OCTOBER 2020 ASSIGNMENT
The October assignment will be to write a song about some sort of “return.”
Assignments
April 2020 Assignment
Write a riff-based song. This will be easy for songwriters whose process starts with a short repeated melody line or chord progression — the song is constructed around the riff. Classical musicians might refer to an ostinato, or musical phrase that is persistently repeated at the same pitch. You know the five-note riff at the […]
March 2020 Assignment
Write a song inspired by a fortune cookie. At the February meeting, each member was given a wrapped fortune cookie. If you missed the meeting, visit FortuneCookieMessage.com. Mystically, cosmically, the message inside will somehow be the topic of next song that you write. Spooky! Typically there’s some educational value in listening to previously recorded songs […]
February 2020 Assignment
Write a song in a single sitting Sound difficult? You might be surprised to learn that some very popular songs were written during single sessions of explosive imagination. Feel free to cheat a little by including song ideas that have been stewing for a while. This assignment isn’t as much about stream-of-consciousness songwriting as it […]
January 2020 Assignment
The first Wednesday of January is New Year’s Day. The January meeting will be held on Wed., Jan 8, starting at 7 p.m. The suggested songwriting assignment is lyrically challenging: Write a song in which every line contains five words.
December 2019 Assignment
The assignment for the December meeting is a no-brainer — write a holiday song.
November 2019 Assignment
Write a response or reply or continuation of a popular song. An “answer song” doesn’t work as well if the listener doesn’t know the original. But when it works it’s a tribute to the original song. The “reply song” is hardly a new idea. Everybody knows “Space Oddity,” the 1969 David Bowie classic about an […]
October 2019 Assignment
Write a song about faith Interpret the word as you will. Go ahead and get all churchy. Maybe you see love as faith in a partner, or courage as faith in yourself. Maybe you’ll write about an absence of faith. With infinite ways to perceive faith, this assignment might present an opportunity to venture beyond […]
September 2019 Assignment
Write a song about murder It doesn’t necessarily have to be confessional and could be written from the perspective of the doer, the do-ee, the weapon, a witness, a news consumer or a songwriter who just got a killer songwriting assignment. Songs about murder go back as far as the linkage of words and music. […]
August 2019 assignment
Write a character-driven song It’s not about the vibe or the production, not about the musicianship or even the story line. Character-driven songs take a deep dive into the central character’s personality. It’s not what happens, it’s how he or she reacts to what happens. A good character song can describe an actual person, but […]
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