Special Subject: Earning Songs

This special 4-week class for intermediate to advanced musical improvisers is focused on one of the most important skills in our tool belts: Earning songs within scenes.

Have you ever found yourself in an improv scene, the music starts, and you have no idea what to sing? Earning songs is about putting intentionality into our scene work and making choices within the scene that will get us to songs we WANT to sing. 

In this class, we’ll work on several key skills including:

  • How to identify your song organically from within the scene

  • How to use the vocabulary of the scene to earn your song

  • How to sharpen your POV to earn songs

  • How to invest the choices you’ve already made to get to song more easily

  • How to title your song in a satisfying way

Come learn how instead of stumbling backwards into songs, you can be earning them.

Class dates:

Thursday, November 21

[No Class Thursday, November 28 for Thanksgiving]

Thursday, December 5

Thursday, December 12

Thursday, December 19

Requirements:

Completion of at least two levels of musical improv classes and at least four levels of regular improv classes (or equivalent performance experience). This class will be mostly scene work; please do not register unless you have an understanding of the fundamentals of improv scene work.

Details:

Location: All Out Comedy Theater, 2550 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland CA 94612

Registration: $364

Wellness: If you have symptoms of feeling sick the day of class, please stay home and contact your teacher.

All students will receive a student ID card during their session. This gives students access to watch as many shows for free while taking classes.

The Instructor: Jed Levine

Jed is an All Out Comedy mainstage cast member with over a decade of experience as a musical improviser, coach and teacher. He is a graduate of the Second City Musical Improv Conservatory in Chicago and is an alumni of the critically-acclaimed musical improv company Baby Wants Candy. Jed has been a guest player for improvised musicals at BATS Improv and also teaches musical improv at Leela in San Francisco where he also coaches the musical improv P.I.E. team. Jed is the founder of Bay Area Musical Improv, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to creating opportunities for local musical improvisers, and a co-founder of the Bay Area Musical Improv Festival. Jed also coaches the indie team Sonic Boom and Damn the Man: The Improvised Rock Opera at All Out Comedy.

The Musical Director: Jared Hauser

Jared has spent the past 10 years in Seattle, fronting several local rock bands as singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Blending his love of late-60s psychedelia with mid-70s jangle-rock, Jared has graced stages around the Northwest and beyond. Recently, Jared relocated to California, setting up his homebase in the east bay. Jared’s instruments include: guitar, piano, mandolin, lap steel, sitar, melodica, autoharp, and many more. As a rule of thumb, if it has strings and frets Jared can probably jam on it.


Register