Donna Ulisse

My name is Donna Ulisse and I LOVE SONGWRITERS!

In my heart of writer’s heart I believe everyone has a song to write! If you have lived a little life, experienced the ups and downs of getting from one sunrise to the next, you have a song to write. If you have experienced loss or the very pinnacle of triumph, you have a song to write. The trick is learning the formula and feeding the desire to find your song.

My great joy is teaching those with an interest of putting life’s experiences to music. Like the character Dorothy was once told by the Good Witch on The Wizard Of Oz…you must start at the very beginning to get your hearts desire. Together, I will help you find the yellow circle and we will start down the brick road with a pen in hand.

We will discover inspiration and how to build a story around that initial thought. We will talk about the importance of connecting a melody to the story. You will learn how to hone the storyline into a few verses and a chorus, concise and musical!

My goal is to give you an understanding in basic song construction no matter what level you consider yourself to be in your song craft. Beginners write hit songs, mid level writers write hit songs and of course the pro’s can write some clunkers…I do that all the time while working towards writing hit songs…lol. So, come one, come all.

What To Bring

If you are planning to join me on this weeklong trip to a great song you will need to bring a few things!

-Bring one of your songs for a critique. It doesn’t matter what stage your song is in. It also doesn’t matter if you do not play an instrument. You can read it or sing it out. This process helps me and YOU! I ask that you DO NOT bring a song you feel is absolutely done from your perspective. Bring a song that might be a struggle for you to complete or that you feel needs some objectivity to get it to the finish line. My intention is to give feedback that helps you strengthen your songs.

By learning how to look at your own songs as critically as I look at your songs is a real teachable moment on self-edit. When you can self-edit with gusto then you will watch your songs rise to the next level, I promise.

-Bring a lyric of a famous song that you have always admired by an artist that you have heard on the radio.

-If you play an instrument, by all means, bring it! If you do not play an instrument you will be just fine.

-Of course bring your writing materials. If you like using electronic tablets please bring those along.

-Bring an open mind! The whole teaching thing runs a little like boot camp in that I might have to tear away some of your bad habits and build you back up with good habits that will help you reach your songwriting goals. Keeping an open mind will allow you to see there are countless ways to writing songs.

Learning different tricks will ALWAYS help you become a better writer.

A Glimmer of the Week

In songwriting, there are hard and fast rules that are meant to be broken when you know them enough to break them. Sound confusing? Splendid! To find the key to breaking the rules you must start learning the very basics. Learn them and apply them so well that they come naturally. When they become second hand to you, your pen will be able to bend those basics into something that will be uniquely your own.

Inspiration is the yellow circle that will start you down the brick road. The trick is to seek out that inspiration. The secret to finding a seed of inspiration for a song is discipline. There, I’ve let the cat out of the bag. To start a good songwriting habit, you must do something for your writing EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! My habit is a 10-minute devotion to writing in the mornings, usually with a strong cup of coffee. This can be whatever you want it to be. Some writer’s journal about dreams or what happened during the previous day. This works great! I have used several little exercises that also work great. We will be doing these exercises everyday during the Kaufman Kamp workshop. I plan on using a different one each day. My hopes are that you will find one that really works well for YOU. I promise that using and exercising your creative mind at least 5 days a week and filling pages with these exercises will give your imagination a workout that leads to a great song.

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From her website bio:

‍Country music fans remember Donna Ulisse from her days when she was signed to Atlantic Records in the early 1990’s where she released a critically acclaimed album Trouble at The Door with three singles and two videos. She was also a guest on many national television shows including Hee Haw, Nashville Now, Crook and Chase and NBC’s Hot Country Nights.

These days Donna Ulisse is a key figure in the bluegrass, folk and acoustic music scene as a singer and songwriter. Her single “It Could Have Been The Mandolin” from the album Hard Cry Moon topped the Bluegrass Unlimited chart at #1 for two months in a row in 2016 and the album topped the Roots Music Report chart at #1. She also won the award for 2016 International Bluegrass Music Association’s Songwriter of the Year. In 2017 she signed with Mountain Home Music Company, record label of some of bluegrass music’s brightest stars and released her eleventh career album “Breakin’ Easy”, produced by bluegrass legend Doyle Lawson.

She was a featured guest on RFD-TV’s Simply Bluegrass show hosted by Ricky Skaggs which featured the biggest names in the genre. She also did a month long stint in 2016 as host of Bluegrass Ridge, a video television show on Heartland TV Network which has several of her videos in regular rotation.

Her past albums have charted prominently in the Bluegrass Unlimited charts, The Folk DJ National chart, The Americana Music Charts and Billboard Bluegrass chart. while her 2012 Christmas album All The Way To Bethlehem was called “a masterpiece” by Kyle Cantrell, host of Bluegrass Junction on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Edward Morris, writer for CMT.com dubs her “one of the most commanding voices in bluegrass music.”

Named the 2016 IBMA Songwriter of the Year, she has had her songs recorded by bluegrass artists Claire Lynch, Darin and Brooke Aldridge, The Bankesters, Doyle Lawson, Larry Stephenson Band and Volume Five to name a few, as well as a song on the 2014 Grammy winning album Streets of Baltimore by the Del McCoury Band. In 2017 she was the winner of IBMA Song of the Year for the song “I Am A Drifter” recorded by Volume Five. She authored the book The Songwriter in Me: Snapshots of My Creative Process and is the founder of Lil House Songwriting Workshops offering aspiring songwriters the opportunity to write with her and other pro writers in order to improve their skills. She also keeps a busy touring schedule playing festivals and concert venues with her band.