Before I was aware of the songwriting challenges out there on the web I set myself my own challenge – write, produce and upload a new song every week to my website for a year. I did this from April 2009 – 2010.
Now this may sound a little extreme but it was an amazing way to practice my writing skills and it gave me an excuse to keep up the contact with my email list. In fact, it was how I created my email list. When I finished I got a lot of people telling me they missed the weekly new song, which was a relief, because you never know when you’re bugging people! In May I released an album with 13 of the best songs called ‘Song of the Week‘, many of which have been placed on TV and Film.
Shortly after I had released the CD I noticed a songwriting challenge called 50 Songs In 90 Days and I thought, “Don’t be silly, that’s impossible”.But I couldn’t stop myself and started writing a whole bunch of new tunes. But it was the school summer holidays and there just wasn’t time to keep it up, what with travelling to the UK and other kids stuff. Although I didn’t come anywhere near to finishing, I did get the bulk of a new album, ‘Treehouse‘, which I released January this year.
So it’s FAWM time – February Album Writing Month. I had no intentions of doing this at all. I had just put out a new album and had broken my collarbone… and where was the time? Well it turns out that just about the only thing I could do with my injury was play the guitar for short periods of time. Housework was completely out of the question so I had extra time. So I started on Feb 1st and am just over half way through and I swear it is keeping me sane. Some songs take a day or two and others like ‘Lemonade’ took an hour to write and record. I just love writing and recording. It’s a good thing my kids are old enough to get their own food!
So why do these challenges? Here are some great reasons:
1. With this much songwriting you can only improve.
2. It gives you an excuse to keep in contact with fans.
3. You are giving fans something new on a regular basis.
4. You improve your recording skills and discover new ways to produce.
5. You end with a large catalogue to draw from, which is especially useful if you are pitching to TV etc.
6. You really learn how to finish songs and move on.
7. It gives you something to tweet,FB etc.
8. It’s fun!
Some great songwriting challenges to check out (and it isn’t too late for FAWM)
I hope to see you in the forums on any of these challenges and if you want to follow my progress, please visit my FAWM page – http://fawm.org/fawmers/helenaustin/
Helen Austin's Blog 
I got a lot out of doing 26 songs in 26 weeks, but the quality of my writing suffered. I was willing to accept a weak line or verse, where normally I’d rack my brain for hours to come up with the “best” one. Of course, at some point you’ve just got to let it go, but for me personally, any more than a song every two weeks probably isn’t worth the compromise.
I know what you’re saying and if I do chose to release any on albums i will go over them and rewrite lyrics or change the structure… I just like an excuse to write a lot!
I’m having the same issues as Brian with FAWM – the three songs i’ve done so far have nagged me to go over them more rather than let them drop and on to the next song. I also carry the melodies of the songs in my head and when I start a new song I have to wrangle the old melody out of my head so that I don’t write the same song again.
But as Helen states – it is a practice of discipline. Like meditation. Namaste… 😉
I thought about this after reading Brian’s post and then I watched the Derek Sivers Ted Talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhxcFGuKOys
My gut tells to write lots and it is different for everyone… but the part about the pots really resonated with me. But, as I said, different ways work for different people.
It’s funny because i am SO bad at meditation… and yoga! 🙂
That video is on my “to watch” list. I guess we all need to find our own personal balance between quality and quantity, using whatever motivational tools that do the trick!