Songwriting with Joe B.

Hello! My name is Joe and I am a professional composer, songwriter, lyricist, theater artist, and I am a Dramatist Guild Foundation National Musical Theater Fellow (2024-2025). Although my main art form is musical theater, I am passionate about using music to tell stories regardless of genre or style! We all start our songwriting journey at different places and have very different destinations. Because of this, I don’t have a set lesson plan I use for students. I encourage all my students to practice active listening by listening to music from all genres so we can explore ideas of style in music, learn songwriting techniques, and analyze lyric-writing concepts. You will also be doing writing exercises and assignments, learning to create lead sheets, exploring music technology, and practicing communicating your ideas to other musicians. In my twelve years of writing music, I have written theme songs for podcasts, written music for plays, written and orchestrated original musical theatre, had my concert works performed internationally, and had my music licensed for an Indie film. I studied composition with Dr. Eliza Brown, Dr. Ilya Levinson, and Dr. Drew Baker, orchestration with Dr. Ken Kumpf, musical theatre writing with Phil Kern, and lyric writing with Adam Gwon and Marcy Heisler. Whether you want to write “pop” music, musicals, or anything in between I am excited to help you on your journey!