Arts & Entertainment, Music
Rising Artist Spotlight: Joy Nesbitt’s “Echo”
Lesson time 18:36 min
Alicia offers advice to a young artist from her music organization, She Is the Music.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Joy’s Album: Atlas Rising · Songwriting Workshop: “Echo”
Teaches Songwriting and Producing
The legendary singer-songwriter and producer shares her approach to making music that resonates and helps you find the power of your unique voice.
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- Joy. Hey. How are you? - How are you? - I'm good. I'm so happy to lay my eyes on you. - I'm so excited to see you right now. - Man, listen. I feel like I saw you the other day on the Zoom call for "She Is The Music." - Yeah. Definitely. - How was it? How did you feel about that project? Well, first of all, how do you feel about "She Is The Music?" - Yeah. I think I came into "She Is The Music" unsure of myself as a musician, and getting all the information from all the mentors was so helpful. I was able to work with Modesty Lycan as my mentor, and she taught me so much about how to be empowered in making music and songwriting, for me and for others. And it was really empowering for me. - That's amazing. I love that. Listen, you know, obviously, when we first started talking about putting something like "She Is The Music" together, we couldn't even have imagined the lengths that it's taken on. But most beautifully is this community of sisterhood. It feels so good. And you know, obviously, in so many industries, we know that that is a piece of what makes the progression. And so I'm so glad that you're feeling that, and I'm so happy to hear that you feel more empowered-- that you feel like it's-- you know. And when you said that "They give me the information, they tell me what it is, and then I know what to do." I mean, because that's it. We just need information and opportunity. So I'm so happy to hear that. [PIANO MUSIC] So part of this program you created-- I know everybody had projects that they were either working on or developing a long way. Tell me about your project that you did. - Yeah. So for my project, I wrote an album called "Atlas Rising." I wrote 11 songs-- seven songs and four interludes. - Wow. - And I wrote, recorded, and produced them. But essentially for the album, I really wanted to make a love letter to the authentic stories of black women. I wanted to write music that made me feel like I was being heard. And I think the reason why I make music is to make sure that women of color are heard. And then I wrote all these songs, and I recorded all of them. And it was really a wonderful experience, and I'm so lucky to have it. And I'm excited to release it soon. - Wow. So hold on. Had you started these things before the project? Was it literally for the project, and you had, like, six weeks to do it? Tell me a little bit about the genesis of it. - So two of the songs, I had already written. But one of the songs-- the first song that I wrote was "Echo," and it came from-- I had a conversation with my father who told me that he was feeling a similar sense of uncertainty that he had felt when he was a young kid in 1968. And it just kind of made me feel like everything is inherited, that we're experiencing right now-- like, none of this is new. And so it made me feel a certain amount of solidarity with other people who have been through something else, in the same way as a...
About the Instructor
With 15 Grammy Awards and more than 40 million albums sold so far, Alicia Keys is one of the world’s most beloved singer-songwriters. Now the legendary artist invites you into her studio to share her process for creating music built from authentic emotion. Breaking down anthems like “Fallin’,” Alicia shows you how she writes lyrics, crafts melodies, and explores sonics so you can discover the music you were born to make.
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Alicia Keys
The legendary singer-songwriter and producer shares her approach to making music that resonates and helps you find the power of your unique voice.
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