Songwriting Class Is a Princeton Atelier Tradition

Soulful lyrics, melodies, and harmonies from performers bathed in blue light filled Frist Theater on April 21. The concert presented a range of songs, from the soft indie acoustic guitar picking of “It’s You” to a heavy rock accusation of “Devil’s at Your Door” to prerecorded electronic tunes backing a tax day rap with the catchline “sign and repeat.” The student performers, representing all four class years and ranging from beginner musicians to artists with albums released on Spotify, were part of a robust Princeton Atelier tradition, ATL 496: How to Write a Song.

Students are randomly assigned to groups and expected to bring a fully written song to their next class based on a one-word prompt. They spend an hour learning about basic music theory and songwriting from instructors Bridget Kearney of the band Lake Street Dive and musician/producer Bartees Strange and then move into individual workshops. Each week, with a new song and new groups, students have the opportunity to perform and workshop with Kearney and Strange, getting a taste of what it’s like to be a working musician.

Practice and repetition make up the backbone of the class. Laura Hwa ’26 estimated that she and her classmates collectively wrote around 70 songs.

Kate Short ’23 took the class her sophomore spring and returned the next year as a teaching assistant. “It was really helpful just to be listening to new songs every week [and] listening to what Bridget had to say, and I ran the sound, which was good practice,” she said. “This is a very ‘only happens at Princeton’ kind of thing.”

For Short, now a professional songwriter, the class was perfect motivation, bringing her closer to songwriting idols such as Paul McCartney, who joined the class via Zoom in February 2021. “When he said, ‘I really don’t know what I’m doing,’ I was like wow, I can do it too,” she said. “If the greatest songwriter says that, there’s hope.” Short’s band, Kate Short & the Long Haul, was featured at Terrace Reunions in May.

“When I initially went into the class, I thought that I would mostly be with other people who had written a lot. [Instead] it brought me back to the root of why I do music in the first place, which is because I love it and because it’s fun.”

— Bella Rios ’25, now working full time as a songwriter in Nashville

The class brings in two or three guest artists each year. This semester, Lawrence the Band, producer Cautious Clay, and Haley Dahl of Sloppy Jane were featured.

“I definitely learned about music and about songwriting and how I like to write myself … but if you didn’t write a great song, nobody’s going to punish you for it,” said Andrew Chou-Belden ’29. His approach to the class, that “you get out what you put in,” was a common theme for students — and being Princeton students, most seemed to be all in.

For Bella Rios ’25, now working full time as a songwriter in Nashville, the class’s diversity of musical experience provided a different approach to how she thinks about songwriting. “When I initially went into the class, I thought that I would mostly be with other people who had written a lot. [Instead] it brought me back to the root of why I do music in the first place, which is because I love it and because it’s fun,” she said.

In the second-to-last class before the concert, students lounged on a couch placed in the center of the Whitman Theater stage that doubled as their classroom. Equipped with microphones, drums, and guitar, peering at lyrics on phones, one of the groups rocked out to “Devil’s at Your Door.” Strange, in a Deftones shirt and baseball cap, walked from the audience, picked up a guitar, and began improvising alongside the students. He looked at the other guitar player. “I hear some harmonies here. Do you hear harmonies?” and started singing.

No rubrics are in sight, just constant communication and changes made on scrambled notes apps. Strange tries to bring the atmosphere of a real writers’ room to the class. “It always is just me in a room with someone and then we’re picking up a guitar or getting on a piano and just trying to see what feels good, so really not that different,” he said. “I’m just kind of fishing with my instrument, playing things and going with whatever energy I receive.”