Michael Gomez Engages Students In World Of Songwriting

Dallas based musical artist and producer Michael Gomez gave an engaging and inspiring presentation about the simplicity and beauty of creating powerful song titles. 

From the start, Gomez was friendly and had a relaxed presence that swept over the room. He began his presentation with few notes, speaking to the students in a conversation-like style and drifting around the room as he spoke. I found his approach to be simple yet effective. 

Cutting through the air of exhaustion at 8:00 in the morning and the harsh lights of the room, Gomez’s presentation inspired laughter, deep thinking and creative collaboration. 

Gomez began by talking about his experience in the industry and what he has come to learn about creativity and art itself. He used vivid metaphors and relatable anecdotes to get across one main point: the importance of art. In his words, this importance lies in art’s ability to convey a deep feeling and create meaning that you just can’t find anywhere else. 

His initial points resonated with me greatly and left me feeling excited to see where his presentation was going next. 

After some introduction to the world of songwriting, he gave us a series of exercises about lyric imagery, with the end result being a completely unique song title. In the first exercise, he had us shout out some words and from there we wrote a list of other related words, just letting our thoughts flow.  

The second exercise also focused on word choice, it was a rhyming exercise, another crucial part of songwriting. Using both of these exercises, and our Spotify Wrapped, we each came up with a unique song title and some students shared with the group. 

The final exercise was the most fun and the most engaging. He called it the “pipeline game.” After students shared their song titles, he asked for “producers” and “marketers.” The producer’s job was to use the created song titles and assign them a genre and an artist who they thought was fit to perform the song. 

The marketer’s job was more on the business side as they were responsible for deciding which strategies to use to market the song. After all the groups shared their responses, Gomez provided specific feedback and guidance. 

By the time his presentation had reached the end, the room, which began with tired students shuffling in, had melted into laughter and intrigue. Throughout his explanations, Gomez taught us some crucial skills: both thinking deep, and not overthinking. His lessons and examples gave me the opportunity to have an internal conversation with myself as well as a conversation with a group of other students generating creative thoughts. 

The presentation even went as far as to inspire me to dive back into the world of musical arts which I abandoned a while ago. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Gomez’s presentation. I learned a lot and gained new perspectives about the importance of art and creativity. Throughout the hour, Gomez stressed the fact that every person is capable of being creative and this point is what stuck with me the most. 

At the end, Gomez finished by telling us that writing and all other forms of art can create relatable emotion and genuine human connection and I was endlessly inspired by how well he was able to connect with us in just one hour’s time.