April is here and many of us are in lockdown.
Some of us need to be creative to stay sane!
It seems like the perfect time to kickstart a 30 day songwriting challenge.
Are you up for it?
Thoughts Before We Get Started
1 – Don’t put pressure on yourself to write a lot every day. Even 5-10 minutes is cool. Just get the creative juices flowing.
2 – If you miss a day, move on. It’s no big deal. Just keep going with the new prompts. You can always circle back to a prompt you missed later.
3 – Have FUN. Remember you don’t have to show everything you write if you’re not comfortable with it.
4 – Hang in there. I’ve got a cool bonus for you at the end of this little challenge 😉
5 – Share your work as often as you can. If you’re looking to build an audience, it’s important that you start sharing your work as soon and as often as possible. Even when it’s not perfect!
Alright, now that’s said, here’s your first songwriting prompt.
Pick an image and start writing or recording what comes to mind.
Don’t worry if what you come up with doesn’t seem to have any direct link with the image you’re looking at.
The goal here is to kickstart the creative process. Where you go from there is completely free!
There’s no obligation to stick to a theme whatsoever.
Where do you find an image?
You can go and use a completely a random image.
Or you could use an image or painting or drawing you already know and love.
Your call 🙂
Share Your Work
You don’t have to, but I highly encourage you to post a Soundcloud link to your work in the comments section.
I will of course listen to everything and answer your questions if you have any.
Please don’t wait until you think your music sounds perfect or you’ll wait forever.
If you’re looking to build any kind of momentum, be it improving as a songwriter, music producer or simply growing your audience, you must show your work and share it often.
I know it’s scary but this is a safe place and a good space to start if you’ve been putting it off.
Don’t worry, you can always delete it later if you want to!
Tomorrow
I’ll be sharing a new prompt here tomorrow.
If you’d like to receive the prompt by email, you can sign up here.
I’ve stumbled across your site and blog months ago. It’s FULL of useful info – thank you!! But also, I decided this morning that I needed to pick ONE 30-day challenge for myself every month. This just appeared in my inbox, and it’s exactly what I needed. Thank you again!!
Whaaaaat! That’s awesome Lacy! Such good timing :))
Thanks for your kind words, I’ll do my best to keep the good content coming 🙂
I’ve been following you for a while and just last week I was wondering if you were going to start a challenge and now I read this, yay! I’m in!
Nice! Excited to have you on board Priscilla ?
Pandemic. Pandemonium. Pan-fried fish. Past the point of no return.
Joyce! I cant thank you enough for this outlet. Catharsis! This is the audio version of the images in my head. I have gone full bat—-. But its still not enough, I gotta get out of my mind.
https://soundcloud.com/brianholtzmusic/blood-viral
Love it! Nicely done Brian! Really like the picture you used to illustrate it as well 😉
I look forward to hearing more in the coming days 🙂
Brian — a great sonic portrayal of this pandemic madness.
Sounds good, count me in!
?
Hi Joyce, fantastic idea. I’m a bit behind the 8 ball on this but will have a tune link later today. Love the idea and thanks! BTW my website link is a result of your 7 day challenge 🙂
Hi Sean! No worries, you can drift in and out of the challenge, no pressure ?
Nice Songtradr page! I’m thinking of doing a licensing challenge in May to help you drive traffic there…
Thanks Joyce. Looking forward to that. Getting visits etc is something of a challenge at the minute.
Hi Joyce fortunately i am stuck in a studio in the French Apls finishing the acoustic guitars for the new Lung EP…….nowhere better to be quaratined!! Rock n roll.have a fun writing month and thanks for all the great info you share.Blessings Ric
Lovely ! Keep rocking and enjoy the Alps Ric ?
OK so the first 5-30 minute task took me 2 days lol. And, reading back I’ve just noticed I wrote to an emotion rather than an image. Anyway, the tune I wrote can be heard here https://soundcloud.com/sean-mcbride-5/some-kind-of-happy I started out trying to write sad but just could not find that emotion on the keyboard and eventually the chords which start this track came to me. Then as I added the baseline, I realised it was identical to one of the most famous songs of all time. Sure you’ll guess the song if you listen. Also the ending is completely random. All the different tracks on the recording were different lengths while I was editing and I was going to edit them and build a finale but, listening through, I felt that the random end of the tracks actually played out quite well. Thanks Joyce. Task was epic but I loved it.
haha no worries Sean !
I love the fact that you started with an emotion instead of an image, started with sad and ended with optimistic, that’s just the beauty of the creative process: once you get started, no matter how you get started, you never know what you’ll get 🙂
PS: Stand By Me ?
Nailed the song 🙂
Closed my eyes and the lyrics flew out ?
Hi Joyce! Thanks for putting this together during this crazy time. I’m working on a new song now, but here’s one I finished a little while ago. Love to know what you honestly think about it – recording quality and vibe, etc. Thanks and am interested in your licensing challenge! Thanks again 🙂
https://soundcloud.com/jamil_hai/its-all-me
Hey Jamil, really enjoyed the track ! The guitar sound is a little too “dirty” for my personal taste but it really is just a personal taste. Think it works really well in the mix and love your voice 🙂
What bands inspire you?
Hi Joyce — Thank you so much for doing this. I’m a little behind, but will work to catch up. For this first prompt, I used the #161 Leftovers by Picolo-kun image from the random image link you provided. My initial idea can be found here; https://soundcloud.com/jeff-van-beek/leftovers.
Hey Jeff, if trying to catch up starts to feel overwhelming, don’t hesitate to skip a day and circle back to it later. I’ll keep these up and keep listening to your work whenever you’re ready 🙂
Here’s the link to #161 Leftovers by Picolo-un
for those of you who want to check it out.
It’s a pretty cool image and I love what you’ve done with it Jeff. There’s a little surrealist, circus vibe that comes out in your music like it does in the picture. At least that’s how I “read” both the picture and the music 🙂
Another great article Joyce. Can you give some examples of how to do this?
Thank you-Adam (adamgilchrest.com)
5 – Share your work as often as you can. If you’re looking to build an audience, it’s important that you start sharing your work as soon and as often as possible. Even when it’s not perfect!
Sure!
Here are a few of the top of my head.
In my experience, it’s best to choose one platform and stick with it on a regular basis for 6-12 weeks.
Then check your progress + if you enjoyed doing it and decide on what to do next:
Hi there, Joyce!
I follow your blog since one year ago, and it is too useful to me. Thank you so much!!! Keep going, `cause i need a lot of advices hahahahha
Thank you!!!!
haha glad you’re enjoying the blog Diego ?