FREE Online Songwriting Workshops
We are offering monthly online workshops with First Stages in Songwriting tutors, guest songwriters and industry professionals. These are for anyone who is interested in starting to write or who are developing and continuing work. These will include writing prompts, looking at melody, lyric, co-writing, learning about how to navigate the industry, opportunities to share your work in a nurturing and supportive online space and the songwriting community.
These sessions run from 6pm – 8pm monthly from December 2025 to June 2026. They are free to attend and open to anyone aged 14-25 (up to 30 if you have lived experience of the care system) living in Scotland (or artists accessing the Green Note sessions) who is interested in songwriting and experiences isolation or have less access to making songs. No musical knowledge, instrument or experience necessary, but if you have some that’s great as well!
More dates to be announced soon.
Please join us to help us nurture Scotland’s vibrant writing community!
We thank Creative Scotland Youth Music Initiative and all of our tutors/guest songwriters for making these sessions possible.
If you’re interested in joining all of the sessions, fill out the form below
Join Boo Hewerdine for a relaxed workshop that explores the basics of writing a song. He’ll look at lyrics, melody, chord progressions and editing. This friendly session would suit anyone who is new to making songs or who might already be writing but would like to revisit what techniques and skills underpin making good work. No experience or instrument needed! In this supportive session, Boo Hewerdine will examine what makes a song studio ready. Boo will look at pre-submitted songs from a selection of participants to go deeper into the songwriting process and demonstrate techniques you might apply to your work. Romeo and Michele Stodart of The Magic Numbers brother and sister join forces to share part of their process with songwriting. This three hour online session will dive into the importance of hooks, harmony, melodic phrases, inner rhymes and the power of call and response. Join Tamara from the Hen Hoose Collective for a discussion on community building and navigating life as an independent artist. Join Kathryn and Michele, acclaimed singer songwriters and producers in a session that focusses on co-writing. Come along to this nurturing online workshop and discover the power of collaboration in songs.
Wed 10th Dec
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Tue 13th Jan
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Wed 18th Feb
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Tue 24th Feb
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Tue 10th Mar
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FIRST STAGES is part of The Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative (YMI) which is administered by Creative Scotland. The YMI creates access to high quality music making opportunities, enables young people to achieve their potential in or through music and supports the development of the sector for the benefit of young people.
