Bringing a 17th Century artist to life with Tina Ross

Tina Ross is a New York based Singer Songwriter making up for lost time. On her second act, she just released her debut album, “While I’m Here”. Her vocal delivery brims with the clarity and conviction of a stage actor while her finely crafted acoustic guitar work has an understated and uncluttered quality. There is no hurry in her music, but make no mistake, it’s not laid back. A quiet, elegant fierceness runs through her songs. Tina has been recognized by the UK Songwriting Contest and The International Blues and Roots Radio Contest as a finalist and by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest as an Honorable Mention. She is also a member of the Jack Hardy Songwriting Exchange. Tina also hosts seasoned songwriters on a monthly Concert/Interview on Zoom, “Inside The Song”, through The Folk Project of New Jersey. Her guests have included Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, and Tom Chapin, to name a few.

Tina shared the process behind her song, Artemisia. Download the lyrics to follow along.

• We added more goodies to our songwriting challenge 2023 webpage!
• How Tina’s hand injury led to using open tunings on her guitar
• Key word exercises using a dictionary to find synonyms and rhymes to develop your story and lyric (Pat Pattison techniques)
• The Complete Rhyming Dictionary: Updated and Expanded
• How Tina writes pages upon pages of material to then whittle down to a lyric
• How Artemisia is kind of a musical theatre folk song
• Melodies that “float” by not emphasizing the down beat
• How to accompany a singer as an instrumentalist (spoiler: keep it simple)