The Song Writing Game
In 2016 I began playing a songwriting game with a group of friends that involved writing and recording a new song every two weeks, based on a prompt given by one of the members. I had written some songs here and there, but wasn't much of a "songwriter". and I was totally terrified of this new venture.
I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't too painful to squeeze music from my brain, and in fact, the regular deadlines, the impulse carried from the prompts, and kind and incisive feedback from friends all fertilized a garden of thoughts and rhythm in my mind.
The songwriting game has become a steady practice for me ever since, a bi-weekly rhythm something akin to phases of the moon. Sometimes I just can't figure out how I'll be able to do it again, so soon, but within the fortnight I've figured something out.
And on to the next song.
I've been known to become obsessed.
Check out my most recent songs on my SoundCloud:
Interested in boosting your creativity?
Looking for inspiration for a new poem, picture, song, or play?
Check out the list of prompts from our songwriting game…
It's not about writing the BEST song. . . It's about writing the NEXT song. . .
It's not about writing the BEST song. . . It's about writing the NEXT song. . .
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1. Write a song from Julio's perspective. (from Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard)
2. The edge of the wedge
3. You're waiting for a call that's going to change your life, but you don't know how…
4. Like the kitchen could clean itself
5. Prove or disprove a scientific theory
6. The end of cynicism
7. Your peripheral vision
8. Moving Parts- Write lyrics then pass to the 'right'. Write music to someone else's lyrics.
9. We were ghosts all along
10. No strings attached (write a song using no string instruments)
11. Everyday she sends a postcard
12. Write a Tom Petty song called Two Birds One Stone
13. Find a photo of yourself and write a song based on what you think/feel when you look at it
14. Needle's Eye
15. Living in a dry town
16. Phew!
17. Write about the relationship of two fictional characters from a book/movie/etc..
18. Write a fun song about something you love (that's not a person).
19. The bar is too high
20. Write a song about the life and/or death of Edna Forbes
21. Let Love In
22. X-Ray Records
23. the new normal
24. Deconstructed favorite song, and write a new song about Thanksgiving
25. Reflection/Reprise/Redo
26. Write a little song about something mundane
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1. Found in translation
2. Conflict of interest
3. Using a children’s song or a traditional melody, write a song about heartbreak
4. Searching for the great white whale
5. The light knows where it’s going
6. Write a song about going up against insurmountable odds
7. Last words of a loved one
8. Anticipation
9. Get over yourself
10. Gut response
11. Write a follow-up to a character in a Bob Dylan song
12. Best mistake you ever made
13. Can’t say no
14. Surrender time
15. Write a theme song about a dog in your life
16. I never used to like the rain
17. Don’t make a molehill out of a mountain
18. Path of Totality
19. Turn the key, set them free
20. Underneath the Mask
21. Down for the count
22. Write a song about the story of the lady who escaped the train headed for the concentration camp
23. The city will never sleep again
24. 50 50
25. Duty Free
26. Regret
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1. Last chance at a fresh start.
2. Never forget, this is undoubtedly the greatest time in human history to be alive
3. Me at 3am
4. Like a brick wall
5. The outcome is unknown - Swap beats, harmonies, melodies and lyrics
6. Breaking out of a rut
7. Everything is perfect
8. Write a Rolling Stones song with the word 'wheel' in the title
9. Put music to a viral video
10. Write a pop song
11. The myth and the marrow
12. Lose the crutches - Write a song without two devices you've come to rely on
13. Incorporating any part of a previous song, write a song about moving on
14. Change of Scene
15. Don't Look Away
16. You're writing a record of your life (either your whole life up to now or your life at the present). It's missing one final track to bring it all together. Write that song.
17. Grab your favorite book, collection of poems, favorite author, whatever. Randomly open it to a page. Those are your lyrics, put music to them.
18. Reimagine a well known cover: make a slow song upbeat, make a summer anthem into a minor blues, a thrash version of a lullaby, a disco version of a protest song...
19. Nina Simone
20. Underwater
21. Pick an era or a player from your favorite sports team and write a song about it/them
22. Write a song with no more than 22 words
23. Skeleton
24. Write a song about a conversation you overhear- real or imagined
25. Take a sad song and make it better
26. Take a glad song and make it bitter
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1. Respect
2. Blind spot
3. The only constants in life are death and divorce
4. Re-Do
5. Leave your shoes at the door
6. Recall fondly one of the hardest things you've been through
7. Redo a song in the game, not your own
8. Write a song portrait of someone you admire greatly
9. Leaving your heart in paradise, knowing you'll never return
10. Kill for a cure
11. Write a song about the grandparent that you knew (and knew you) the least
12. Write a sexy, confident love song
13. {Lewis & Clark} The feeling of having your expectations wiped away by what's in front of you, but being too far in to turn back
14. The Leviathan
15. TFW your favorite song is playing. (Bonus points if you incorporate any part of the song)
16. Explore the dynamics of give and take in a song
17. A Perfect Place
18. Your best beginning
19. Find some old unfinished work and finish it. Or, write a song incorporating the theme Unfinished-Undefeated.
20. Write a song from the perspective of your opposite
21. Whole Cloth
22. The achievement of a monumental, albeit insignificant, task
23. Songwriting 101
24. In the box thinking: make a song using samples from other songs (not your own). The only recording you can do is voice(s).
25. Winter Storm
26. Pound of flesh
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1. Live into it
2. Write a song that is hopeful and/or excited by the future. No more moping!
3. Tell a story with no narrative, only description
4. Identify one of your own ‘greatest struggles’. Identify a departed family member or loved one. Write a song about the advice they would give you regarding said struggle.
5. Grab A Hold Of What You Have, For We Have Such Little Time
6. Write a song about an off-beat character from your childhood, someone you knew personally or just were aware of that really flipped your young wig!
7. Write a song about girls
8. Write a song about a favorite room in your house/home. Or a house/home from your past. Or even a house/home of someone else's that you spent a lot of time in. Include at least one key modulation in your song.
9. _________&__________ : Write a song about two lovers who can not be together
10. Mirror Mirror
11. Maybe this is the last time (or write any kind of song about anything you want)
12. Higher Ground
13. Utilizing the oldest instrument in your possession (first guitar, family piano, 70s synth, etc...) write a song to sing to yourself at 15 years old
14. Write a song about a secret
15. Apophenia
16. All good things...
17. Won’t Be Long or This House Is Built On _________
18. Write a song that begins at the end and ends at the beginning
19. Pencil vs Pen
20. An answer for everything
21. Your phone rings, and you see it's a call from yourself
22. SPACE (Can be outer space, personal space, open space, empty space... but also leave some space in the recording as well!)
23. Magical Thinking
24. Faith
25. A Month of Sundays or Divorcee (Bonus* If you incorporate both)
26. Finally, some good news!
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1. Bourbon and Bitters
2. Write a sympathetic song about your arch-enemy (Bonus* if you make it a Latin pop song)
3. Super Moss
4. Write a song about a situation in which somebody tries to solve a problem but ends up making everything a whole lot worse
5. https://www.facebook.com/817824382/videos/10158977135054383/
6. Acknowledge a past mistake
7. Write a dance song, incorporating a new dance move(Bonus Points- if you come up with an actual dance move to go with the song | Extra Bonus Points- if you make a TikTok doing the dance)
8. spooky, late-night, dark and stormy, atmospheric, lost and found
9. If I Were Truly On My Own
10. Making a mountain out of a molehill: Make the most from the least
11. Better Figure It Out Right Quick
12. Wabi Sabi
13. (No Prompt Given)
14. Give Or Take
15. Use the crutches : Incorporate and heavily utilize tricks that you often use in your songs and production.
16. Write a song about your next life
17. The thunder is done
18. Who? What? Where? When? Why?(pick three)
19. Love needs Love
20. Write a song about feeling good for no reason
21. Unreliable Narrator
22. Circle of fifths
23. Write a sequel to any of your songs. *It doesn’t have to be a song, in the game*
24. The Good Stuff: No negativity, no sadness, not even bittersweet; write a song about beauty, wonder, peace, love, contentedness, inner-strength, self-mastery, entertainment, expertise, poetry, flowers, pleasure… you know, the good stuff!
25. (No prompt given)
26. Clean Slate
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1. Using a different/alternate vocal character, write a song entitled The Ghost of 2021
2. The Perfect Moment
3. The Soundtrack of your Life
4. Write a story song based of a book you recently read
5. The salt brings out the sweetness
6. People are all the same
7. Write a song based on an episode of Seinfeld.*must incorporate the storyline from 1 specific episode*
8. There’s no such thing as a coincidence
9. The Multiverse
10. Do a funk song about being in over your head
11. Take a breather *Literally or figuratively*
12. The feeling of being a kid
13. Who Amongst Us Could Say?
14. Mereology
15. I can’t remember the sound of my own voice
16. Getting High
17. Tell a story from your past. Bonus points if you have a person from the story, record on it.
18. Let's do an instrumental track!
19. Reimagine one of your songs.
20. The perfect crime
21. There's Always Room For Growth
22. I must be in heaven
23. Cover a friend’s song. Bonus points: if you make the song completely different
24. Least bad worst case scenario
25. Write a holiday song that goes into the difficulties of the holiday season. Bonus points: If you incorporate an instrument or vocal that is out of tune.
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1. Drone on
2. Write a song based on an episode of the Twilight Zone *must incorporate the storyline from 1 specific episode*
3. Home in
4. Dress it up in a Monkey Suit (symbolize the emotions)
5. Master of Two Left Feet
6. You can’t connect with others, if you're not connected with yourself
7. The fog
8. The Way You Say Goodnight Is Like Poetry
9. Uncommon Combos (using ear-catching words in unusual pairings)
10. There are a thousand lifetimes in every minute
11. The age of bewilderment
12. Take a song of yours (preferably pre-game) and give it a 2023 update
13. Song is the awareness of time
14. 3rd Act Problems
15. You can always pick it up again (it gets lighter)
16. My Love For You Is Not Fake News
17. Dependent Co-arising
18. Do You Trust Reason Over Feelings?
19. 200 songs? 200 songs! "Keep on keeping on"
20. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
21. False starts and dead ends
22. Write a song from the perspective of a character in a horror movie. Note: Use one specific character from one movie, it's ok to use one that is in a franchise but focus on telling their story.
23. Kombucha Moonshine Apple Pie (write a song with nonsense lyrics)
24. The same things you love, are the same things that will kill you!
25. “In the land of Memory, the time is always Now” -Stephen King
26. Another year over, and a new one just begun!
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1. Get specific: add some particulars, interesting details, and other distinct images
2. Heading back to… (any city or town*) *it can be a fictional town or city
3. Waking Up
4. Bury the lede
5. A song about a mythical creature
6. The paradox of choice
7. That one word ________
8. Spring is here!
9. "All My Old Haunts"
10. Graduation | Move In/Out
11. But what will people say?
12. Mystery
Fantasy
Prophecy
History
13. Last Good Weekend
14. Feature a place with a memorable/ironic/funny name
15. Object around the house
16. Songs I didn’t write
17. Write a driving song
18. I always wished I was bad