Group Songwriting

Group songwriting with secondary students.

I specialise in group songwriting. It is a unique and precious, place-based experience which culminates in a co-written song. 

First, I work with the group to establish values, expectations and boundaries. This is "challenge by choice." I then help group members to listen to each other, to be courageously creative, and to find and sing their own song together. The result is a communally-created song. To conclude, we record a demo together. 

Long after the session ends, the song remains. Participants carry the memory in the melody. 

I have facilitated group songwriting​ sessions all over Australia in just about every setting imaginable, including schools, pubs, mental health facilities, aged care and youth detention centres.

Turning local stories into songs with John Flanagan and some little songwriters for 'Song Factory' at Junction Arts Festival, Tasmania, 2016.

My group songwriting sessions are inclusive, neuro-affirming and trauma-informed. I offer half-day and full-day sessions, and provide a demo recording, lyrics and chord charts. 

Curious? Get in touch via the form below!

A bespoke group songwriting experience at Fleurieu Folk Festival. Members of this group and I performed the song as part of my show.

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Testimonials

"Daniel has performed across Australia with a focus on participatory storytelling through song. He has a gift for collaborating with local people and encouraging the development of personal and cultural narratives."
- Rachel Edwards, radio producer and events coordinator

"It’s a privilege to work with this poet and musical storyteller, who captures the soul of Tasmania and the intricacies of the human condition with rare and unassuming skill. Casually at some point it might come up that he’s taught himself a unique way to play guitar because his disability means technically he shouldn’t be able to play it at all. Which sums up his approach to his art. He always finds a way to tell the stories of his home and his soul."
- Helen Shield, ABC Radio Hobart

"Daniel has a gift for storytelling that takes his audience on journeys to other times and other places. He is able to eloquently open the worlds of others to the listener and to make them feel that he is speaking only to them. He is an artist that challenges the listener’s perception and perspective of the world in a way that is both enlightening and comforting."
- Michelle Castle, Patron of the Arts