Daniel and Read have been writing songs and playing music together for over 10 years and can write and perform many styles of music including folk, pop, rock, Latin, R&B, hip hop, jazz, and blues. When Daniel and Read meet with students their goal is to write songs with the students that reflect students' personal lives.

Coursework also includes finding new and old songs that resonate with participant feelings. The workshop is built around writing and sharing prompts that explore students’ personal histories to find the themes (relationships, words, and phrases) that most resonate with the feelings that students want to express into songs. These phrases are turned into lyrics, and lyrics are turned into melodies. Daniel and Read work with students to write the music to accompany the lyrics. For shorter workshops the goal is to introduce students to the foundational elements of songwriting (including getting past the inner critic, brainstorming and editing). The goal of the workshop is to help each participant write or co-write a finished song, or begin a working draft of their own song. All participants will gain an experiential understanding of the songwriting process and skills needed to continue writing songs on their own.

The workshop is for any skill level of songwriter from complete beginner to advanced. This workshop is designed to fit the schedule of the host institution. The minimum workshop length is a 1-4 hour in person workshop. The maximum is a full weekend in person workshop with 6-8 one-hour weekly zoom calls following the workshop. The more weekly Zoom calls participants are able to make the more in-depth they are exposed to different elements of songwriting. Higher rates of regular exposure are correlated with higher rates of increased self-confidence, emotional regulation, and sense of success. This course can effectively be delivered in a minimal time frame. For maximum benefit, the ideal format is 6-8 weeks. Hosts can pick and choose a combination of in-person and zoom sessions that work for the host institution.

Daniel Moody is a Songwriter, a Photo/Video Storyteller, a Creative Coach, a Yoga Teacher, and devoted father. Songwriting has been his outlet for expressing himself, and his hope is that the songs born of this program will help students connect to themselves and their own stories.

Read Admire has played guitar with friends since age 12. He earned a BA in Music at UALR where he studied guitar, piano, music production and Music History. For his thesis he wrote a comparative study of Medical Ethnomusicology & Music Therapy, highlighting how music is used for healing purposes across various cultures. After college Read worked for three years as a “Therapeutic Music Specialist” at the Arkansas State Hospital where he worked with clinicians to create ways for adolescent & adult patients to explore their inner emotions through songwriting.

Read Admire also offers a Guitar Ensemble program and a Modern Recording Techniques program. 

The Guitar Ensemble is a group guitar program that teaches ensemble-style playing to guitarists. Students learn best by playing with other musicians, so this program was designed to teach guitarists how to play in an ensemble with other musicians. Students will learn to read chord charts and melody lines and also learn to improvise while other players are playing chord changes. This program meets once or twice a week for 1.5-2 hours at a time and runs for 8-16 weeks. During the summer months, this program lasts 1-2 weeks, meeting daily for 2-4 hours.

The Modern Recording Techniques program is an all-ages program to teach students how to record, mix, and engineer various types of audio recordings. People of all ages have the technology (smartphones, tablets, laptops) to make high-quality recordings yet don’t understand how to operate the recording apps and software. This program will teach people young and old to make and record music with each other. Each day during the program students will learn how to record, mix, and master different types of music including choirs, bands, instrumental beats, instrumentalists, and vocals. This program meets once or twice a week for 1.5-2 hours at a time and runs for 8-16 weeks. During the summer months, this program lasts 1-2 weeks, meeting daily for 1.5-2 hours.