Deepen your songwriting craft & practice.
With sections for both new and emerging songwriters, the Songwriting Lab offers both a grounding in song structure and exercises that unlock creativity and intuition. Through writing prompts, and collaboration with peers, this class aims to give students a range of tools for the exploration and development of their songwriting practice. Throughout the course, students will write and revise a variety of songs and engage in practices such as free-writing, drawing, movement, and rituals that facilitate our access to deeper source material. This course provides a fresh, embodied, and imaginative approach to the craft of songwriting, taught by songwriter-performers active in the New York songwriting scene.
Which level should I join?
Level 1: Basic proficiency on an instrument or as a vocalist and have little to no experience writing their own songs.
Level 2: Musicians who have previously written and performed original songs and are looking to take their craft to the next level.
Sections
- Level 1: Thursdays, 7:00 – 8:00 PM
- Level 2: Thursdays, 8:00 – 9:00 PM
The Registration Process
1. If you are new to BKCM, click here to create a Registration account.
2. Click here to fill out the Student & Family Survey.
3. Register for Level 1 at the link below, or write to cmsadmin@bkcm.org and send a short sample of our songwriting if you’re interested in joining Level 2 (anything from voice note to mastered recording is acceptable!).
If you have questions, please call 718-622-3300 to speak to one of our registrars who will guide you through every step of the registration process. For complete information on our registration process and policies, please click here.
Financial Aid
At this time in the school year, BKCM has minimal financial aid left for spring 2026 Community Music School classes and lessons. To be considered for financial aid should additional funds become available, kindly submit the financial aid application. Please note: submitting an application does not guarantee that financial aid will eventually be awarded.
If you have any questions before applying, contact kris.mandapat@bkcm.org. Please allow 7 business days for Kris to review your application and respond.
Songwriting Lab Faculty
Maya Keren
Maya Keren is a songwriter, improviser, and educator from Philly living in Brooklyn. They play piano, guitar, and sing. They are interested in music as a practice of attention, touch, and deep listening that can reveal a more spiritually attuned way of living.
Maya first came to music as a jazz pianist and choral singer (notably, through the Creative Music Program in Philly), and later as a songwriter and guitarist. They have learned the meaning of musicality through friends, collaborators, teachers, and students, including John Moran, Julian Miltenberger, Akiva Jacobs, Jeffrey Gordon, Maya Rabinowitz, Eliza Salem, Anna Abondolo, Emmanuel Michael, Eden Girma, Lesley Mok, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Miranda Agnew, Julien Chang, Maya Stepansky, Claire Dickson, Camila Ortiz, Celia Hill, Rahul Carlberg, Caroline Davis, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Maria Grand, Sumi Tonooka, Kris Davis, and Angelica Sanchez.
In April of 2023 they released their debut solo album Blebba Grows. Maya writes songs, loops, and words for their band Careful In The Sun, with support from Looking Glass Arts (recording residency, 2023) The Center for Remembering and Sharing (touring grant, 2024) and YoungArts (recording grant, 2024), with their debut album due to release fall of 2025 on Munich-based Squama Recordings. They are also in the midst of finishing their second solo album Slow Burn. In addition to their personal projects, Maya is also currently working with experimental music elder Henry Threadgill in his most recent ensemble, Listen Ship, for six guitars and two pianos.
Maya has been part of several formative workshops, residencies, and coalitions, including the Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music, Ruha Benjamin’s JUST Data Lab, Ravinia Jazz Workshop, and Avaloch Residency, and has performed internationally and in New York at venues like Public Records, Roulette Intermedium, National Sawdust, The Stone, and Yamaha Hall.
Camila Ortiz
Camila Ortiz is a songwriter, performer, and sound designer based in Brooklyn. As Otracami, she leans into storytelling and atmosphere, crafting spiraling narratives that emerge from marshes, dim bedrooms, and nighttime drives. The project builds on her catalog of earlier solo releases as Camila Ortiz, including Fall Apart (2015) and Carrot Flowers (2017), and also draws on the influence of her ongoing avant-pop collaboration with singer/composer Claire Dickson as Myrtle. Their debut single, “Shifted,” was featured by NPR All Songs Considered. As a sound designer and composer, Ortiz has most recently contributed to scores for “EVERY VOICE” (2022) a virtual sound and sculpture exhibit for the LA Philharmonic, and Kaneza Schaal’s KLII (2023) for The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival.