Workshop with Sasami Ashworth (April 2026)

We’re so thrilled to announce that Sasami will be teaching a songwriting workshop at School of Song beginning on Sunday, April 5th. From her background as a classically trained French horn player to her multi-genre explorations, Sasami will share her perspectives as a songwriter, producer, and vocalist.

The course will explore a range of topics, including:

Observed Patterns in Pop Music: Sasami will share her recent fascinations within pop music, such as repeated four-bar phrases, the impact of vocal range, and character arc as we aim to write songs with more universal connection.

Starting with the Voice: “I always end up writing songs where I least expect to, in the grocery store or on a hike.” By starting with the voice, we find songs that sit more comfortably in our natural range, thus leading to more resonant performances and recordings.

Orchestration, Genre, & Technology: Walking through the evolution of a song from voice memo to the iPad to a fully orchestrated chamber ensemble, Sasami will share insights into the impact of a song’s instrumentation and reflect on fluid boundaries that we use to define genre.

The Album as a Dissertation: We will examine how to live as a lifelong student of songwriting by building a relationship with the creative process where we approach the destination of the album as we would a student’s dissertation.

Here are a few words from Sasami about the course:

"People like to refer to music or song as nouns, but I prefer them in the verb form. I grew up playing french horn and singing church music, so before I even knew what a composition was, it was just something we did. For some, songwriting is mathematical, methodical and achieves a level of human accomplishment that is breathtaking. For others it is more spiritual and although technically instruments are held, it’s an act that transcends the physical world. For a lot of us it’s literally an impulse that we can’t help like burping. Any of the ways- it’s all made up!

There is no right or wrong way to sing or make music, there are only those who follow their curiosity and those who don’t. Even the concept of a “song”… sure it feels good to put a name to a bundle of energy and call it universal, but I don’t even know how I feel about objectifying something as unbounded as music making!

I’ve studied classical music, improvisation, rock-folk-pop songwriting, and all I know is that I love the feeling of visiting a musical realm, searching for the message and doing my best to wrangle it- maybe a song is more like a beast or spirit that we cajole into our arms? Songwriting is a practice, it’s worship, it’s study, it’s exploration. In my course I am going to guide us through a few of the infinite ways to approach it and find stories in our work."