The 3rd Annual JAS “Share Your Voice” songwriting competition is now accepting entries! Open to Middle or High School students, JAS is seeking original songs from any music genre. Entries must be received by February 1, 2023 with winners being announced on March 1, 2023. One High School and one Middle School winner will receive a cash prize of $500/each and an opportunity to perform their song live at a JAS Café event. Up to four honorable mention winners will receive a cash prize of $100/each.
FREE Songwriting/Hip Hop Workshops
JAS will be offering both in-person and virtual workshops for beginner and intermediate songwriters, including a special session focused on hip-hop. All sessions will take place at Stepping Stones in Carbondale (1010 Garfield Ave., Carbondale, CO). Each session will be streamed live via zoom. Please contact JAS at jazzaspensnowmass@jazzaspensnowmass.org to receive the zoom links. Roaring Fork Valley musician and educator Natalie Spears will lead the workshops. On Jan. 13, Denver Artist Devin Urioste, will lead a special workshop focusing on hip-hop.
Thursday December 15th
Session 1: Lyrics and Song Form: Idea generation, parts of a song, tools for getting unstuck
6:15-7:15 Beginner
7:15-8:15 Intermediate
Thursday January 12th
Session 2: Musical Elements: How to use chords and melody effectively in a song, how to expand harmonic and melodic ideas
6:15-7:15 Beginner
7:15-8:15 Intermediate
Friday January 13th
Session 3: Hip Hop Identity, Power, & HIp Hop with Denver Artist Devin Urioste
Identity power and hip hop will be a workshop that will embody you as a human being and individual. Hip Hop is a culture that is made of multiple ethnicities and cultures. It isn’t just one thing or one type of person. In this workshop we will break down who we are as individuals by creating an identity wheel that Identifies our different parts of our identity. We will discuss why it is important to know yourself and be able to express who you are as an individual, and then we will be discussing how Hip Hop can be used as a tool to express yourself. The writing aspect will take place at the end by using the different parts of our identity that we wrote down to generate similes and metaphors in writing.
5:00-7:00 All levels
Thursday January 19th – RESCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 24
Session 4: Final Edit
6:15-7:15 Beginner
7:15-8:15 Intermediate
Below are submission guidelines:
- Submissions shall include: an audio or video recording, a lyric sheet and student submission info to include: Name, Age, Grade, School, Email Address
- Students may submit a maximum of two songs each
- Plagiarism of copyrighted material is illegal. It is the responsibility of the songwriter to assure that music submitted is not copyrighted
- Submit submissions via a dropbox link to jazzaspensnowmass@jazzaspensnowmass.org
Entries will be judged based on their originality/creativity, aesthetic quality, music and lyrics. All entries will be judged by multiple professional musicians who will provide constructive feedback for every song.