A group of talented singers and musicians, Elissa, Willow, Violet, Addie and Neja went to Tūranga Library to participate in a masterclass on songwriting.

The excellent teacher Regan/Kupu and supervisor Mina made our experience a lot better. We started off with a few name games to get to know each other, like saying our names with an action and going around the room repeating everyone’s name and action.

Then we did a really fun activity called “sandwich song” where you wrote down a title on a piece of paper and passed on your paper to the next person to write. This repeats until you have a finished poem/short song. Then we got into groups of three and we created a song using some of the lyrics from the sandwich songs/poems. We also performed what we made with our voices and different instruments.

After that, we talked about the different ways to write a song. People had lots of different ideas. Just to name a few: music first (e.g. finding chords), lyrics first, or maybe just inspiration that pops up into your head.

After lunch break, we got time to work on individual work/projects like making our own song/music piece, or just practicing something for a band. Elissa, Willow, Violet and a new friend Mary made a song about summer. We performed what we had so far in front of the group.

This was a great experience because we got to meet new people who share the same passion for music.

We all gained new skills after the workshop. Willow found out she is great on the drums and Elissa found out it’s actually really easy to write your own song. We will definitely use them in the future.

This masterclass was also really good because it helped us with our social skills. It brought us outside our comfort zone by meeting people from high schools who are a lot older. We also performed in front of a large group, boosting our confidence.

Overall we really enjoyed the songwriting masterclass and are really happy to say we made new friends, learnt new things and just had a really good time.

Elissa Room 2 and Willow Room 3