On Thursday 12 January, we were delighted to welcome singer/songwriter, Hannah Jane Lewis, back to Shiplake College for a day of songwriting workshops with our GCSE music pupils!
Described by critics and fans as having ‘that early Taylor Swift feel to her mixed in with a bit of The Band Perry and her own uniqueness, creating a great, refreshing style of music’; our pupils benefitted from her experience and energy as they spent the day learning more about the music industry, as well as writing songs!
Director of Music, Mr Curran, reported on the day:
"The day began with a valuable insight into the music industry and the many employment opportunities within it, from advertising and AR & PR to production and solo careers. The pupils and Hannah then discussed the songwriting process and spent time analysing mood, lyrical content and other elements of music used by producers to take the listener on a journey.
It was at this point that our musicians started to pen their own lyrics which would form the basis of the song they would be writing throughout the course of the day. With lyrics in place and a clear message in their respective choruses, breakout sessions took place to brainstorm hooks and chord progressions.
The afternoon session focused on developing musical ideas and the melody within an agreed structure, and to end the day on a high, the groups convened in the Lecture Theatre to perform the fruits of their labour."
Speaking at the end of the day, Hannah said:
"Writing a song in a day is a huge undertaking when you consider that most artists spend months in the studio crafting a track. All of the boys worked really hard today and their hard work paid off massively. Hopefully, they will all want to tweak their work and think about the production of it over the next month or so."
Thank you to Hannah for taking the time to work with our pupils - perhaps we will see some of these new songs live at the next Spring Concert or Shiplake Rocks!
