IS THERE a school that teaches budding artists how to write good songs?

In any case, a coming event may help develop their music creativity.

Some of the country?s best and most respected singer-songwriters, arrangers and producers will converge to share their knowledge and how they pursued their respective careers in a five-day music workshop dubbed the First Elements National Songwriting Camp.

The event, to be held on November 14-18 in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, will pick 60 aspiring songwriters?20 each from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, who will get the chance to learn and interact with successful music practitioners, all for free.

?The idea is to get all of us together and just share...there will be a lot of sharing of experiences,? said Ryan Cayabyab, one of the incorporators of a new company called 7101 Music Nation, whose Taos-Puso Foundation is bankrolling the project.

Some of the speakers, lecturers and team facilitators who attended the workshop?s media launch recently were Joey Ayala, Jimmy Antiporda, Trina Belamide, Noel Cabangon, Ebe Dancel, Jay Durias, Jungee Marcelo, Jonathan Manalo, Louie Ocampo, Top Suzara and Yael Yuzon.

Conducive settings

They will be joined at the workshop proper by Gabby Alipe, Joey Benin, Gary Granada, Chito Miranda, Jim Paredes and Gary Valenciano, among others.

Aside from that star-studded line-up of ?teachers,? the other come-on is that the workshop sessions will be done amid conducive settings like Dumaguete?s beaches and rainforests.

The workshop modules include Basic Music Creation; Lyrics; Commercial Music Structures; The Music Producer; Publishing & New Music Trends; Music & Inspiration; etc.

The Inquirer asked Cayabyab: Isn?t it too overwhelming to cram those wide-ranging topics in just five days?

?Yes, but there will be lots of time for individual consultations,? he said. ?We are assigning 12 songwriters to each ?shepherd? five aspirants...We will find out how we can expand this in the future.?

Aspirants have until August 15 to apply. Log on to 7101musicnation.com.ph for details. Pocholo Concepcion