Connecting Songwriters Throughout Northeast Ohio

News & Updates

Volume 2 Issue 8

August 2018

The Reprise:

An Invitation To Be More Involved

Don Henson, Founder

In past years, only members that were up to date with their annual dues were invited to perform in our many public appearances. Every Mother’s Day it was our Annual Showcase, Labor Day weekend was The Taste of Hudson, New Year’s Eve saw us performing at Akron First Night (sadly cancelled) and Harvest for Hunger Benefit Concerts. These performance opportunities and activities were "who we were.”

We always had members at numerous Open Mics and many would attend any fellow members’ gig if they weren’t playing out themselves. We would meet once a month for our general meeting but we saw each other at least half a dozen times during the month at numerous functions. We were a community!

I invite everyone to step up and really get to know your fellow members and spend musical time with one another every chance you can. Attend our board meetings, they are open to any paid member. Share your thoughts and ideas. We’re in this together so let’s make Songwriter Summit the presence within the local music community that we know it should be.

The Unknown Songwriter

Bob Sammon

A few issues back we ran an article that talked about a show we’d found on Amazon that featured Verlon Thompson and some of the best songwriters in Nashville. The thirteen episode series talked songwriting and the business of songwriting and aimed a bright spotlight at the women and men who write the lyrics and licks that others have made famous. It’s a great bit of television and if you have any interest at all in creating great songs you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Now comes a trailer for what appears to be an even more ambitious project to keep your eye on. “It All Begins With A Song” is a new documentary featuring many of the writers who have created the music we

know as part of the fabric of our lives. The list of folks involved in the project is impressive and includes names you’ll recognize and some you won’t. This looks like one that might provide some inspiration for those of us who wrestle with the muse getting the lyric just right and the melody to charm the ears of those who listen.

Join Us For Our Next General Meeting

August 6 At 7PM

Member Profile: Priscilla Roggenkamp

As an associate professor of Art at Ashland University, Priscilla Roggenkamp works in two and three dimensions across various disciplines from painting to fiber and sculpture. As a member of Rock Salt and Nails she plays bass, sings harmony and creates lyrics that blend with the original music and cover songs the band presents on stages throughout the area. Recently, The Bridge sat down with this fascinating woman to talk about her craft and her involvement with Songwriter Summit.

The Bridge: What keeps you coming back to Songwriter Summit on a regular basis?

Priscilla: Songs are crafted just like any other art form. You put in the work to create something. You edit, you worry, you love it, you hate it. You wonder; is this as good as I think it is? Does this suck as much as I think it does? Your creation means something to you. It’s a very personal experience; it’s your baby. And yet songs need to be shared, to live outside of you. Where to begin? Songwriter Summit is a place to try things out, to put your song out there in an encouraging but truthful environment. It’s an opportunity to share with folks who listen, give suggestions, hear something you missed and help you with the crafting of your work. It’s a musical incubator giving support to fledgling songs. That support keeps me coming back.

And of course you get to be that support and critical ear for others. I believe that I have gained as much from hearing others’ songs as I have from sharing mine. How does someone else structure a song? What kinds of tales do they tell? What do I like or not like about it and why? I learn and grow from every part of the process of Songwriter Summit meetings. The fact that everyone can participate is an aspect of the group that keeps me coming back. Plus, in my experience, creative folks are good folks to hang out with and I have enjoyed meeting and sharing with fellow songwriters.

The Bridge: What drives your writing?

Priscilla: I have always written to understand what I am thinking. I write notes and travel journals and lists to help me make decisions. As a visual artist I often write as much as I draw in my sketchbooks. This writing is for me alone, but song writing…that’s public and a really different way of extending myself into the world. My ideas come from various places; the politics of the day, past lives and loves, present concerns, stories I want to share, things I’d tell my children, and other passing thoughts that arise. They are a message, a prayer, a complaint, or a wish made manifest. They might begin as a bit a melody or a line of lyric, or sometimes just a rhythm I want to play with.

I know that my song writing also comes in part from my family life growing up. My father is a minister. I spent years listening to well-crafted sermons where I could sense carefully chosen wordings and hear messages in the metaphors. I could see how important just the right word was and how

beautiful it could be. I also grew up in a musical family. Everyone played an instrument or three, and sang. I wasn’t taught music as much as I absorbed it from my surroundings. It has always been a part of me. So though I am fairly new to writing songs, the songs arrive as if they were just biding their time, waiting for me to pay attention.

The Bridge: How would you describe the music you create?

Priscilla: For me songwriting is story telling. I try to get from here to there, saying something along the way. I value simplicity and clarity in my work. I have become more interested in rhythm and beat as I continue to write. I have a rather narrow vocal range so that shapes the melodies I create. Though I’m not a category person, my songs might best fit into the contemporary folk genre.

The Bridge: What advice would you share with other songwriters?

Priscilla: I would advise other songwriters to find a healthy balance between listening to others (their music, their advice, their thoughts on "the proper" way to create a good song) and listening to what’s inside of you. Don’t use formulas, don’t follow what others do, don’t worry about being unique. You are unique. Be honest about what you have to say and what you want to hear and you will find a voice that is truly your own. Find your strengths. Mine is probably word-smithing over creating great melodies. Try not to be intimidated by your limitations. Creating, whether it’s an extraordinary creation or just a sweet personal one, is extremely important. When you write a song, you are participating in an act that spans all ages and all peoples. When you sing your song, you have joined the chorus of humankind at its best.

The Bridge: What are your thoughts about working with a co-writer?

Priscilla: I have written several songs with my good friend, Jim Dutter. Believe me, I couldn’t do that with just anyone. I trust Jim and he trusts me. He has strengths I don’t have and I think he would say the same of me. He is always supportive but he’s also honest with me.

I would say we are very serious about what we do, but we don’t take our selves seriously. We have created some wonderful songs…and some that just don’t work no matter how hard we hammer at them. Sometimes we work on something, then put it away and wait for it to call to us again. And sometimes a song gets the better of us (Plow the Fields, Jim). When we co-write, we also want to know what the other wants from their contribution. If Jim comes up with a melody, before I add lyrics, I always want to know what he envisions for it, something sad, or soft or sweet or whatever. He often has an idea and I help flesh it out. The same is true for me when I bring Jim something to add his magic to.

That said we mostly create separately from each other and then share. The process of working is a singular one for each of us. We rarely sit in the same room and work a song together when we’re writing. It’s a process that seems to work for us.

The Bridge: What is the difference between the best song you've ever written and the worst?

Priscilla: The best songs come easily as if they were there all along and I’m just uncovering them. The worst songs I can beat the heck out of them and they still laugh at me. But sometimes, if I’m fortunate and crafty enough (and attend Songwriter Summit) even those surrender to my nagging hard work.

The All Important Second Verse

Bob Sammon

One of my all time favorite images from Verlon Thompson lives in his song “I Will Come Back Again.”

Once I was a singer

And music was my church

And I put myself through Hell

Trying to write the second verse

It always reminds me of that moment when the first part of a new song is on paper, the chorus is almost done and I’m faced with the most momentous moment in songwriting or what I like to call the “now what?” moment.

How many half written songs do you have in your notebook or scattered across folders on your computer? How many scraps of paper are stuffed into your instrument case waiting for the next moment of inspiration? Has the notebook on your cell phone filled up with lyrics that still need to be woven into a compelling tale or a lament for love or loved one lost?

I know I’m not alone and that as songwriters we all struggle with the “now what?” moment. What to do?

Just recently I had an article show up in my inbox that addresses that very issue and I thought it would be a good idea to share it. It offers some suggestions on what to do to move the process along. I don’t know that I agree with every one of them but that’s not the point. The idea here is to put more tools in your kit so that you have the ability to meet the challenge of what to do when, like Verlon, you “put [yourself] through Hell trying to write the second verse."

Gaining Experience

Terry Richardson - From Across The Pond

We all know of the various local music venues, listening rooms, cafes and musical haunts that exist in our area where we get to play mostly our own taste in music. Some restrict you to play only three songs, some only originals, some it’s a free for all and for many of us it’s a good opportunity to gain confidence by performing in front of a live audience. But staying in our local musical community doesn’t give us the very broadest potential for personal development. Exposing our creative skills to a much wider market could indeed open up a complete new horizon for our hobby. I don’t know about you, but when I’m playing in a room where there is a really good player and I’m just average my fingers stop working! It’s probably because I feel inferior. But I want to get better.

How many have considered moving up the capability scale by attending a summer camp just for musicians? There are quite a number around the country and probably the closest and arguably most famous one is Fur Peace Ranch in Pomeroy, OH.

What do they do? Well, they hold classes and tuition programmes for all skill levels so you have the chance not to feel inferior. In fact, if you choose the right level you could be a performer that others in your group look up to. Of course you do need to push yourself. Let’s face it, if you play guitar or any musical instrument and can sing - no matter at what level - there will be someone out there who admires what you are doing because they can’t do it. So don’t be shy. Consider it. It’s a big confidence builder.

A summer camp around lots of other musicians can be a fun, exciting and an evolutionary experience. You get to meet many famous performers who you can work with to perhaps develop your lyric writing capabilities. Or you might work with someone who can

show you tricks on the guitar neck and can help you improve your finger-picking or improvisation. What about those classes that help you develop your harmony skills? There are so many types of classes that there is bound to be something to fit your musical focus.

You don’t need to do it all at once. You can sign-up for one camp a year or every two years. But the guarantee is that you are likely to come back with at least one extra honed skill to add to your evolving repertoire. Isn’t that exciting?

Just imagine, coming back from a music camp like this and you’ve honed, even just one of your musical skills. How much of a boost would that give to your confidence? And we all know, the more confident we are, the better our performance.

So, if you are serious about becoming a better performer why not consider getting professional support and critique at one of these camps? Because in the future you might just be that professional who is called-upon to teach all the nervous newcomers who might just be where you are today. Wouldn’t that be an amazing boost to your confidence? If you can dream it, you can make it happen. Stay tuned!

Be A Better Songwriter In Under Two Minutes

It’s All In The Arrangement

Or: Have You Considered ALL Your Options?

Grace Notes

Our Next Meeting...

We meet next on August 6th at OUR NEW LOCATION, 2 Girls Cafe and Bakery, 3707 Darrow Road in Stow at 7:00 PM. If you are presenting a song please bring 20 copies for distribution to the other attendees. Copies will be returned to you at the end of the meeting. You do not need to be a member to attend a meeting or bring us a song.

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Officers And Board Members

(Left to Right)

Don Henson

- President

Ken Moody-Arndt

- Vice President

Dave Waldeck

- Recording Secretary

David Palomo

- Board Member At-Large

Bob Sammon

- Board Member At-Large

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