ONE SONG AT A TIME - SONGWRITING RETREAT

Friday evening April 30th, May 1, 2, 3  2010

Blaenau Cottage in mid-Wales

This is a songwriting retreat run by Buddhists in a beautiful cottage surrounded by a secluded Welsh valley. 

Our aim is to provide an opportunity for you to explore your creativity in a Buddhist retreat context but, of course, you don’t need to be, or want to be, a Buddhist to enjoy this retreat. 

The focus will be on personal and group exploration of the craft of songwriting and lyric writing.  We will provide a space in which you can explore and express what is important to you in word and sound.  We will be looking at the process of songwriting, rather than trying to produce finished songs. There will be a number of workshops and exercises, using Meditation, Body Scanning, Chanting, Stick and Improvisation Exercises to move ourselves toward a more creative state while exploring our mental states and emotions. 

We have programmed in a lot of free time when you can work on songs and lyrics with support from  Achintya, Manjusvara, Beth and Jane.  Achintya has been singing, writing and recording his music and songs all his life;  Manjusvara is a published poet and writer who runs Wolf at the Door writing workshops across the world; Beth is a qualified music teacher, singer and songwriter; Jane has been running Vegan cooking workshops, singing and songwriting for many years.  So we are very lucky to have some very experienced people with us who will be running various workshops and able to help you work on your material and bring your ideas to life. 

Please don’t worry if you have never even written a song before, the retreat has been designed to help everyone, no matter how experienced, to enjoy exploring their creative ideas and learn some basic techniques for expressing these in music and words. 

There also will be recording equipment so you can listen to your ideas and try out arrangements on your own or with others.  It will be possible to take home a recording of your work if you wish. 

THE PROGRAMME
The retreat starts on on Friday evening 30th April from 7.00pm onward with a help-yourself buffet supper and introduction to the retreat., then continues on Saturday, Sunday and Monday with a programme of morning body scans, stick exercises, walking and sitting meditation, with workshops and free songwriting time throughout both days and with communal breakfast, lunch and supper.  We will finish after cleaning up by around 3pm Monday, so you should be home sometime early Monday evening.  

You are asked to attend for the whole retreat programme, unless you have made special arrangement

BOOKING
There are 12 places on this retreat and quite a few places are already taken. If you are keen to attend, you will need to pay the full charge of £80 (£60 low wage) which includes accommodation, vegan food and all tuition.  Please send a cheque as soon as possible, with a short note about booking, your name, email, phone number and address on the back to:

Birgit Muller, 44 St Lukes Crescent, Bristol BS3 45D. 

Please phone Achintya on 07957 340689 or email enquiries@south-bristol-buddhist-meditation.org.uk if you have any questions.

Achintya
South Bristol Buddhist Meditation Classes
February 2010