Diligent readers may remember that I did this once before. Actually, I’ve done it three times before (though only writing about it once), and it was unnerving, exhilarating, exhausting, and just a plain lot of fun. 

For folks new to the blog, the idea is that you wake up Sunday morning and check in on the group’s Facebook page (I know, I know, but…) to discover that Timmy has posted a brief and cryptic song prompt. E.g. “We’ll all get dressed up.” And you need to come up with a song that uses that phrase, or is at least inspired by it or somehow relevant to it. You need to write that song from scratch – lyrics, music, everything. Record it, however you want (I use my phone camera), and post it to the group by the end of the day. You really need to do it by the end of the day because tomorrow morning when you get up, Timmy will have posted the next prompt, and you’ve got to compose, record and post that song, too.

Honestly, the “rules” are just guidelines; there’s no prize for following them doggedly to the end, and no penalty for bending or ignoring them. We – the folks who sign up for this challenge – are pushing ourselves, building our songwriting muscles and trying things out. Showing off what we’ve come up with to our fellow writers, and occasionally finding ourselves pleasantly surprised with what’s come out of our heads when pushed.

I’ve talked with a bunch of non-song-a-day writers and they insist that there’s no way they could write a song in a day. Let alone an hour or two, first thing in the morning before work, because honestly, we all have lives that we need to get on with. That’s what I’d said before Timmy, or whoever pressured me into trying it the first time. But when that first prompt dropped last fall, I just threw some words and chords together, just enough to say, Yeah, that qualifies as a song. A good song? One that even makes sense? No idea, but it’s got words and chords and it rhymes.  Bam – on with my day. And the same the next day and the next day.

It started to feel like going to the gym, going through the reps, doing the work. And when I posted that last one at the end of the week (Oh thank Timmy I don’t have to write another song tomorrow morning!) I felt that way you do at the end of a 10k run: no prizes, no recognition other than that of the once-strangers who you crossed the finish line with. Just exhilaration at having pushed yourself, done something hard, and given it your personal best.

Anyhow, cutting far too late to the chase, I did it again this past week. Of the 37 folks in the Facebook group, I think about 10 of us actually posted songs. And eight of us powered through all seven days. What kept me going was the camaraderie of the other folks who posted: getting to hear their songs, what they came up with with the same prompt, the same pressure. A bunch of the folks are hard core professionals, like Dan Raza, Brian Claflin and Marci Geller (man, they seem to pull gems out of thin air!), but also folks like me who are just puttering away, having fun with their craft.

We post, we listen, we commend and applaud what we’ve loved in each others’ music, we accept the pats and plaudits when someone likes what we’ve posted. Then we wave off, get on with our days, and brace ourselves for the next day’s prompt.

The point is, I did one of those things again. I wish I could share some of the amazing songs that everyone else posted to the group, but that’s up to them to make them public or not. All I can do is share mine.

Remember, these are all nascent things, whipped up in the moment, first thing in the morning and pushed out there, because I had to get on with my day. Which in the case of last week, meant making my way up the California coast from San Diego to Palo Alto, then back home in Port Townsend. After I realized that I’d recorded the first three in three different places (Thousand Oaks, Cayucos, Palo Alto) using three different guitars, it became a bit of an extra challenge to keep the pattern up.

But there ya go. Here’s a playlist of the songs, if you’re interested, along with the prompts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ9ox1v1ObtxaPtQ0_xYXqO_xGwaMup87

I actually like about half of them, and already know a couple are going to work their way into my repertoire, once I fix some lyrics, maybe add another verse, or a bridge, and polish them up a bit.

Next challenge begins January 4th…