Musicians as mentors
Singer-songwriters Wendy Ealey and Moira Tyers formed the Darebin Songwriters Guild in 2006 to help budding artists to get their craft out of the kitchen and bedroom.
Their encouragement and guidance has helped many songwriters find their voice, conquer their nerves and gain experience performing their original songs in front of a live audience.
The Guild is a forum for sharing and presenting original music performed either by a songwriter or someone who represents them.
The Guild meets regularly to host an open stage performance platform where artists can try out their original songs, or songs-in-progress. These regular gatherings also provide an opportunity for artists to network, workshop their songs with peers, learn more about the craft of songwriting from professional artists who volunteer as trainers or mentors, collaborate with other musicians and gain technical skills in sound production and staging.
Moira and I feel very honoured to bear witness to people's musical growth,
says Wendy. Through our involvement in the Guild we've also found a new musical community to belong to and we've made good friendships based on shared goals and ethical mind sets. There is not much about the Guild that doesn't make us pleased that we set it up in the first place.
While Moira and Wendy are the Guild's co-founders and convenors, the events are attended by some regular Guildians who are either writers, performers, listeners or supporters. The Guild's participants include people of widely varying age groups and abilities, and all gatherings are accessible to people with a disability.
We have seen numerous people blossom as writers and performers and grow in confidence personally through their involvement with the Guild,
says Wendy.
Both Moira and I have also blossomed through our involvement. We've struck up our own musical collaboration, Unsung, with fellow singer-songwriter Neil Robertson, we've polished our skills as MCs and event organisers and we've both conquered our fear of the mixing desk to become reasonably competent sound guys at the Guild's live music events.