Song Makers' Workshop

Last Wednesday and Thursday (1st and 2nd March) a number of Beaufort Secondary College students participated in the Song Makers' Workshop. It is run by APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) and the group brings world class songwriters and producers into high schools to work with passionate music students. The two day workshop allowed the students to work on collaborative writing, demo’ing new songs, and learning about career pathways into the global industry.

The students were able to work with three incredible music mentors for the program: Elle Graham, better known as Woodes - is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. She has appeared at multiple festivals, including Splendour in the Grass, SXSW & Beyond the Valley. Ninajirachi is an electronic DJ and producer and has remixed for Flight Facilities and toured with Mallrat, Charli XCX and Cashmere Cat. The third artist was Katie Wighton, who is the guitarist/vocalist in the ARIA-award winning band, All Our Exes Live in Texas. She has toured the world supporting acts including The Backstreet Boys, Passenger & Midnight Oil in the US. This experience allowed our students to learn about career pathways into the global industry, from people currently involved and working in the field.

These musicians were able to take the students through a number of exercises to explore how to songwrite collaboratively and then mentored them through the process of adding instruments and recording their group songs. The students experimented with a range of instruments, from guitars and ukeleles, to piano and even the cello.

‘I never realised I could write a song as well as I did. I found the whole experience really worthwhile.’ - Matilda Venes, Year 9

‘It was great to see the talent and skills of everyone across the school.’ - Annie Kehoe Year 9

‘From a teaching perspective, it was excellent to see the students immerse themselves with their passion for Music. It also allowed the students to develop their literacy skills within the songwriting component. They would start with a concept and branch out into related words, to build their ideas and develop their song structure. The guidance from the mentors meant that every student had a role to play in the group's final song performance. By the end of the two days, there were three amazing recordings that the groups had created, and as a result, they have been given the songwriting credits for these songs.’ 

‘We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity. Song Makers Project Director, Tina Broad, arranged the workshop and her passion for providing the students with an opportunity to work with world class musicians is invaluable. The funding support from APRA AMCOS was vital to ensuring that our students in regional and rural areas don’t miss out.’ - Simone Conroy, Head of the Art and Technology Faculty