Private Songwriting Lessons
In person, on Zoom, or by Skype
Of interest to beginning as well as more experienced songwriters, I teach songwriting in a supportive and inspirational manner/environment. Instruction focuses on three equally important and interrelated aspects of songwriting: form, genre and content.
Each week, you perform practical exercises and write lyrics to strengthen your songwriting skills. For example: I have an exercise where we “Re-write the Beatles” Exercises are designed to broaden rhyming skills and add specificity and color to songs. Hit songs by such writers as Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, John Mayer, Stephen Schwartz and Joni Mitchell provide templates for commercial lyric writing. Ultimately, your lyrics are evaluated by the hit song formula: to entertain, to tell the truth, and to connect with your audience.
Mark Winkler, platinum-selling lyricist and songwriter who has written for such artists as Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Liza Minnelli., and has written or co-written songs for 5 musicals, including Naked Boys Singing!, Bark!, Too Old for the Chorus, and Play It Cool. Mr. Winkler just produced a CD for legendary artists Houston Person and Barbara Morrison to be released in spring of 2013. As an artist, his last CD of mostly original tunes, Sweet Spot, was voted one of the Top 5 Vocal CDs by Jazz Times magazine and was in the top 25 of the Jazz charts.
He is currently in his 7th year teaching Songwriting at UCLA extension.