Coey takes on Song Writing

As you may know already, I am a classically trained musician, but I’ve always been intrigued by contemporary songwriters. Even though I’m already 30, it’s never too late to learn! Yesterday, I attended my first ever songwriting class, led by the amazing JUNO Award-winning artist Michael Occhipinti, at the Telus Centre of Performance and Learning here in Toronto.

My initial feeling was utter anxiety - as I have only been taught (and have been teaching) baroque, classical, and romantic-era pieces. However, Michael was very kind and the small class size was great. There were only 4 students in total, and I was quick to learn that everyone was equally nervous.

In last night’s class, we learned about the forms of contemporary music including blues, jazz, and pop songs. It honed in on some basic music theory, and Michael assured us that this is a creativity class, so while there are certain chords that may sound nice together, there aren’t any wrong answers.

I’ve been introduced to Bandlabs, and later this week, I’ll be diving deeper into creating my own music! It’s quite challenging for me to get started as I feel like I need to be perfect at this, but I’m sure once I start playing around with my piano and the programs, I will be happy to have taken this first step.

Looking forward to sharing all my upcoming music, and excited to share all the new info I’ll be learning with my music students!