The Villages - September 2019 - 14

{ FOR THE

OF MUSIC }

JUST SING, SING A SONG

PUTTING FEELINGS TO MUSIC WITH THE VILLAGES SONGWRITERS' CLUB
STORY BY MARK ANDERSON | PHOTOS BY BRANDON ATWELL

Club president
Jerry Durbin

14

SEPTEMBER 2019

When you have a song in your heart, sometimes you
just need to write it down.
That's how The Villages Songwriters' Club feels
about it, at least.
A group of more than 60 songwriters from all walks
of life, The Villages Songwriters' Club boasts members
of all skill levels - previous songwriting experience is
not required to join.
The club meets from 5:30 to 8:50 p.m. at SeaBreeze
Recreation Center on the second Thursday of
each month. According to club president
Jerry Durbin, each meeting begins with a
short business meeting and then moves on
to the good stuff - members perform or play
their songs for the group.
"The business meeting we try to get out of the way
in about 15 minutes," Durbin said. "The rest of the
time is letting people sign up on a list of songs they've
written they want to sing that night."
Each person plays or performs their song for the
crowd, and crowd members have feedback forms they
fill out to offer constructive comments on the song.
Durbin stresses that the club has a friendly, non-judgmental atmosphere when offering feedback to performers - no one judges performers harshly or says anything negative.
"The form ... is a way of giving (performers) constructive criticism without being offensive," Durbin
said. "In other words, they're going to take it as good
faith efforts to improve your songwriting and not something to put you down."
Durbin says some of the members have experience
working in the music industry in Nashville, Tennessee,
and they say it often can be cutthroat - people will put
down others to make themselves look better.
That is not the type of environment Durbin wants
the club to have here in The Villages.
"Our club has to be rooting for each other," he said.
"We want everybody in the club to improve their song-



The Villages - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - September 2019

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The Villages - September 2019 - Cover1
The Villages - September 2019 - Contents
The Villages - September 2019 - 1
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