The Songwriting Challenge Guide

In 2011 we challenged each other to write at least one song per month. I hope this challenge helped you write more regularly and grow in your discipline of songwriting. Most of us probably didn’t reach the goal of writing one song every month, but most likely wrote more songs than if we did not participate in this challenge.

In 2012, starting in January, we have a new challenge for you! Here it is:

Write one song a month
1. with someone else (co-write)
and/or
2. on a topic or a phrase we announce

1. Our online songwriting community is all about encouraging each other on this journey as we all grow and learn from each other. One of the great ways we can really grow as songwriters is to co-write with others. So, we encourage you to do that as much as you can in 2012. Whether it be in person with a friend or online via Skype or FaceTime with someone in our online community (or whoever else it may be).

2. Another way we can challenge ourselves in songwriting is to write on a certain topic OR write a song that contains a certain line that’s given to us. Every month we’ll give you a topic or line. We’ll announce it in our online community as well as Twitter & Facebook. It will be a lot of fun to share, in our private online community, the songs that we end up with using that topic or line.

Each month we will randomly pick a participant and give them a $10 iTunes e-giftcard. (Note: You must be a U.S. resident in order to win the giftcard, as iTunes does not allow us to send giftcards to other countries.)

If you’d like to participate in our monthly songwriting challenge, all you have to do is become a Plus Member. Signing up is easy and you’ll have access to our private site where you’ll be able to post your song each month and receive feedback from others in the community. You’ll also have access to worship leading/songwriting training videos by folks like Jared Anderson, Chris McClarney, Matthew Reed, Sarah Reeves, and others.

ACCOUNTABILITY/FEEDBACK

-Join the challenge by becoming a Plus Member on our site. This will give you the ability to share a new song you’ve written, every month on our private social network, for peer review/feedback.

-When you submit a song, we ask that you commit to giving feedback to at least one or two of your peers’ song(s).

-This accountability and feedback part of the challenge is all about community, so your participation both in submitting your songs and giving feedback is vital.

-Every couple of months we’ll pick one of the songs submitted that stood out and feature it on The Songwriter’s Cafe Podcast (with your permission, of course).

-The songwriting challenge is open to any Christian songwriter (anywhere in the world) regardless of the style of music; it does not have to be “worship” music. Also, song submissions do not have to be studio-quality. An acoustic recording using your laptop or digital recorder will be acceptable.

Head over to our Plus Membership today and get started!

If you have any questions, email us: allaboutworship[at]gmail[dot]com