Write Through Doors

On June 17, 2013, I had the honor of working with 60 female Jewish cantors at their annual Women’s Cantor Network conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan.   Our challenge:  write a song in two hours.  A song by sixty women musicians?  I don’t know even two women who can agree on the same type of coffee to order in Starbucks!

But I had a secret weapon:  Jewish Rock Star Robbi Sherwin as my co-leader for the songwriting workshop.  She’s done this dozens of times–but in a weekend, not in two hours.  However, Robbi and I both idle at the same speed– hyper fast, maybe a teensy bit slightly nutsy fast.   We prepared during three one-hour skype meetings. We had wall boards, 3 x 5 cards, markers.  And Cantor Extraordinaire Annie Rose was there helping.  What could go wrong?

Nothing did!  We wrote a song. After two rounds of Natalie-Goldberg-type writing practice,

–I remember a time when I felt welcomed by friends, family or colleagues.

–I remember a time when I tried something new to welcome people to my home or temple

I taught everyone how to recall catchy phrases as nonjudgmental feedback, they wrote down the phrases on 3 x 5 cards in small groups, we collected the cards, and then Robbi and I collected choice phrases into a song.   The words are below.   Robbi spent time after the break discussing what the song would sound like, and came up with a fabulous melody. This blog isn’t happy about playing the MP4 song here–but I know Robbi has recorded it, and it’s an amazing song, written by amazing women.  Lucky me to be with them for a day.

If you see an ad below, it’s because I haven’t purchased the “no ads upgrade” which I just heard about.  That’s how they getcha.