Brian Eno & School of Song Announce January Songwriting Workshop

School of Song, the groundbreaking online platform offering songwriting and community workshops with acclaimed musicians, announces its January 2025 program with musician, producer, visual artist and activist Brian Eno. In this course, Brian will guide students through his multifaceted relationship with the creative process, sharing many techniques and practices he has developed throughout his career.

Eno first came to international prominence in the early 1970s as a founding member of the British band Roxy Music, followed by a series of solo albums and collaborations. His work as a producer includes albums with Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Laurie Anderson, James, Jane Siberry, and Coldplay, while his long list of collaborations includes recordings with David Bowie, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd, David Byrne, Grace Jones, his brother, Roger, on Mixing Colours and recently with Fred Again. Brian’s most recent album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, was released in October 2022. He has recently written his second book, What Art Does, co-authored with Bette A. and based upon his experience as an artist. Published by Faber, it will be available in January 2025.

The workshop will cover a wide range of topics related to music making and is geared towards anyone interested in furthering their musical practice. The workshop’s topics includes: The Role of Surrender, Avant Gardening, Creating a Compelling Sonic World, Oblique Strategies, and Should Music Still Be Called Music?

Eno says:

“I’m looking forward to the chance to properly articulate some ideas about the creative process that have been fermenting over the last 50 years. To be able to do this with some fresh young minds and imaginations was a chance that I couldn’t refuse.”

Brian Eno & School of Song, photo by Cecily Eno

The workshop will include four lectures to take place on Sundays, January 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th, at 12:00 PST / 15:00 EST. Each lecture is approximately 75 minutes, with the first class lasting two hours to include a live in-class writing exercise. The course will also include hour-long Q&As on Wednesdays, January 8th, 15th, and 22nd at 12:00 PST / 15″00 EST. The cost of the program is 160 dollars, and the deadline to sign up is January 4th, 11:59 pm PST. Recorded lectures will be available and sent out afterwards for those who are unable to attend at those times.

School of Song was founded by longtime friends Blue Sheffer and Steven van Betten, who grew up music-obsessed together in Las Vegas but took circuitous routes toward launching the platform – Sheffer as a PhD student in computer and neuroscience and van Betten as a professional guitar instructor.

After reconnecting in their adopted home of California, they united on presenting a new instructional model for songwriting appropriate for a wide variety of audiences and created the School of Song. Prior courses, many of which remain available online, are taught by the likes of acclaimed musicians Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief), Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones), Laraaji, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, Bartees Strange, and more. Subjects touch on everything from the moment of inspiration, surprise, and inevitability, holding tensions and avoiding resolution, lyrical slippage, and weird chord progressions, with upcoming programs including fingerpicking for folk guitar, music theory for songwriters and learning songs by ear, among other topics.

Not surprisingly, workshop attendees have become friends online and have frequently met up to make music in the real world, with more than 300 in-person Song Shares having been organized in the past two years. In this way, it’s not just about learning from the teachers but also from each other. They also discover how to build a lifelong relationship with the art of songwriting rather than viewing it as something ephemeral or competitive.