Show McLean leads songwriting Scot Contributing venter Michael McLean told the aspiring songwriters he wrote his first song on a paper napkin while staring at Sunday dinner when he was 11 years old It was very very gloomy for the carrots and peas that day he sang while accompanying himself on ona a grand piano The potato dam had broken and the gravy came rushing their way Since then if he needed to work out something in his life he turned to songwriting Last week South City Campus Choral room was full of people who also had something to say and hoped he would be able to help them say it Part of the Grand Theatres Theatre's Community Outreach Project singer songwriter and composer Michael McLean led a free songwriting workshop last Fri Friday lay They came in all shapes and sizes all ages and nationalities some in suits and some in Superman t-shirts t some looked like housewives and some looked like construction workers but they all came cameto cameto to learn leam how to become better at their craft We wanted to have it so that the students would have the opportunity to explore somebody that has written music most of his life and has succeeded Grand Theater Executive Artistic Director Richard Scott said McLean has written songs for 25 years and has over 25 albums to his credit His Forgotten Carols tour sells out every year throughout Utah and the rest of the Western United States In the first part of the workshop McLean told the audience how he got into songwriting talked about his success and setbacks played some of his songs on the piano and told stories about them For the second part of the seminar just about everyone in the room had a CD or sheet music of their own composition for him to hear With 40 minutes left McLean listened to and critiqued three of the attendees' attendees songs without discussing their content Instead he helped them figure out how to communicate their message better McLean said he and his partner Kevin Kelly went through a similar workshop in New York with Stephen Schwartz an winning award-winning composer and lyricist Songs from McLean and Kellys Kelly's off- off Broadway musical The Ark now playing at atthe atthe atthe the Grand Theatre were critiqued by Schwartz and other legendary Broadway composers The fabulous thing about our experience was no one ever said a word about what we wanted t tsay to say McLean said They weren't critical that we wanted to deal with issues of faith family challenge or miracles They told us If that's what youre you're passionate about we want to help you do that But we will be brutal about issues of craft He told them to never hold back what they want to say because the he more personal a song is to the composer the better people can c'an can relate to it He also suggested they think about songwriting from the angle of the person hearing the song In addition he told them when writing songs to always try to say things differently than other people McLean wasn't able to critique many songs during the seminar so he gave out his personal em email ail address and encouraged everyone to send him s 's of their work He was very passionate and encouraging to the songwriters He told them he wanted to fan the flame that drives them to write I hope they go away saying you know if a aguy aguy aguy guy with as limited talent as Mike McLean can do this he said laughing I mean if you work at it and your passionate about it go and keep going |