Some songs take years to finish, some songs fall out in 20 minutes, some come to you in a dream. There's no wrong way to get a song, but it's nice to have tools to jumpstart inspiration rather than waiting around for it to strike. This workshop will guide you through some writing exercises to come up with at least a great first draft of a song lyric in about an hour! Plus we'll have time to share, give and receive feedback and learn from how others experienced the process. You're welcome to bring instruments to set your lyric to music if you're so inclined! Good for beginners as well as experienced songwriters who have a bit of writer's block!

Taught by Heather Miller. For women 21+

Perfect rhyme, family rhyme, slant rhyme, additive and subtractive rhyme - there’s all sorts of rhymes we can use in songs that can provide a lot more freedom to say what we mean, rather than feeling trapped in perfect rhyme, or twisting a sentence into an archaic form to force a rhyme.

In the first part of this workshop, we’ll focus on different rhyme schemes and how they can strengthen our songs, including an exercise to help you generate raw material for a new song by looking for rhyme pairs first!

The second part of the workshop will be open to song sharing and feedback. Bring copies of your lyrics and your instrument if you’d like to share. Whether you share a song or not, by listening and responding in the group, you’ll learn a lot about songwriting that you can take back to your own songs!

Taught by Heather Miller

Join Shelley King--Official State Musician of Texas and the first woman to receive this honor--for a dynamic, hands-on songwriting workshop. With experience leading songwriting workshops at festivals from coast to coast and through Girl Guitar, Shelley offers a practical, welcoming approach to creativity and collaboration.

Open to all levels, this interactive workshop focuses on sparking ideas, moving past creative blocks and writing together in real time--so you can expect to leave with a song you helped create.