The inaugural UNM Songwriting Showcase will start at 7 p.m. at Winning Coffee Company, where students from the new class, Music 435, will play songs they wrote as part of class assignments.
Each student will perform two original songs, and a few will be teaming up to perform co-written duets.
The class, which is the first of its kind in the history of UNM, was created and is taught by assistant music professors David Bashwiner and Kristina Jacobsen-Bia, both songwriters in their own right.
Both wanted to teach a songwriting class at UNM, and Bashwiner said the idea was very well received by the music department.
“We’re really trying to bring attention to the craft that is songwriting,” Jacobsen-Bia said. “What goes into writing a song that just hooks you from the first second, how do you dissect that and ideally replicate that with your own song?”
Jacobsen-Bia said it was important that the class be open to non-music majors, and stressed that it is not the typical music class one normally finds at a university.
“I’ve long wanted to teach a songwriting class in an academic setting, particularly one that validates popular music and song in a music department that traditionally has focused on classical music,” she said.
Bashwiner said their students come from several different majors, including theater and science.
The class meets once a week for two and a half hours, and each week students are required to write an original song and perform it for the rest of the class.
The class is held at the Albuquerque Press Club, and Bashwiner said that gathering off-campus was a conscious choice.
“We wanted to get students out of the music building. We wanted students to feel a little bit more free, and not feel constricted by how the music department defines music. Songwriting doesn’t traditionally fall exactly in the middle of what is taught in music departments,” he said.
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Students had to audition before being admitted into the class, performing a song they had written themselves to show that they could play an instrument and sing as well as write their own material. Several students admitted that the first song they ever wrote was the one they played at their audition.
Bashwiner believes that songwriting, something many perceive as a solitary, secluded creative process, benefits greatly from being done in a supportive community.
“The first night of the class, when we got done with the songwriting circle, there was this magical feeling because everybody sitting in the circle realized that they were going to have an amazing semester,” Bashwiner said. “Because every week they would be getting together with people who like the same things and are doing creative work with songs. We could all feel that the community itself was going to be a very special thing.”
Students are given different assignments each week, he said, like writing a song based on a photograph or describing all five senses in the lyrics. One assignment required students to write a song with the title “Blue Will Be My End.” Although many students felt constrained by this requirement at first, it resulted in many of their best songs, he said. Several students plan to perform their version at the showcase.
Jacobsen-Bia said she encourages her students to dig deep for their material, drawing from real-life experiences and difficult emotions.
“The classes are sort of half songwriting, half therapy. It can be incredibly personal. For some students it’s really cathartic, and it helps them to release or express particularly intense emotions that they’re going through,” she said.
She said that getting to see her students grow, both as creative artists and as people, is an intimate process that has inspired her own songwriting.
“It’s really, really awesome to witness other peoples’ creative process and to get to be a part of that. Just to see how excited students are when they come to class with a new song and to be facilitating that is a huge honor. I find it incredibly rewarding.”
The showcase is an essential part of the class, she said, and will give the students invaluable experience in performing their own work. She said she hopes people will come to the show to support the creativity and skill of their fellow students.
Jonathan Baca is the news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @JonGabrielB.
