On Wednesday 11th August, over fifty (50) participants logged on to Zoom to be a part of Writers’ Delight – A song writing masterclass. Hosted by Darryl Gervais, alongside Vallis ‘Shaker HD’ Weekes.
The session ran for a total of five hours, from 1:00p.m. to 6:00p.m. and covered topics such as Song Structure, What Makes a Good Song, Writing Better Lyrics, The 7 C’s of Song Writing among other topics.
Darryl Gervais is an international songwriter who has penned hits such as Radar, Love It, Jam Dong and Boss Lady for Kes and Tender, Touch and Good by Patrice Roberts, just to name a few. Vallis ‘Shaker HD’ Weekes is a talented music producer and songwriter who has been making waves with his work around the region, with writing accolades such as Hulk by Blaxx, ‘Make It Work’ by Edwin Yearwood and ‘Sweetness’ by Marzville to his name.
Director of the Arts Council, Mr. Kenneth Silcott, remarked, “This initiative came at the perfect time as it is one that ties in with MAC’s effort to improve the quality of music produced on Montserrat. Although we were a bit disappointed in the number of persons who registered, we were impressed by the engagement and participation of those who attended. It was a great session and we are grateful to Shaker HD for reaching out to the Arts Council with this project.”
The registration fee for the masterclass was USD$50 per person. The Montserrat Arts Council covered the cost for all participants who registered via the Arts Council, thereby making it easily accessible to our local songwriters. The Arts Council thanks the Director of the Disaster Management Coordination Agency (DMCA), Mr. Alvin Ryan, for providing a comfortable conference room with reliable internet connection in order for the Montserrat participants to be fully involved in the online session.