Happening Soon
FEB 1-9: SongStudio Workshopping Online!
Join us online for a fun, exciting, and rewarding week of songwriting, taking a look inside hit songs, performing, and re-writing your songs with professional mentors.
*** ALSO click here for our TORONTO IN-PERSON WORKSHOP in JULY 2025 ***
We’ve been running songwriter workshops every year since 2005, and it just keeps getting better. We started online workshops in 2020 (remember 2020?) and found ourselves working with participants and mentors from all over the place.
Yes, we all discovered that being in an online meeting was a mix of good and not-so-good.
The good:
- We are able to be “together” and work on your songs, without the expenses of travel and accommodation
- We are able to invite participants and mentors to join us from far away places
- We are able to jump into private exercises easily, since you have your own private space
- We are able to offer most of the same terrific programming that we offer in-person
And the not-so-good:
- We can run into technical challenges
- Online meetings can be fatiguing
- We might be operating at an inconvenient time in your Timezone
We are prepared to mitigate many of the challenges of an online meeting, by:
- helping you to get the best out of your devices (internet/WiFi and our computers/tablets)
- taking breaks and keeping the online days shorter
- recording the sessions so that you can re-watch at a time that is convenient for you (replays are made available a short time after the recorded event)
We are also doing our best to schedule the online workshop to:
- allow you to participate without taking vacation days from your job
- allow you to participate at a reasonable time of day from any North American Timezone
What We’ll be Doing
Over the course of two weekends (and a few weeknights in between), we will:
- Work YOUR songs with our professional mentors, to make you a better songwriter
- Run guided songwriting exercises with homework and “office hour” opportunities
- Hear the songs you’ve finished and the ones that you’re still working on, in a safe and friendly space
- Bring you into a fabulous community of songwriters who will become your friends and collaborators
- Detour into important non-songwriting music business topics where it’s useful to do so
Your Mentors
Along with our intrepid SongStudio team (Blair Packham and Allister Bradley), you will work with our team of songwriting mentors who are sure to elevate your songwriting.
*** Our mentors’ touring schedules typically prevent us from publicly confirming their participation until closer to the workshop, so stand by as we announce this year’s mentors. ***
CHECK OUT THE LIST of this year’s mentors and past mentors and prepare to be amazed!
Schedule: Saturday, Feb 1 – Sunday, Feb 9, 2025
** All times listed are Eastern Standard Time (Toronto). **
** Schedule is subject to change. Check back to see updates. **
Saturday, February 1st
| 10:30 – 11:00am | Arrival and Mingling |
| 11:00 – 11:30am | Welcome to SongStudio |
| 11:30am – 12:45pm | Keynote Address With our guest keynote speaker Billy Bragg |
| 12:45 – 1:30pm | BREAK – Grab a meal, and sign-up for workshopping |
| 1:30 – 4:00pm | Song Workshops Small groups, each with a workshop leader. Participants each perform a song and seek suggestions from the mentor. TODAY’S MENTORS INCLUDE: Stephen Stanley Rachael Kennedy |
Sunday, February 2nd
| 10:30 – 11:00am | Arrival and Mingling |
| 11:00am – 12:15pm | What’s Going On In That Song? We’ll take apart a great song and see how its parts all fit together to make it awesome |
| 12:15 – 12:45pm | Writing Assignment Explained On your own time between today and next weekend, you can be writing one or more new songs for “homework” |
| 12:45 – 1:30pm | BREAK – Grab a meal, and sign-up for workshopping |
| 1:30 – 4:00pm | Song Workshops Small groups, each with a workshop leader. Participants each perform a song and seek suggestions from the mentor. TODAY’S MENTORS INCLUDE: Stephen Stanley Rachael Kennedy |
Tuesday, February 4th
| 8:00 – 10:30pm | Office Hours Allister and Blair can help you with your songwriting homework! Co-Writing Time You may choose to get together with a co-writer in one of our private meeting rooms Song Lounge Hang out and share songs with your fellow writers |
Thursday, February 6th
| 8:00 – 10:30pm | Office Hours Allister and Blair can help you with your songwriting homework! Co-Writing Time You may choose to get together with a co-writer in one of our private meeting rooms Song Lounge Hang out and share songs with your fellow writers |
Saturday, February 8th
| 10:30 – 11:00am | Arrival and Mingling |
| 11:00am – 12:15pm | What’s Going On In That Song? We’ll take apart a great song and see how its parts all fit together to make it awesome |
| 12:15 – 12:45pm | What Have You Written? Let’s have a listen to your homework |
| 12:45 – 1:30pm | BREAK – Grab a meal, and sign-up for workshopping |
| 1:30 – 4:00pm | Song Workshops Small groups, each with a workshop leader. Participants each perform a song and seek suggestions from the mentor. TODAY’S MENTORS INCLUDE: Barbra Lica Blair Packham |
Sunday, February 9th
| 10:30 – 11:00am | Arrival and Mingling |
| 11:00am – 11:30am | What Have You Written? Let’s have a listen to more of your homework |
| 11:30am – 12:45pm | Music Industry Guest Let’s change gears a bit, and talk about what happens with our songs after they’re written |
| 12:45 – 1:30pm | BREAK – Grab a meal |
| 1:30 – 3:30pm | Demo Derby Our panel of music industry experts will listen to your pre-recorded songs and steer the discussion to how those songs might thrive in the music market. TODAY’S MENTORS INCLUDE: Niki Rochefort Andy Curran |
| 3:30 – 4:00pm | Group Photo and Farewell |
Registration Price
C$699 (+tax) for the full program.
(SongStudio alumni receive a 10% discount off this price.)
