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Spook, your workshop was fantastic!
- You are a wonderful teacher - you really know how to connect with people, meet them at their level and give them something they can use.
…
Patty Reese
, Education Coordinator, Songwriters Association of Washington
Spook Handy’s 2010/2011 Workshops
Let’s Make Some Waves
with Songwriting and Effective Stage Performance
Spook offers hands-on workshops in three major areas –
Songwriting, Performance and Guitar.
The workshops are easily adapted to accommodate the various levels of experience and expertise of participants and most any special needs they may have. Whether the aspiring artist is novice or seasoned, Spook strongly feels that it is important to make artistic instruction available to all regardless of level of accomplishment. It is the
exploration of the artistic process
in which the real value of art is discovered by the artist.
Each Workshop Includes:
* Actual hands-on activities make up a majority or each workshop - songwriters will actually write songs, performers will perform and be constructively critiqued and those who use guitar in their songwriting or performance will receive tips tailored to their own talents on how to get more out of their instruments.
Workshops will also include:
* Brief introductions by attendees (so that the instructor can gain an understanding of the goals of the
students)
* Creative exercises
* Informative Instruction
Each discipline can be taught in a single workshop or a series.
“Teens Only” workshops are available in order to help create safe spaces and help build a sense of teen community.
*****
Let’s Make Some Waves with Songwriting 1: Creating the Story Behind the Song!
Creating the story behind the song is a powerful start to writing a great song. A lot of the work in creating a good song happens before any lyrics or melodies are written. This workshop is full of techniques and exercises to help you find good ideas to write about, develop them into interesting and unique stories and finally turn them into a song. The emphasis of this workshop is on the story behind the song. Songwriting 2 focuses on turning stories into songs.
Bring lots of paper, pencils and pens. Feel free to bring in your own song ideas or come up with new ones in the workshop.
This workshop is available as a TEENS ONLY Workshop or for the General Public.
Let’s Make Some Waves with Songwriting 2: Creating Lyrics and Songs from Stories and Ideas!
So, you have a great story or idea you want to turn into a song (or poem, story or speech). You even have a clear idea of what you want the song to say. If you could only find the right words with which to say it! This workshop will give you a wide variety of tools for finding the right words and will show you how to use them. You will learn about lyric pallets, the use of visual images and the effective use of rhyme, meter, phrasing, cliché, parallelism and contrast.
Bring lots of paper, pencils and pens. Feel free to bring in your own song ideas or come up with new ones in the workshop.
This workshop is available as a TEENS ONLY Workshop or for the General Public.
Effective Stage Presence 1: Get Out of the Way!!
– How to Best Express Your Performance Skills
Spook's workshop was a huge success.
Everybody was enchanted by his music, critiques, honesty and friendly rapport with the young folks. I would highly recommend Spook for any group, event, or just for your own enjoyment – don’t miss the chance to enjoy his show!
… Fran Housten, Reference/Teen Librarian, Cranford Public Library
Whether you’re an actor, actress, musician, poet, comic or public speaker when you are on stage you need to make every aspect of your beingness available for use as a vehicle through which your art can be expressed.
This workshop teaches techniques and exercises that help the artist step out of the way and let the art come through.
Bring a monologue, scene from a play, song, poem, comedy sketch or speech and be prepared to present it to the rest of the participants.
A handful of participants will be selected to perform and will be critiqued in a gentle and constructive way by the instructor.
A sound system will be provided for musicians, poets, comics and public speakers and techniques for effective use of the microphones will be addressed.
Time permitting this workshop may also briefly address what to do before the gig, when you arrive, before taking the stage and when taking the stage.
Available as a TEENS ONLY Workshop or for the General Public.
Effective Stage Presence 2: Connecting with the Audience
Whatever type of stage performance you do the audience is watching your every move and looking to connect with you from the time you enter the building to the time you leave.
This workshop teaches techniques and exercises that help the artist connect with his/her audience both on and off the stage.
Bring a monologue, scene from a play, song, poem, comedy sketch or speech and be prepared to present it to the rest of the participants.
A handful for participants will be selected to perform and will be critiqued in a gentle and constructive way by the instructor.
A sound system will be provided for musicians, poets, comics and public speakers and techniques for effective use of the microphones will be addressed.
Time permitting this workshop may also briefly address introductions, banter, aesthetic transmission, encores, exiting the stage, and meeting and greeting the audience.
Available as a TEENS ONLY Workshop or for the General Public.
Guitar 1: Simple Measures for Drastic Guitar Playing Improvement
It's easy to drastically improve your guitar playing by learning a few simple techniques.
Having MCed over 1200 open mics over a 20 year period - and hearing over 3000 performers of all ability levels - I have been astonished by how many guitar players do little more than strum their instruments and don’t take advantage of simple tools that will make them stand out as accomplished players.
Fortunately, I picked up a few guitar concepts early on from some hot bluegrass players.
The fact that I don't play bluegrass makes these techniques all the more better, because I apply them to genres where they are often overlooked.
Now, I want to share these techniques, so I put together this workshop for the beginner and intermediate level performer.
According to individual ability workshop participants will:
* Learn about bass lines, riff lines and chord embellishments
* Explore how to add these to songs they already play
* Learn and practice hammer-ons, pull offs, slides and bends
* Explore chord inversions and alternative chord structures on songs they already play
* Learn and practice simple and intermediate finger style techniques.
* Explore dynamics and contrast
* Learn why knowing a variety of tuning techniques can make your guitar stay better tuned.
This hands-on workshop is designed for the beginner and intermediate level guitar player.
Bring your guitar, paper and pencil and the desire to drastically improve your guitar playing.
About the instructor:
Spook Handy has written hundreds of songs and performed over 2000 concerts in his 20+ year career.
His songs have been covered by dozens of other artists including Pete Seeger.
He has won numerous awards and accolades including “Best Folk Artist” by Upstage Magazine, Gannett New Jersey, The Courier News, The Home News and About.com.
Spook has recorded four CDs with his most recent, "Whatcha Gonna Do?" topping out at #12 on the Folk Radio Charts.
His song “Vote” was a top 10 hit on Folk Radio in October 2008.
Spook has also written music for theater and film.
Since 1985, Spook has organized and/or MCed over 1200 musical events including New Jersey's longest ever running open mic, "The Spook Handy Show" which ran from 1985 to 2005.
He has MCed “Freehold Idol” in Freehold, NJ and “Idol Search” in Little Falls, NJ.
In that time, he's seen over 3000 musicians perform, has heard probably 10,000 songs and has developed quite an eye for effective stage presence and good songwriting.
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