Community
2 April, 2025
Students embrace intensive music program
THANKS to a special musical program being brought to rural schools, students at Timboon P-12 have been rocking it out and making tunes across two days with tutorship from industry professionals, allowing them to make and record their very own songs from start to finish.
Called Songmakers, the program offered by the Australasian Performing Right Association and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (APRA AMCOS) has given music students in Timboon and surrounding areas the opportunity to be a part of the song making process.
The program involves three prominent Australian songwriters and music producers coming out to schools to work with young creatives over two consecutive days, providing mentorship and professional guidance.
VET music teacher Andrew Deppeler said the program was very sought after and Timboon P-12 had been lucky to be successful in securing it for students this year.
“It’s very hard to get three people off busy schedules to come down to a place like Timboon,” he said.
“We’re so isolated that kids have very little exposure to that level of musicianship, so we’re very lucky.
“I’ve run this program from APRA AMCOS twice before and it’s great for the students because they can see a finished product so quickly and they can see all their efforts gone into it and bang, here it is.
“They can play these songs to their grandchildren.”
Industry mentors in attendance working with the students included Elizabeth Drummond, Jackson Phelan and Hayden Lauersen, all with years of experience under their belt having toured across Australia with a number of bands and accumulated multiple song writing and producing credits.
“The really fun thing about coming here to this school is that all the songs are super different to each other so they’ve covered heaps of ground,” Mr Phelan said.
“There’re some really quirky songs that we’ve heard and some great musicians.
“It’s been really fun and the students sound great.”
On Wednesday, March 26, the first day of the program, Mr Deppeler said everyone had been focused from “the first minute”.
“This morning they’ve gone from idea to finished song by 1pm,” he said.
“Now they’re fine tuning their work with a vision of performing it this afternoon and then tomorrow they go straight into recording.
“These guys are still working – they’re working through their lunchtime.
“The kids have worked so hard, it’s fantastic.”
Comprised of four separate groups of four, the budding song makers were all VET music students completing their Certificate III, ranging across Year 10s, 11s and 12s.
They weren’t just students from Timboon P-12, either.
“I’ve got three students from Camperdown,” Mr Deppeler said.
“This is the hub, or whatever they call it, here in Timboon.
“They come here every Thursday and we do the music classes we do over the year.”
The students finalised recording their songs on Thursday, March 27, then they were sent off to be finalised for publication.
All songs written and recorded by the students will be available to be listened to on the Songmakers website at https://songmakers.com.au in the coming days.
Read More: Timboon