August Songwriting Challenges
Juxtapose Genre Experiment: Combine elements from different musical genres in your songwriting, in a way where they do NOT flow seamlessly together. Use the Jazz breakdown in Rosalia’s “Saoko” at timestamp 1:27 or the metal chorus/country verse format in Hardy’s “Radio Song” as reference points.
Tempo Traveler: Write a song that explores different tempos within a single composition. Experiment with tempo changes to create dynamic shifts and enhance the overall musical experience. An easy option is to end your song with a ritardando.
One Note Chorus: Hinge your entire chorus melody on a pedal tone. Use one note and one note only to express a complex or simple rhythmic and lyrical idea. Fight the urge to shift notes.
MIDI Controller Inspiration: If you have a MIDI controller, use it as the inspiration for your song. Let the tactile experience of manipulating sounds guide your creative process.
Lyric Ekphrasis: Ekphrasis is a literary device by which a new piece of work creates a detailed description of a work of visual art. by which. Choose a piece of visual art, whether a painting, photograph, or sculpture, and write a song that serves as a musical interpretation or response to the artwork.
Instrumental Call-And-Response: Write a song in which the vocal melody and the instrumental melodies are trading lines. Make the instrumental respond to the vocal melody you write.
Unconventional Instrument Pairing: Challenge yourself by pairing together two or more instruments that are rarely combined. Explore the sonic possibilities and unique interactions between these unconventional choices.
Role Reversal: If working with close collaborators, swap roles. Let the songwriter lead the production and the producer lead the songwriting. This can lead to fresh perspectives and new creative insights.
Character Creation: Develop your own fictional characters together. Write freely in a journal for ten minutes about what they look like, where they’re from, and what they’re going through. Using this journal entry as inspiration, pen your fictional character a theme song.
Three Syllable Word Challenge: Choose a three syllable word to end your first line of your verse. Now, make sure that every line after ends with a three syllable word that rhymes with it. See if this restrictive based writing shifts your patters at all.
