Swannanoa Gathering Contemporary Folk Week 2009
Songwriting A – Sara Hickman
• Sara is amazing – very supportive and great at pushing students to be braver and just go ahead and
CREATE! She was like a love, uncritical mother to us all. Students did incredible things in her class. I
think she changed a lot of lives here this year.
• Excellent. While Sara is incredibly supportive, her “positive support” eventually begins to lack credibility,
so it’s difficult to get “real” feedback – but that aside I learned tons.
• Yea! I finished a whole song and even sang it at the student open mic. Teacher helped me with my
confidence. I was challenged by Sara and I’ll be back next year. She was great!
• Awesome – really gave you things to do & said technical advice – ring her back. Her energy is great.
• Wow! Sara is a bundle of energy, encouragement, and great ideas. She also got everyone writing right
away. She taught another class that I would like to take so please bring her back next year!
• Incredible! I lacked a lot of confidence and had never completed a song. Sara made us do it. I wrote 3
songs this week and complete one I’d started a long time ago. Sara gave me a new sense of confidence and
showed me how to unlock my creativity. You MUST bring her back.
Living Life Creatively: Sara Hickman
• Successful class in getting people to open up and spend some time (brief) reflecting. Makes me think
she’d be good at leading a class on improv.
• Super excellent!!! My favorite class ever in my three years at SG. This woman is a living guru! She
lived what gurus teach! Plus her class was great fun and definitely did what it said it was going to do.
Bring her back!
• I must admit that I almost changed to Kate Campbell’s songwriting class – but now I’m SO glad I did
not! This was a very engaging class and Sara had me attempting things I never had tried.
Very spiritual class for me as well. Plus she brought so many materials to class. You must pay
her extra! I can see why is “2010 Texas musician of the year.”
• The class was really fun. I made a mandala – got to do art projects – Sara was very nurturing.
Her class was well organized. Bring Ms. Hickman back next year – please!
• Sara is a great teacher! She create an atmosphere of trust tat encourages us to take risks.
We grew from it and became more creative – for making music for being in our own lives.
She helped us conquer fears. She showed us hoe to ass more creativity to our days
(e.g. into hangouts, activities we tried in class.) We had fun, relaxed, played and ended up
being better musicians and songwriters. She is so sincerely interested in each person.
She is very caring and encouraging. She is REAL! Scheduling this class at the end
of the day was perfect! Have her every year!
• I wasn’t too sure about this class, but I’m glad I took it. It helped me unlock
that side of my brain and showed me that it’s ok for an adult to be playful.