Songwriting Tips

The 50/90 Challenge Is Here Again

50-90 Challenge 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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Keywords: 50/90, fawm, songwriting, songwriter, writing songs, songwriting tip, songwriting blog, songwriting help, songwriting zen, sonwriting idea, corey stewart

Tags: 50/90, FAWM, music, song, Songwriting, songwriting blog, Songwriting Help, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

Saturday, July 4th, 2009 50/90 Challenge 2 Comments

Don’t Force It! Let Your Songs Happen Naturally

Let’s clarify something here. Having a songwriting process does not mean that you force yourself to write songs.

Nothing gets done if you force things. It goes against nature itself.

In nature, changes happen in their own time and at their own pace. Things grow, evolve, breathe and become whatever they are designed to be.

The problem with us humans is that we try to hurry things along because we feel that nature moves too slow for us.

Its the same with songwriting.

With the songwriting process, all we’re trying to do is to get a constant flow of ideas happening and from there, songs will appear and develop.

We achieve this flow by writing without concentrating on the end result. When we engage ourselves in our songwriting process we are already moving towards completing a song.

This is automatic.

Have you noticed that when you sit down in front of a blank piece of paper and say to yourself “I am going to write a song now” you immediately put yourself under pressure to do just that.

Straight away your inner voice starts talking to you, saying things like “ok, it better be good” or “are you sure you have something to write about” or “don’t you have something more important to do right now?”

More often than not we give into our inner voices and find reasons not to write. This is where the writers block cycle starts.

If you look at each day of your life as a means creating possible songwriting ideas you’ll incorporate songwriting as a part of what you do, just like getting up in the morning.

If, in your day to day songwriting activity you become inspired to finish a song then great. If nothing comes from the activity then, great. You’re still doing what you love..

Can you see where I am going with this?

Don’t force songs to come out, get out of your own way and let them happen and they will appear soon enough.

Remember, it doesn’t matter what you write it just matters that you write. Doing this will allow your songs to breathe, grow and evolve from the ideas that you come up with.

Have faith in yourself because you are a songwriter and writing songs is in your nature.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, writing, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting technique, writing songs, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, music, Songwriter, Songwriting, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 Songwriting Process No Comments

The Anatomy Of Construction – A Writers Resource You Must Visit

Whether we write songs, poetry, articles, essays or prose, we are all writers.

We all experience the highs and lows of writing in exactly the same way. We feel elated when we finish something and we feel frustrasted when we don’t.

Writers of all disciplines have a lot to learn from each other.

I want to introduce to you a very good friend of mine. His name is Tom but he is known online as BT Cassidy.

He describes himself as “…a bandit journalist working freelance, and occasionally a novelist. An experienced reviewer, with a talent for writing “Living” reviews. Writing is as much a part of my life as eating and sleeping. I hope to one day never have to work a real job.”

As you can see, Tom loves to write. He writes everyday and he writes a lot.

On average Tom writes about 15000 words a day. He is living proof of what happens when you put your writing process into laser focused action.

It would be a gross understatement to say that Tom is incredibly prolific.

The reason why I’m telling you this is that one of the blogs he’s created is a blog about writing and the creative process. It’s called The Anatomy Of Construction

Tom describes The Anatomy Of Construction in this way:

“I believe we can all write, and all have stories to tell. The Anatomy Of Construction is a graphic novel in development that is designed to unlock the writer in everyone – from novice, to genius.”

I challenge anyone to go to any page on his blog and not find some pearl of wisdom that you can use for your songwriting process.

From time to time I will be highlighting some of Toms writing tips and his wonderful words of encouragement, and directly relating them to the songwriting process. Watch this space for that.

I strongly recommend that you visit The Anatomy Of Construction and visit it often as it gets updated daily.

When you do make sure that you leave a comment or two. The great thing about Tom is that he replies to everyone.

Tell him Corey sent you.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: the anatomy of construction, bt cassidy, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting help, songwriting idea, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: bt cassidy, Corey Stewart, Creativity, music, Songwriter, Songwriting, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Zen, the anatomy of construction, writing

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 Songwriting Resources 10 Comments

Building A Songwriting Ideas Archive

As a songwriter, there are going to be times in your life where you’ll be inspired to write a complete song but, for most of the time there will be times where all you’ll be doing is fishing for songwriting ideas.

It’s important for a songwriter to have an ideas archive at their disposal.

You don’t necessarily need to have a fully set up home recording studio to capture songwriting ideas (although it would be lovely to have one ready to go) however, some sort of recording device like a tape recorder is essential.

Most songwriters I know write with an acoustic guitar but, now matter how you write songs, I am amazed at how many don’t record their ideas on tape, but rely on their memory.

For something as important as songwriting ideas, never, ever trust your memory

I personally set aside some time each day to pick up my guitar and noodle. I play whatever comes to mind but I always have a tape player handy.

This is because, when I get a hint of an idea to develop I simply press record and commit the idea to tape for future reference.

Once the idea is down I start fishing for the next idea.

The beauty about this process is that I am not under any pressure to remember any ideas that I may have conjured up in that time, I’ve already recorded them.

If I forget them it doesn’t matter.

As well as noodling on my guitar I am also noodling with my voice, singing whatever comes into my head. It’s taken me a long time to just be able to babble rubbish into a tape player and not feel bad about it.

When I am lyrically noodling I am only interested in the melodies and the rhythms I come up with. The actual lyrics can come later.

At this stage I am not even looking to finish a song, just gathering ideas, phrases, riffs and melodies and getting them down on tape.

After a while you start to develop a collection of songwriting ideas, riffs and phrases on tape, an aural journal if you will.

Be warned though, your inner voice is going to have a wonderful time telling you how bad it the ideas sounds and how awful the lyrics. You have to ignore it and look at your ideas as works in progress that aren’t finished yet.

Once you have say, two or three 60 or 90 minute tapes full of stuff, it’s then time to listen back and hear what you’ve done. You’ll be amazed at how many ideas you would’ve forgotton.

At this point of time it would be like hearing your songwriting ideas for the first time and it’s from this perspective that songs get completed.

Just think, with your ever growing list of possible song titles at your disposal and your musical and lyrical noodlings on tape, imagine how many more songs you are going to write.

Exciting isn’t it?

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting technique, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, ideas, Songwriting, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Zen, writing

Saturday, March 15th, 2008 Songwriting Ideas No Comments

Songwriting Is Like Aural Photography

There are the two qualities that are so important for a songwriter to get more out of their chosen craft.

They are observation and mindfulness.

We all look at the world around us through our own eyes. If we, as songwriters are to put these moments into songs then the best thing that we can do for our songwriting is to slow ourselves down and take note of what is happening.

Observation is the art of noticing what is happening around you and mindfulness is the art of noticing that you are noticing what is happening around you.

I believe that to be a good songwriter you need to stop and smell the roses… Often!

Songwriting ideas are everywhere. By sharpening up your powers of observation you will see that this is the case. It does take practise but the benefits are worth the effort.

The mindfulness part of the exercise is the ability to always be present to what you are doing.

Try to have a notepad or voice recorder nearby at all times to capture these moments.

Even when you’re at work there are ways in which you can be mindful. Take five minutes out of what you are doing and just observe your surroundings. Write them down and store it for later reflection.

You might hear someone say something that makes you think ‘gee thats a great line for a chorus’ . Or while on your lunch break you see a headline in the paper or a magazine that sparks something in you.

When that happens, write it down.

Songwriting is life. Observe and be mindful of yours.

Everyone and everything has a story to tell. It’s up to you to document those stories through your songs.

Until next time, happy writing

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting idea, songwriting tip, songwriting help, songwriting technique, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Songwriter, Songwriting, Songwriting Tips, Songwriting Zen, zen

Friday, March 7th, 2008 Songwriting Zen 1 Comment