Workshops
ATLANTIC CROSSING
Darden Smith and Boo Hewerdine
January 30, 2021
9:00am – 4:00pm CST (US)
3:00pm – 10:00pm GMT (UK)
ATLANTIC CROSSING
Darden Smith and Boo Hewerdine have been friends and writing partners for over thirty years. Between them they have run countless songwriting workshops on both sides of the Atlantic. On January 30, 2021 they will collaborate on a special one day online workshop. Darden in Austin, TX., Boo in Glasgow. Joining them will be writers Mary Gauthier and Squeeze legend Chris Difford. Boo will start the day in Scotland and Darden will take us home across the Atlantic. They will share some of the songwriting experiences that have had the most profound effect on them.
For more info.
Questions? dardensmithmusic@gmail.com
9:00am – 4:00pm CST (US)
3:00pm – 10:00pm GMT (UK)
£100 / $125
US $125
Collaborative Songwriting for the corporate soul.
Creativity, Collaboration and Empathy are at the heart of vibrant, thriving corporate cultures. Everyone wants more of it but it’s often hard to create the conditions for it to flourish. So, how do you get employees to be creative and work together to create something amazing?
When Darden Smith works with companies, he brings individuals and groups together to tell their story through song. The songs are based on the participants’ words, their viewpoints and experiences. The process is exciting, challenging and revealing. It changes the way the participants view themselves, their work and the world around them.
inquire about creativity workshops for your organization
The song is recorded on the spot, and distributed to all participants. It stands as a living testimony to the power of the participant’s creativity and the beauty that can arise from working together to achieve a common goal.
Participants learn:
• Ways to bring an increased sense of empathy into the workplace
• To trust in their own creativity
• To value the creativity in their colleagues
• To recognize the power of collaboration
Past clients include:
GE HealthCare
Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide
Fairchild Semi-Conductors
Whole Foods
The Rocky Mountain Institute
Texas Electric Cooperatives
The University of Texas
Vidyo
Are you curious? Contact Darden and see what his unique approach to combining storyelling and songwriting can do for you and your company.
Since 2001, Darden has been leading creativity workshops with middle school, high school and college students, demonstrating how to successfully transform the students’ natural interests into a life of passion, purpose, and creativity. Starting with the idea that we are all born artists, the workshop demonstrates how to build a creative life around what we love to do.
Schools from California to Massachusetts and across the United Kingdom, France and Germany have welcomed this dynamic and original program, giving their students a window into the power of combining creative thinking with action.
inquire about darden’s creativity workshops for schools
Workshops and lecture subjects include:
• Connecting passion and work
• The power of story to shape your life
• Change
• Collaboration
• Perseverance and recovery from mistakes
• Making a living in the arts
• Creativity in the everyday
To show students how easily the artistic process can unfold, Darden leads the group in an innovative, fast-paced exercise — writing an original song based on something they love. Every student is encouraged to contribute, whether it is a word, a few lines or the title for the song. Darden guides the process, keeping the song on course, as the students themselves become the songwriters. Schools receive digital copies of the songs they‘ve created, which can in turn be distributed to the students.
Guidelines
• Sessions are designed for students in middle school through college, and customized for different grade levels, depending on the needs of the school.
• Sessions can be in classroom or assembly-style formats.
• Sessions last 50 -60 minutes. Up to three sessions can be scheduled per day.
• Teachers, parents and administrators are encouraged to observe the sessions. One teacher is required to be in the room at all times.
Learn how to bring creativity to life in your school.
“Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought”
— Yip Harburg (writer of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”)
Everyone has a story. With a roadmap, a few tips and tricks, and practice, you can write songs that communicate, that tell the truth, both to yourself and to others. And I want to help you make that happen.
inquire about darden’s songwriting workshops
All levels of writers are welcome. We will look at how you can improve one of your existing songs and each participant will write a new song by the end of the day.
Workshops typically cover:
• The basics – Verse / Chorus / Bridge / Melody / Structure
• Clarity in lyric
• The importance of meter and rhyme scheme
• Starting a song / Finishing the song
• Writing from your life – the importance of telling your story
• Creating writing projects for yourself
• Habits of a successful writing life
• Recognizing and building on your strengths as a writer