Intro:

This year, during the Creative Workshop lessons I learnt many valuable things, but most notably I was introduced to the freedom you can have when creating music. As someone who’s used to writing music with a clear structure, the idea of creating music without a set framework felt weird and slightly uncomfortable at first, however in lessons we were encouraged to break away from the usual rules and just start playing, letting the music develop naturally. Surprisingly, this more spontaneous approach opened up new ways of thinking and gave me a fresh view on creating music.

Improve writing:

I found it hard to start with, it was so outside of my comfort zone to just start jamming, but once I stopped worrying about needing to stick to a structure and doing what I normally do, I started to relax and then it became much easier. We had a more natural way of figuring out sections of a song. It was a more experimental approach, and we were all playing more freely with sounds, rhythms, and melodies. In one of the lessons, I started playing a very simple chord progression, with no real plan, and then the others began adding layers on top. When we added the bass line it sounded great, (Bass line) which I didn’t think would be so easy to achieve when approaching writing in this way and working with a group. This simple change to my usual process was eye opening. Instead of overthinking every step, I started trusting the music and the people around me. Once all the instrumentalists, me on piano, knew roughly what we were playing, and we’d repeated it enough times, we started working on lyrics and more of a fixed structure for the song. We had a couple of ideas for the song, and we talked them through, then tried each approach but in the end, we decided to make it about growing up and finding things in our lives, Elsie came up with the lines “From the age of” and “I like to discover” (Elsie, 2025) and this became the lyric for new bassline for the song. After working on that for a while, Nick suggested we add a blues chord progression. I think this really added something good to the song (blues chord progression), and because it was a group effort, with sounds that we all contributed, it became something quite new and unique to all of us. We then added an ascending build up chord progression which to me added a lot more to the song and I think it was needed, it’s one of my favourite sections. (Build up chord progression) Another one of my favourite sections is the intro. The intro is all of us playing an instrument in a kinda strange way, something I’ve never done before, it builds up all of us playing louder then it stops and the drums come in for the song start. We added this after the song had basically been written but it really ties the whole thing together.(Intro)

This experience has really changed the way I think about making music with other people. It showed me that not everything needs to be fully formed from the start. Once I stopped trying to control everything and let the project grow, it made the whole writing process feel more exciting. It showed me that creativity doesn’t always have to be neat and perfect. I really enjoyed this new way of writing music.

Collaboration:

One of the most important aspects of this process for me was collaboration. Working closely with others in the group taught me how useful it can be to share our strengths and build on each other’s ideas. I really enjoyed the part when we talked about what the song could be about, (lyric idea) we all talked about an experience that we’d had that could relate to the song and we were using our imagination. We all got to know each other a bit better too. At the start of this process, I really was unsure how it would work, especially without a set plan, but I quickly realised that everyone brought something different to the table and that we could work well together. Sometimes someone would start playing a melody or rhythm, and this inspired others to join in, adding their own stuff. It was exciting to see a song take shape in real time, with everyone contributing something personal. This back and forth made the music feel more real. A significant thing that I learned was that the process helped me become a better listener and communicator. I can be quite shy and lack confidence, but I learned that collaboration could help me with this.  It’s also not just about working together, it’s about accepting and working with others’ ideas as well as my own. A lesson that I know I will take with me in future experiences and that will make me a better artist. As a singer who plays instruments, I haven’t had the chance to do much work using collaboration, especially in big bands, however this workshop was a valuable introduction for me, as it has shown me how to effectively merge my ideas with that of my band members to create a piece of music.

Reflection:

This workshop had a big impact on me and how I now think about making  music. It made me realise that  it doesn’t always need to start with a set idea. Sometimes it’s better to  just play and be open to what happens. I used to be quite nervous about making mistakes or not having a clear plan, but now I understand that those mistakes are important. It also made me listen more, not just to the music, but to the people around me. I’ve realised that I don’t always have to be so hard on myself, some of the best ideas we had in the workshop came from bouncing off each other and being brave enough to experiment.

Since then, I’ve been more experimental when making music on my own. I’m giving myself more time to explore, and I think that’s helping me find my own sound more.

Overall, the Creative Workshop has given me a good new perspective on how music can be made.

Apendix:

(Bass line)

(Build up chord progression)

(blues chord progression)

(Intro)

(lyric idea)

Full song