The year 12 student's guitar lessons have evolved into writing song progressions with her singing over the top of them.

"I think I have 143 unfinished or finished songs in my phone," she said.

"My lyrics can come from anywhere ... Most of the time they come from my experiences and my feelings, but I can also draw it from like other people, stuff I've seen on TV."

The Canberra College student got a taste of the fast-paced and collaborative music industry with her peers as part of the SongMakers program.

Artists Taka Perry and Milan Ring were on hand to guide the students in writing an original song in just a few hours on Wednesday, with the aim of recording and producing the pieces on Thursday.

Taka Perry's music career lifted off when he took part of the same songwriting program as a student at Narrabundah College. The Canberran was discovered by mentors Tom Busby of Busby Marou and producer Robert Conley, who signed Perry up to his label.

When Perry finished school in 2016 he moved to Sydney to pursue his music career. He's found success through triple j Unearthed and collaborations with the likes of Ruel, Max Frost and Sycco.

The artist came back to the capital, this time to be a mentor in SongMakers. He credits the program with kickstarting his career.

"That was just like a moment that I kind of realised that there is a valid career pathway in music and these are the people in front of me that are doing it right now," he said.

Ring grew up in Sydney's inner west but didn't have a similar music program at her school. She had to find mentors in the industry, especially women and people of colour, to figure out how it worked.

After her first two demos she experienced the whirlwind of being signed to a label then took a step back to be a music producer.

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She said the students were getting a good taste of how the music industry really worked.

"I hope that they just learn and understand the process of how we write songs," Ring said.

"It's like you go into a room with people that you haven't met before and you walk out at the end of the day with a song."

Most of the time music students have a full term to do a major composition but a hit song can come together in a matter of hours according to Perry.

"You're just chasing your gut and kind of chasing an idea down the rabbit hole a lot of times in the studio ... you're just kind of creating and digging and trying to find that gold."

Perry said it was pointless to chase music trends but to follow your own rhythm.

"Doing things that you believe in and are passionate about is way more fulfilling and then you're setting yourself up to be the trendsetter."

Drabsch was keen to record and produce a song for the first time with some of her talented classmates and mentors.

"I'm excited to see where it goes, and I definitely am going to try and push myself."

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