10 songs in 10 weeks

Here are some interesting facts about our challenge.

Amount of people participating: 17
Total amount of people posting songs on the site: 9
Total amount of posts on the site: 79
Musical genres of the songs posted: singer-songwriter, a cappella, alternative, dance, drum ‘n bass, pop, world music, folk, jazz-fusion, rock, punk, musical.
Total time of new musical enjoyment created: 1:13:20
Total amount of days of the challenge: 72
Total amount of songs created: 28

Thanks for the fun everyone!

I hope you enjoyed it.
I sure did.
It has taught me the following things:

- It is possible to write 10 songs in 10 weeks
- It is motivating to motivate other people
- I can post a tip every day
- I’m a better melody writer than I was
- I like playing the ukulele
- Showing people your creation is scary, but I did it anyway!

Show us what you’ve got! Go to the Hall of Fame and write down your goal and the titles of your songs. If you feel like it, also tell us what you thought of the challenge.

There’s only one thing left to say: Thank you all for participating in this challenge and keeping me motivated! I hope you enjoyed it. If anyone ever wants to get together to play of make some music, you know where to find me!

And with that, the curtain closes. Goodbye 10s10w!!!

What about writing your lyrics in flowcharts?

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/03/the-beatles-in-a-flow-chart.html

So… I was thinking… structure in songs… have not posted about that yet.

The most common structure in popsongs, I think, is the following:

Intro
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Bridge
Chorus

Which does NOT mean you should always write a song in this structure. It DOES mean, however, that this structure works with lots of songs.

I personally have tried experimenting with structure and it is very  hard to do right. People expect certain things in songs, so it’s your choice to give that to them or not, but not giving it to them will mean they might feel alienated from your song and think it’s weird. I do encourage you to experiment a bit so you can see for yourself.

To do this, play your song and record it in different structures. Then, try to listen to it (after leaving it for one day or more) as a new listener would. You’ll see what feels right and what doesn’t.

Here are some things to play with while you’re at it:

- prechorus: some songs have something between the verse and the chorus, to lead the song towards the chorus. This is called a prechorus and can be used, for instance, to shine a different light on the verse before heading into the soul of the song: the chorus.
- solo: instead of having a bridge or middle 8 you can have a solo instrument play a solo on a chord progression, either a new one or a progression already used in the song (verse or chorus)
-  short and long version chorus: sometimes a song is just a bit too long. Then you can choose to shorten your chorus the first time it is sung or only have the long version at the very end or before the solo/bridge
- double verse at the beginning: sometimes, if there’s not enough stuff going on before you can go in the chorus, it’s an idea to have two verses at the beginning of the song.
- modulation at the end: you could always try this. It might be cheesy. It might also work fabulously!

Good luck!

From my challenge-experience, I’ve filtered the following theory:

There are two types of people:

1) people who plan ahead and discipline themselves to work on the deadline every day, thus keeping up with their schedule and making their deadline (of, say, making 10 songs in 10 weeks)

2) people who plan ahead but then wait until the last moment to put lots of time and effort in it (and come up with the most beautiful things!). These people may need the pressure to be able to create some output (of, say, 10 songs in 10 weeks)

Just in case you’re in the group of the latter one, you still have a couple of days! The deadline isn’t until Sunday 23:59 (your time)! A lot can happen in those days, so go for it!!!

Good luck!

So. We’ve covered chords, melodies, lyrics… what else is there to do?

Rhythm!

Hmmm… what do I know about rhythm? It comes naturally most of the time, but I’ll give it a try.

First, choose whether you want it to be in a 4/4 measure or something else. Try a 3/4 or a 7/4 and see what it does!

Second, keep diverging. The same principles are true for rhythm as for anything else. Sometimes a rhythm might feel logical, but if you just start tweaking it here and there, it might give you a different idea and a whole different groove!

Also, choose whether the rhythm should change in the song. It is quite normal to have  a different rhythm in your verse and in your chorus.

See if you can make something of the rhythm in your melody. It could be very similar to what you’re playing on guitar or other rhythm instrument, but play around with it, it could make some very interesting music if you don’t! (which, by the way, will make playing and singing it at the same time more difficult, but don’t let that daunt you. Some practice can do wonders!)

Good luck!

So. One more week to go.

Ok, ok, maybe it won’t be feasible for you to come up with 10 new songs in one week, but what about just one? It’s doable!

I would very much like to hear your creations, no matter in which state of completion. Knowing that you all were also working with a guitar in hand or thinking of lyrics helped me tremendously in this challenge.

So what do you say? Give it one last boost?

Go, go, GO!!!

And if… btw… you would like this event to happen again next year (maybe in an altered shape, since I have the feeling that 10 songs is maybe a bit much…) please let me know. If enough people think we should continue with 10s10w, I’m willing to keep it up!

Good luck!

While writing songs for 10s10w, I found out these things about melody writing:

- they sometimes don’t want to be repeated, so they force me to find a different rhythm and different line after I’ve sung a sentence
- there’s sometimes a logical way to sing a melody, but it’s not always the most interesting one. Sometimes it’s nicer to end on a note just above or below the one that feels logical.
- The first verse has been written, but  this doesn’t mean that the second verse should melodically be exactly the same. Sometimes it’s nice to have variations in your melody

Good luck with the last week!

I am no officially opening the Hall of Fame!

Here you can post the titles to your (10?) songs and show everyone you’ve made it. State your goal and your experience too, if you want! We’re looking forward to applauding you

Good luck with the last haul!

So. I’m all out. I’m all empty.

I can’t come up with anymore songs… or posts to write.

And then… when I was almost giving up, I asked a friend to help me with writing my lyrics. We brainstormed and it worked wonderfully! Now I have enough material to write my lyrics, and with still two whole days to go (the rest of the song is just about done)

I’ve seen people post requests for song ideas or lyrics on Facebook. This worked really well, didn’t it? I strongly encourage that!

So my tip for today (we’ll see about tomorrow). Ask friends to help you. In whatever way. Engage them in the process, because doing it all by yourself is most of the time much harder than having two (or three, or four) pairs of brains to add to each other. And it’s fun!

Good luck!