Canberra Veteran Art Meetup - Digital Music Making Workshop

About

In partnership with Mike Armstrong Art and the Australian National Veterans Art Museum (ANVAM), we’re pleased to host our monthly Canberra Veterans Art Meetup — a welcoming space for veterans and their families to connect through creativity.

Our meetup on 26 September 2026 will feature a 2.5-hour Digital Music Making workshop with Mansell Laidler, a musician, veteran, researcher, and creative facilitator with 25 years of experience across orchestral, rock, and electronic music.

Mansell will demonstrate a range of digital music-making tools, including a phone application and a standalone digital music-making device. He will run through what is possible with the Ableton Live Lite program (Playing synth instruments using a pad, creating foley/soundtrack for a video, recording found material, looping it, and manipulating samples).

Mansell will have three Ableton Push Instruments set up and linked together for a guided group exercise in which participants will record loops using MIDI/synth instruments and collaborate on a track. Participants will then build a Foley track or a soundtrack for a video together.

Participants will leave with web links to all tracks or mixes created for download.

No equipment needed; Mansell will supply everything. No musical knowledge required. If you have some, awesome, but not important.

The workshop will provide a scaffolded, accessible and affordable entry point to music-making and creative expression through sound.