Songwriting Zen

The 50/90 Challenge Is Here Again

Today is the start of one of the greatest songwriting challenges ever constructed IMHO. The 50/90 challenge.

Run by the good folks at FAWM (February Album Writing Month), the premise of the challenge is really simple: Write 50 songs in the 90 days starting July 4th until October 1st. It’s a simple concept but incredibly hard to achieve.

According to the 50/90 challenge website the challenge is:

“… (a) club. Each summer, 50/90 forges a collaborative community where musicians of all walks and skill levels write a slew of new music material in only three months. That’s roughly one tune every other day. Participants are a mix of music professionals, students, homemakers, and folks who work day-jobs but rock nightclubs”.

Sounds great!

I tried it last year and failed miserably (well, that’s how I saw it) but hey, that’s the great thing about the 50/90 community. It’s a community where everyone helps each other, where there’s no failure, just a lot of fun, networking and good songwriting.

Doing the 50/90 challenge last year really showed me that I had very little control over my inner critic and my need for absolute perfectionism. This realization caused a great deal of initial sadness which caused me to question whether I should continue with this songwriting blog.

I was thinking to myself things like: “How can I write a blog about writing songs when I find it hard to write songs myself?”

Thankfully I got over myself very, very quickly.

I’m going to participate in the 50/90 challenge this year but this time I’m going to not take it so seriously and just have fun with it. If I write 50 songs in 90 days then great, if not then at least I’m writing, which is something I really love doing.

Give the 50/90 challenge a go and see what happens. It maybe the kick in the pants that you’ve been looking for.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

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