June Songwriting Challenges
Emotion Roulette: Write up a list of six emotions on a piece of paper, numbered 1-6. then roll a dice, wherever that dice lands it the emotion you’ll be writing about!
Unheard Conversations: All humans love to eavesdrop at a coffeshop. Spend a day recording tidbits of overhead conversations and then use them as lyrical inspiration in your next write.
Musical Diary Entry: Write a song that encapsulates a particular day in your life, one you wrote about in a diary or journal years ago. See if you connect with the person you once were and the things they went through.
Loop Exploration: Experiment with pre-made loops or samples in a DAW, arranging them to create a simple track without worrying about original composition. Write over this repeating loop.
Song Structure Observation: Analyze the structure of your favorite songs—intro, verse, chorus, etc.—to understand their organization and arrangement. Mimic that same structure in your own song.
Playlist Study: Create a playlist of songs you love and take note of specific elements (lyrics, melody, rhythm) that appeal to you for future inspiration.
Kitchen Symphony: Compose a song using only sounds produced in a kitchen—utensils, appliances, and food items—as musical instruments. You can record these sounds on your iPhone and then drag and drop them into your DAW to create musical structure.
Speed-Writing Hit: Collaborate with a partner to write one chorus per hour over the course of a 4-5 hour session. Then, schedule a date to come back and write verses for the best of these choruses.
Streaming-Platform Tailoring: Craft a song specifically designed to engage listeners on streaming platforms, consider a specific playback and elements or themes that appear over and over again within that playlist.
Collaborative Production: Collaborate with a producer or engineer to co-write a song, sticking explicitly to your own spheres of expertise, trusting your partner entirely.
