SINGAPORE, 20 NOVEMBER 2008 — For a whole hour at Conference Room A today, an overflowing room of aspiring and experienced songwriters from all over the region were treated to an hour of professional advice and lessons on ‘Songwriting for Praise and Worship’.
The humor-filled session was conducted by a pair of very qualified speakers — Gan Khek Chyan and Jeff Crabtree. Crabtree is the principal of the CCC School of Creative Arts in Oxford Falls Sydney. Gan, affectionately known as KC by City Harvest Members, is a seasoned guitarist and songwriter for the CHC Band.
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| PHOTOS: Maggie Chng |
Right off the bat, Crabtree highlighted the significance of writing music that speaks to the heart of listeners while painting them an emotional landscape with God. As soon as that was firmly established, he proceeded into a lecture about the technicalities of professional songwriting, introducing essential musical jargon and techniques to the eager audience, sprinkling his own life examples and witty analogies from his own experience.
After that, Gan spoke about his own songwriting experience, before sharing a few relevant tools and software for the attendees. The session ended with Crabtree urging Asian talents to write and perform the next world’s number one hit!
Joey Lin, a 24-year-old Taiwanese delegate loved the workshop. “This session helped me to explore writing songs for my church, the Taiwan Reformed Presbyterian Church “.
Aldrich Tjahiadi, a song leader with CHC, told City News,“I enjoyed myself very much and am encouraged by the speakers’ own songwriting experience to write more songs in future.”
