This year’s Golden Melody Workshops welcome music students and working professionals to learn from renowned industry experts in the fields of Recording Engineering, Band Arrangement and DJ Training. Workshop participants will not only learn from the top industry practitioners but also gain insider knowledge on the lecturers’ past work experience. “Singers are usually very relaxed when they come to recording studios,” said Ye Yuxuan, lecturer of the Recording Engineering workshop. For example, he said, “Leehom Wang came to the studio in slippers, while A-Mei usually watched the TV and ate something before she became perfectly ready to record.” Gideon Su, lecturer of the DJ Training workshop and a Golden Melody Award nominee himself, said, “When I was working on an electronic music album with Chun Mei Taiwanese Opera Troupe, no one took me seriously. If it wasn’t for the support of Chun-Mei Kuo, the head of Chun Mei, I wouldn’t have been able to complete the album.” Tong Zhiwei, lecturer of the Band Arrangement workshop, remarked on band management. “A band is like a corporation. It can’t be run in a way that’s too authoritative, nor can it lack control completely; otherwise, the band would be unsustainable. Taiwanese bands should improve on their producers’ system.” Head of the music production studio The Hu Music, Chao Jaju reminded interested students that disagreements are a good thing: “It is important to have positive competitions and communications, as well as to show respect to all band members and allow each member to contribute.” Guitarist of the rock band Quarterback, Cheng Feng Sheng, on the other hand, offered his memorable experience working with other musicians. “Ciacia impressed me with her boyish personality and high alcohol tolerance. All the boys got scared of her,” he said with a big smile. “In one of our band practices, she proposed a NT$500 penalty for each mistake each person made. I didn’t even get paid enough for this!” Lecturer of the DJ Training workshop, DJ BenjaminSen7en, will be teaching his workshop wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, which he explained to represent the idea of revolution. He pointed out, “the convenience brought by today’s technology makes DJing seem easy, but to become a good DJ still requires a great deal of practices in foundational techniques.” Additionally, “a DJ needs to listen to a tremendous amount of music in different genres, and this takes passion,” said the self-taught musician DJ Tek. This year’s DJ Training workshop has a busy agenda, teaching techniques and skills using all three of today’s most common mediums: vinyl records, CDJs and digital software. The Workshops are part of a series of events in the 2016 Golden Melody Awards & Festival (GMA). The Golden Melody Festival is a 3-day B2B event that brings together industry representatives from a range of fields including but not limited to cinema, television, telecommunication, gaming and digital technology. The Festival aims to facilitate cross-border and cross-industry business matching opportunities through its series of events: Conference, Business Matching Center, Pitching, Speed Meeting, Exhibition, Showcase, GMA Talk, Workshops and Golden Melody Academia. The Festival will take place on June 22nd through June 24th. The GMA will then culminate in the Golden Melody Awards ceremony on the evening of June 25th at the Taipei Arena. Last year’s GMA saw close to 300 business matching events with total transaction value of approximately NT$430 million. For Workshop and application details, please see: 2016 Golden Melody Workshops For more information about the Golden Melody Festival, please see the official website: 2016 Golden Melody Festival