Making It Yours! Learn To Borrow like the Best

Start date: 21 March 2026
Day: Saturday
Course length: 1 Day Course
Time: 13:30 to 16:30

Course code: SW10

Full fee: £30.00 | Over 65s: £27.00 | Benefit: £24.00

Tutor: Jacob Waller


Courses description

Every artist borrows. The trick is what you do with it. Shakespeare re-worked chronicles, plays and poems into something richer: he even lifted entire passages when he saw fit. The Beatles lifted basslines, harmonies and riffs from Motown, Chuck Berry and the Everly Brothers, but bent them into their own sound. Even Bach and Beethoven took existing hymns and folk tunes, reshaping them until the sources were unrecognisable except to specialists. What lasts is never the raw material but the end result.

This workshop is for songwriters, lyricists and writers, and looks at how to use other people's work without simply ripping them off. We will explore practical strategies for re-shaping lyrics, poetry and the written word generally, and how to fold them into your own voice. Exercises will range from direct re-working of source material to looser experiments in style and structure. Along the way we will see how influence, theft, homage and originality overlap, and how every artist builds on a chain of predecessors. By the end, you will have a toolkit for making borrowed material truly your own.

Material List
Fees & further information

Book Your Place:

For Terms and Conditions click here.