that night. ~~kate HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 20:39:38 -0500 From: Charisse Lowe Subject: Re: susan at berklee today It was great to hear her talk about how her career came about and >how she approaches writing songs So, can you share what she had to say now that you've had some sleep? I'd really like to know what her approach is. > >susan revealed a lot of stuff that i'd never known, including stuff about >the influences on her songwriting and performing. Come on Paul, tell us!!! Charisse "People in Hell all want ice water" Lightnin' Hopkins HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 23:28:20 -0400 From: Paul Kim Subject: Re: Falcon Ridge/berklee workshop At 09:39 PM 4/10/99 -0400, KatieWow wrote: >nope. it'll be falcon ridge for me all weekend. hmmm...just curious, kate, you go to loyola in Towson, Md? I know/knew some people who go there. Sherlyn's coming to the US! and on to what everyone has been asking me for...some details from susan's workshop here at Berklee. "it's all about the moment when you thought it up" -richard feynman Susan talked about her life and how she got into music...she started on the guitar around 5 years old and knew she wanted to be involved with music at that point...around 11 her parents brought a piano into the house and she learned how to play (she's freakin' self taught). She was in jazz band in HS; went off to college, transferred to University of Iowa where they had a jazz program, went to Temple University and got her masters degree in classical voice. She didn't take her songwriting too seriously at this point though because she was stuck in what she called a "conservatory mindset" which basically means aspiring to perform or create the "great" music without finding out what fits your personality and your "style". When she graduated from temple, she realized that she wouldn't be an opera singer, and she started writing songs again and played in jazz bars and found this worked for her. She began doing the northeastern circuit, doing clubs and coffeehouses...she talked about being signed to record labels and various bits and pieces of the music industry. for her, it's all about figuring it out over and over again...after writing a song or completing an album or touring, you have to go back to what got you there - the songs. she has some time off in the next couple months and that's when she'll start thinking about the next thing, the next songs and album. She'll just sit around or walk around her house and, as she put it, be stupid she gave examples of four different styles of songwriting that she constantly visits...deterioration (much at all) where the song begins in one character and slowly deteriorates into a different mindset; psychological (ain't i lonely tonight) which deals with the mindgames or states of mind that people go through, a sort of internal common link betweent the audience and the songwriter; fixed externals (year of the bad president) which serve as an indisputable linkage with the audience that they can relate to, and also a way to get away from too much introspection that could distance the songwriter from them; and just plain innovation (bring round the boat) where the songwriter challenges him/herself by exploring different methods and styles (singing differently, speaking, modulations of melody and harmony), attempting to be a little more complex, setting different goals for a song. it's also important to keep the listeners interest throughout the whole song. She constantly changes songs because she'll feel that it doesn't pique the audience's interest (which she can tell when they fidget during concerts or do various unconscious physical cues that indicate that she has lost them) or she thinks of a better way of presenting the song. She constantly has notebooks where she writes down ideas, phrases, chord changes that can serve as coathangers for songs...some of them might work, some might not. Usually, when she writes a song, most of the song comes to her during one session where it just comes out of her. It's a moment where she goes into a "trance" and the ideas flow; she'll wait and be "stupid" and do nothing for as long as it takes until the inspiration hits her. writing is what you do between songs. if you try to force writing songs your results will be less good. she'll study a particular style of music to learn to write in that style, to get the feel of the music, which is the way she is influenced. right now she's into brazilian music and that's all she listens to pretty much. She's not a very passive listener of music...she pays a lot of attention to what she listens to and is critical. she doesn't write lead sheets mainly because she can remember pretty easily what she has played or sung, so there's no need for it to be written and read. susan thinks that she is a better communicator than she is a songwriter. and that's about it, distilled of course. if you weren't there and you didn't catch it all, well that's your own fault ;) i hope this all made sense. Paul HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V3 #90 ****************************** --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- This has been a posting from the Susan Werner believers-digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the message