Hit Songwriter Bonnie Baker Offers Songwriting Workshop “Expanding Your Songwriting Skills”

Songwriter Bonnie Baker, who wrote Hunter Hayes’ No. 1 hit “Invisible,” has joined forces with American Songwriter to offer her own comprehensive songwriting workshop.

On February 20, 2021, Bonnie will hold the brand new workshop “Expanding Your Songwriting Skills,” the first under the American Songwriter partnership, and she wants you to join her. Baker has written songs with artists as diverse as Rachel Platten, Zella Day, Rascal Flatts, Hunter Hayes, Chely Wright, The Static Shift, Reba McEntire, Brantley Gilbert, Sara Evans and Emerson Drive, to name a few. Currently, she has a small creative writing/production space on the east side of Nashville.

In her own words, Bonnie shares her story and invites you to be a part of her upcoming workshop:

The first time I read the words, ‘music and lyric written by,’ I was all in. Sitting in my room listening to music, I wanted to know who wrote those words and that melody. I thought every artist wrote their own words and music, then I learned many do not. From the moment I realized that to the moment my first song appeared on an album, many, many years had gone by.

As a kid, I loved words and I loved to play piano. It wasn’t until I was well into my teen years that I discovered I loved words and music together. I loved interesting phrasing. I loved amazing melodies that made me feel something. I loved production. I especially loved when all three of these came together and the magic happened—the whole world heard a song and wanted to hear it over and over again. For me, that was the beginning of wanting to be a ‘commercial’ songwriter. I didn’t just want to sit in my room and write songs, I wanted to write songs that people would hear on the radio, on an album, in a bar, on a jukebox, in a movie, in a game, in a TV show as the characters walked down an empty sidewalk—I wanted to write the song that made the audience feel the sharp hardness of the empty sidewalk. 

I don’t have enough time and space to tell you my entire journey from writing words in my journal in my bedroom to having my words on albums, but to quote The Beatles, it has been a long and winding road.

This brings me to you. You are sitting somewhere at this moment wanting to be a songwriter. You want to learn, to grow, to think, to talk, to expand your writing. I can promise you one thing: no one class, no one workshop, no one teacher will show you everything you need to know. A lot of this journey has to be experienced by you and you alone. Two years ago I decided I wanted to tell other writers all of the things I wish I had known all those years ago in my bedroom. My journey has been exactly what it needed to be. I don’t want you to cut corners from where you are now to where you want to go, but I do want you to to know that you are not alone in this journey. 

I love to teach by listening, asking a million questions, hearing the answers and exploring all the layers that come with those answers. No two songwriters are exactly the same. Every single songwriter has a DNA, a fingerprint of who they are. Every experience, where you grew up, who your family is, all of these things leave their mark, and that mark is you. I believe we are created to create.

It is my love of songwriting and my love of teaching that brought me to partner with American Songwriter Magazine to create workshops that will meet you where you are in your songwriting journey. The first workshop I’ve created is called ‘Expanding Your Songwriting Skills.’ It is a three hour workshop that will allow me to help you learn who you are as a writer, who you want to be as a writer and how to take confident steps toward becoming the writer that you long to be.  Honestly, there is no way to cover the whole topic in just three hours. Like with all amazing things, it is just the beginning our of journey together.

I will always be honest with you. I will always tell you the truth. I will never tell you that I understand the music business. I will share with you what I have learned about music and the creation of music. My long and winding road isn’t over. I’m still finding new ways to be the songwriter that I long to be. I have stories to tell. I have value. I still love that magical moment when words and melody find each other and speak truth to an audience with love and kindness and understanding that goes beyond human comprehension. 

I look forward to meeting every single one of you.

To purchase tickets to Bonnie’s workshop, “Expanding Your Skills,” sing up here.