Teaching Songwriting, What a Concept

Visible Music College has a great Songwriting Division of the Modern Music Department. We focus on writing regularly, rewriting, co-writing, live performance, and publishing as an area of true understanding for writers. We have local writers/instructors in every city and also mentor coaches online. One of our favorite new writers is Aryn Michelle in Dallas for our DAL Visible Community. We asked her to share a little bit about her approach to teaching songwriting.

Surprise, it’s one of my favorite things - concept albums!

"When I was a young performing songwriter, I struggled with fear of running out of ideas and the dreaded question 'what do I write about now?' I needed focus and wanted to accomplish more than just writing pretty songs. And so several years ago I started experimenting with concept albums (albums focused on a specific theme), and I began that journey with an album on Christian apologetics. My latest project is entitled ‘Pariah' (a concept album inspired by the life of biblical outcasts.) I always encourage performing songwriters to consider concept albums, even if you're releasing them as singles, because oftentimes having a focused theme unlocks inspiration and a wealth of content options you might not have considered otherwise.

-Aryn Michelle Calhoun, Visible Adjunct Professor