Songwriting is widely reported as beneficial for students of all ages. For students in the later years of secondary school, there are strong links between songwriting and affirming culture, identity formation, wellbeing, and engagement as well as developing musical skills, knowledge and understanding (Dale et al., 2023; Hallam & Himonedes, 2022; Reinhert, 2019). Despite the benefits, there is a longstanding and widely reported reluctance by music teachers to engage with songwriting in their own musical practice as well as in their classrooms. To promote songwriting cultures in schools, SongMakers is the Australasian Performing Rights Association’s (APRA) education program that has been running nationally since 2013. A SongMakers workshop typically involves mentors who are also musicians, songwriters and music producers working with 16 senior secondary high school students to write and record a demo version of their song in 2-days. On day 1, students work collaboratively to write an original song, culminating in a live performance at the end of the day. On day 2, a demo version is recorded which is shared at the conclusion of the workshop. We undertook case study research guided by the research question: How do artists and music producers facilitate songwriting workshops with school students? Research methods included participant-observation of workshops, semi-structured interviews with SongMakers mentors, and a focus group with teachers. A thematic analysis was undertaken to identify emergent themes. In this presentation, we report on the pedagogical approach of the SongMakers mentors. Lucy Green’s (2008) informal learning pedagogical principles were evident in the approach of the artists and producers in the songwriting pedagogy. However, the approach to recording and production the demo version shifted significantly to a mentor-led approach. Key strategies that the mentors emphasised were the importance of improvisation, collaboration, relationships and interpersonal skills, with less emphasis placed on musical outcomes. Finally, we consider implications for school music education and how the SongMakers mentoring approach might be adopted and adapted by music teachers to build songwriting cultures in their school and support a more accessible school music education.