Online Workshops
ONLINE WORKSHOPS
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PAST WORKSHOPS
ANYONE CAN DEMO
Hosted by Leah Taub, Kayla Blackburn & Jeffery Butcher
Dates: 2 sessions on Zoom, Thursday Jan 11, 2024 & Thursday Jan 18, 2024, with Thursday Jan 25, 2024 held for a possible 3rd session. All sessions will be at 7:30-9pm ET.
Structure: Three broad phases & a bonus phase!
Why – There are infinite approaches to writing & recording songs, and technology can be both a recording tool and a writing tool – let's overcome our fears and add more tools to our belt!
How – Overviewing the tools available to us and how to use them, including demonstrations of different approaches to songwriting & recording.
What's next – How to make demos that can translate to finished songs, including translatability between different DAWs & bringing in other creatives.
Bonus – Finding out what people want to learn and building an additional session based around that.
Prerequisites: The only prerequisite we strongly recommend is a laptop with Garageband as we will be using that across the workshop, but we think people can learn even without that (and we expect we'll be learning from everyone else as well). We'll give some suggestions on different levels of setups, from just your phone's voice memos to a more developed home studio.
Format: We're hoping to gather information ahead of time about what people are interested in learning and what they want to get out of it so we can craft exact content around that. The sessions themselves will be a combination of demonstrations, discussion, and Q&A.
Cost: $80 (suggested) / $120 (supporter) — If cost is a barrier, email us here for a discount code.
DEADLINE TO REGISTER: January 10th
POETRY MAKES ME SING!
Hosted by Nick Maione, Rachel Garcia and Tyrone Cotton
Do you love poetry? Have you always wanted to bring poems into your music? Or do you know nothing about poetry but want to know more?
In this masterclass-style workshop, you’ll hear from three different poets and songwriters who will share selections from their work and talk a bit about their process. We’ll experience and discuss various examples of how poetry and music can work together, and we’ll end with a few short participatory prompts toward writing poetry and incorporating poetry into your own songs. No songwriting or poetry writing experience necessary!
ABOUT THE HOSTs
Nick Maione is a poet & artist from Upstate NY. His writing was selected as a finalist for the National Poetry Series in 2021. In his readings/performances he often works with other artists and musicians, including Miles of Music favorites such as Jefferson Hamer, Courtney Hartman, and The Bombadils. His original texts have been set to music and performed by the Princeton Singers choral ensemble, among others. He has been awarded artist residencies both nationally and internationally, most recently in Lviv, Ukraine.
Nick produced Real & Far Off Hymns Vol. 1, a compilation album featuring various folk artists, in his role as director of Orein Arts, a creative arts residency hosted at a monastery. He edits Windfall Room, an online poetry recitation journal. With an MFA in Poetry and a BFA in Visual Art, he is most proud of his honorary degree in faking it on the fiddle from Miles of Music Campiversity. Instagram: @nmaione_
Tyrone Cotton’s earliest musical revelation was listening to the raspy, inspirational voice of his grandfather, the Reverend Cleveland Roosevelt Williams, at his childhood home in Louisville, KY. At a young age, Cotton began playing guitar along to the sounds of popular rock and blues artists. Overtime, he was influenced by Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, and Mississippi John Hurt, who intrigued Tyrone with his “ finger pickin’ and soft, wispy voice.”
Inspired by this wide variety of artists, Cotton developed a style of writing that blended soul, folk, blues, jazz, and rock n roll. He has become a staple in the Louisville music scene over the past 30 years, being well recognized for his stirring voice and lyrics.
Cotton has toured throughout the United States and Japan, with plans to continue performing in the US this year. He is currently working on releasing a new album he did with longtime collaborator and producer Ray Rizzo and producer Josh Kaufman, best known for his work with The National, Bob Weir, Bonny Light Horseman and Josh Ritter.
Rachel Garcia is a singer, poet, and songwriter, and performs as one half of the duo, The Singer and The Songwriter. An accomplished poet, her work has been published in anthologies from the Marin Poetry Center and Redwood Writers. As a singer, her evocative alto voice is rooted in ease and precision, with focus on vocal health and sustainability. She has toured and performed across the US and released 3 albums with The Singer and The Songwriter and will release a full-length LP in 2022.
Cost: $50 (suggested); $100 (supporter); If cost is a barrier, email us here for a discount code.
Sepia toned old photo of Texas Gladden, a white woman in a light colored cotton dress, holding a toddler on her left hip, next to a flowering tree. Another child is to her right wearing a dress and a smock. This little girl is holding the branches of the tree and petals are at her feet.
TEXAS GLADDEN // BALLADS + BISCUITS
Hosted by Anna RG & Vicki Miller
Saturday, April 16th, 1 - 4pm ET
The old songs do not just float in the air, they are rooted in the lives of particular places, and in the family life of the singers who kept the music alive.
Texas Gladden (b 1895) was a gem of southwest Virginia ballad singing, whose clear voice and extensive repertoire continues to inspire—through recordings made by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins in the Gladden family cabin. She was, by her family’s reckoning, a cherished mother and grandmother to 28; she was devout, wrote poetry, and is remembered for her cooking and hospitality.
This class is a three part celebration of her legacy — singing, storytelling, and cooking !
Anna will teach a group of songs from her repertoire — we’ll zoom in on questions of style and ornamentation, to emulate her singing, incorporate her ideas of effective storytelling and visualization, and try one of her singing exercises.
The second part of the class will be led by one of Texas’ granddaughters, Vicki— who will lead us, hands-on, through the family biscuit recipe. She’ll share family stories about her granny, talk about growing up with singing, tell us a bit about southwest Virginia, and answer any questions y’all might have ! Vicki has definitely inherited the family gift for storytelling.
For those who sign up, we will email you with the list of ingredients to have ready, for the biscuits!
This class will be taught over zoom with automatically generated captions. If you have any additional access needs or questions, drop a line I am more than happy to help -- arobertsgevalt@gmail.com
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Black and white photo of Anna, a white woman with light hair in a messy bun, in profile. She is playing the fiddle, with microphones and lights behind her.
Anna RG is an artist whose work moves outward from her immersion in communities of traditional music, and a decade of apprenticeships with elder masters of banjo and fiddle in rural Appalachia.
Her multimedia collaboration with ballad singer Elizabeth LaPrelle, whose last record was released by Smithsonian Folkways, was heralded“a radical expansion of what folk songs are supposed to do” by the New Yorker.
Performance highlights include Carnegie Hall, Cafe Oto, Big Ears Festival, NPR’s Tiny Desk, Hirshhorn Museum, and The Stone; and work with Glen Hansard, composers Sarah Hennies, Rhys Chatham and Timo Andres, and instrumentalists Jim White, Susan Alcorn and Ellen Fullman.
Recently, she completed her first quartet commission for Aizuri Quartet, is pursuing her MFA in Sculpture at Bard College, and is a proud member of RAMPD—Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities.
Photo of Vicki, a white woman with dark brown hair pulled back. She is holding a blue mason jar to her ear, and appears to be listening in to it. She has two rings with large gems on her hand.
Vicki Miller is lead cook at Virginia Tech Dining Services, a former flight attendant, and a nurse for 20 years, though she notes her favorite job is being a mother. A proud advocate of her granny Texas Gladden’s legacy, she inherited her granny’s intuitive skill for storytelling, and in sewing, crocheting, cooking, and singing-- "Mom says I was her mother's mini-me," she says. She has performed at folk festivals in Virginia, at the Virginia Tech Cubefest, and appears in the film Southern Journey Revisited. She lives with her husband in Salem, Virginia. Her favorite food is Angel Food Cake.
Cost: $50 (suggested); $100 (supporter); If cost is a barrier, email us here for a discount code.
Songwriting for Musical Theatre
Hosted by Dawn Landes
Saturday April 23, 1- 4 pm ET
Do you have an idea for a musical? Are you interested in writing songs for characters to sing? In this workshop we’ll explore how songs function in musical theatre to help move along a larger narrative. We’ll look at examples and use prompts to begin writing for different voices other than your own. No Musical Theatre experience necessary! Suitable for adults and young songwriters.
ABOUT THE HOST
Black and white portrait of Dawn, a white woman with long hair. She is wearing a trucker hat and a white shirt, and she is in a forest.
Dawn Landes is a singer-songwriter based in North Carolina. Her songs have been featured in commercials, films, musicals and TV shows (The Good Wife, House, Gossip Girl). She was part of the inaugural Miles of Music staff and helped start the Morning Writing tradition on the island. Landes wrote the music and lyrics for a new musical, ROW which premiered in 2021 at the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival and is available on audible.com as an Audible Original Production. She presented a TED talk about the musicals’ subject, trans-Atlantic rower Tori Murden McClure. Landes tours internationally and has shared the stage with artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Nick Lowe and Suzanne Vega.
Cost: $50 (suggested); $100 (supporter); If cost is a barrier, email us here for a discount code.
SUGGESTION BOX
If you have a suggestion for a great workshop topic or presenter, please email milesofmusiccamp@gmail.com with the subject line “Online Workshop Idea!”.
ARE you able to offer financial support?
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation of a larger amount, we will always be thrilled! You can donate to Miles of Music any time through our non-profit fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas. Just add a note saying you'd like to support the Online Workshops in particular. If you're planning to attend the workshop yourself and you want to pay more than $100, please just register at the $100 rate and then give any additional amount through Fractured Atlas as well. Our bookkeeping team will thank you, since we're hoping to track income from this program separate from any extra fantastic donations we might receive.