Giving myself a songwriting challenge
By Don • Oct 20th, 2006 • Category: Inspiration
My recurring problem is I have great fragments of song ideas but never follow them through to completion.
That will change (for today at least!).
After reading about Jonathan Coulton’s Thing-A-Week Project, as well as the songwriting tip contributed by Ruth Greenwood I have become increasingly inspired, and decided to submit myself to a challenge.
My songwriting challenge is a combination of the two links listed above. Tonight, I find myself with a four-hour window of alone time where nothing is planned or scheduled. Coincidentally, I have four song ideas, and have decided I am going to finish those songs in that four hour period.
That’s right - four songs in four hours. That is my goal.
I am a person who is naturally curious and easily distracted. So, before I start I need to make sure I get rid of hindrances to my songwriting progress and institute some productivity tips a’la 43Folders (my favorite productivity site). They are as follows:
Cel phones are turned off.
Wireless card on my laptop is unplugged so I won’t be notified of new email or be tempted to surf the web for inspiration. (Which ultimately ends with me getting distracted.)
An egg-timer set to 60 minutes (with the loud ticking to keep me on task).
It should be noted, I will not be starting entirely from scratch on these songs. Like I mentioned at the opening of this article, my biggest problem is that I leave song fragments as nothing more than - well - fragments. So I will be taking these fragments and finishing them off into completed songs.
Also, so I don’t vascillate between what songs to do, I am going to state what songs I will complete up front.
They are:
Song #1 (Beautiful Lies)
Lyrically, I have a chorus written and one verse. I also have the music for the verse, chorus, and a tentative bridge. It is a song I have had for probably 6 months or more and just never got focused enough to finish.
Song #2 (Loaded Gun)
Lyrically, I have a chorus written and two verses. I also have chord progressions for both chorus and verse.
Song #3 (Laundry Day)
Rough chorus lyrical idea. No lyrics for verses or prechorus (although I have music for all)
Song #4 (Radiate)
Rough verse lyrics and completed chorus. Still need a bridge (which I have music for) and an additional two verses.
Follow Up
I will post an update tomorrow on my progress. By the end of the weekend I will record guitar/vocal demos of each song and post them on my MySpace account for your listening pleasure (or displeasure).
Live Test
Next week I will take these songs out to some local open mics (we have many awesome, high-quality open mics here in Asheville) and give them a test run. I’ll also report back on that.
Time to Get Crackin’
Okay. Pressure’s on. I’ve publicly stated my challenge. Please send positive vibes my way.
Here’s to public humiliation! 
Update: I posted the results of my challenge here.
Don is the founder, writer and editor of BloggingMuses.com. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
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Sounds a bit like the methods employed by the Immersion Composition Society, only a little less extreme. I’m interested to see how it works for you!
Good luck! I might try something similar very soon!
Hey Don great article.
I’ll be very interested in the results of this because I, like you have a lot of songwriting idea fragments that need to be finished and this sounds like a fantastic and focussed way of doing that.
Maybe we could do something similar to duelling banjo’s. A duel 4/4 challenge perhaps???
Good luck with it,
Corey