BYU songwriting instructor Ben Truman hosted a student-songwriters showcase on Dec. 4, allowing students from his winter class to present their most recent compositions.
Truman hosted this event at the end of the semester, giving the students an opportunity to gain experience performing and while an audience appreciates their work.
The showcase featured 17 performances, each uniquely curated by a student or co-written between two students. Some performers played the piano while singing while others played the guitar; one student even played the bongo drums.
That student is Christian Litster. His co-write, Dallin Nielson, played the guitar while they delivered a playful, humorous sonnet called “Hold That Thought.”
The song was about "dtr-ing" or "defining the relationship," a slang term meaning to confess feelings in an effort to take a relationship to the next level.
“We were kind of doing it at the last minute. We finished it at about midnight, so the lyrics progressively got more and more hilarious. At the end, it came out to be more of a comedy piece, if anything,” said Litster.
Brooks Bingham was another student who asked the crowd to be interactive in his performance. Bingham urged the audience to hoot and clap whenever they wanted and even asked them to join in singing the last verse of his song, “A Moment Doesn’t Last.”
“I think the whole point of performing is to make an environment for the people watching. I just love when I go to shows and they’re involving the crowd and making it fun, because that’s what makes an impact on me the most," Bingham said. "I just wanted to make an impact, I guess.”
Brooklyn Nelson and Payton Newbold performed a duet called “Just Not You,” which was based on the experience of “trying to move on, but you’re still stuck on that one person,” said Newbold.
As Nelson played the guitar, the pair sang in harmonies of highs and lows to deliver their song.
The bulk of the song was written in an hour and slowly fine-tuned up until performance day, the composers said.
“It was easy to write with Brooklyn because she’s so talented, and our voices blend well together," Newbold said.
The performances ranged from upbeat and lively sing-a-longs to emotional and stirring ballads. All of the performances ended with immense applause from the crowd.