A group of Don College music students had the privilege of participating in the SongMakers workshop, a two-day song writing program supported by APRA AMCOS on May 5 and 6. 

APRA AMCOS consists of the Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society, both copyright management organisations that represent songwriters in Australia. The aim of the program is to use the creation of students’ original work as a platform to explore issues such as the importance of being enterprising, collaborative, persistent, and resilient. The program also gives students a feel for what it’s like to work in the music industry, as well as learning about what is involved in writing, producing, and releasing music. Don College has had the privilege of running this program over the last four years and is always a highlight for those that are involved. This year we were able to host the workshop at the college after running the program online for the last two years.

Another exciting part of the program is that students are mentored by artists who are currently working in the music industry. Our mentors this year were Elle Graham (Woodes), Dana Palmer (DVNA) and Milan Ring, all fantastic producers/performers/songwriters in their own rights. Students spent the first day in groups working with the mentors on writing a song from scratch. This included writing the lyrics, working out melodies and creating instrumental parts. The second day was spent in the recording studios creating a ‘demo’ of their songs. At the end of the day students were able to listen to their songs and reflect on the process.

You can listen to the songs created in the workshop here: https://soundcloud.com/don-college/sets/songmakers-2022

Rising written by Ronan Mace, Oliver Mason, & Charlotte Woods

Up in the Clouds written by Ruby Hardwicke, Kye Knowles, Fabian Spratt & Ebony Van De Elzen

Orphic written by Aaron Buckley, Taso Bookarof, Hubert Hoffler & Charlee Saunders