Looking Back at the Songwriter's Challenge - 8 Original Songs in 8 Weeks
The music community on Steem is a real thing of beauty.
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When I started here nearly seven months ago, your guess was as good as mine regarding what kind of material I would be sharing. Let me explain.
I consider myself a well-rounded person, a proponent of renaissance. That just means that my interests are fickle and my talents are ever-changing. I've never had the discipline to stick with any form of creative expression; I've always done what feels right at the time.
Steem has changed me.
They say that a new habit can be formed by forcing oneself into action every day for a month. With the #openmic Songwriter's Challenge, I proved this to myself.
I was beginning to get involved in the growing #openmic community. I had written a few comedy songs as entries, but felt that I was quickly running out of material. What did I know? I was just a beginner. Then I met @meno and watched him concoct the idea of the inaugural Songwriter's Challenge. He had me at Challenge. This sounded like the perfect opportunity to fail... I'm always looking for opportunities to fail. For the whole eight weeks I gave it everything I had, pretending that I had a chance to win the grand guitar prize. I scoured my completely unexplored ability to write songs, and I was surprised and delighted by what I found.
Here are the songs I wrote for the Songwriter's Challenge, in order. I didn't want to put them in chronological order, but this way it's really easy to spot the improvements. I came a long way in that eight weeks, both in technical proficiency and confidence.
Week One - Broken Mirror (Act My Age)
Week Two - Lost and Found (Lost in the Sun)
Week Three - Stolen Soul
Week Four - Because We Can
Week Five - Wind-Swept Shore
Week Six - Special Delivery
Week Seven - Right Place/Right Time
Week Eight - Until We Meet Again
Let this be a Steem lesson to you. Just keep doing it. You're always going to be your own worst critic. This is a magical place that rewards people for elusive qualities like motivation, inspiration, discipline, and charity. I love everything about this platform and community.
Thank you all for welcoming me into this extraordinary world of music, words and dreams. Let's keep on making music together!
Such a great post, thank you for sharing the inspiration! I started writing songs a few months back and the best part has been seeing the progress. There has definitely been discouragement at times but overall it just feels good to be doing it. You music encourages me to keep going.
I'm so glad my post was able to encourage you! Thank you! That's another beautiful thing about Steem: Creativity breeding creativity. 😁
As far as discouragement, there were times during the eight weeks of the challenge... Let's just say it was rough. Other times it came out easily and quickly. The funny thing is almost everyone else I was following in the challenge had similar difficulties at the same time, like we were all connected in a web of creativity. Interesting, no?
That is interesting! Fun to see the synchronicity and to ride the wave together. I've been working hard on some new songs and hope to share them soon with you all. I just sang at my first open mic night last night. So taking steps :)
I'm touched .. i almost cried on the song lost in the sun :) splendid work .. i don't have anything big that i can give to you but my upvote .. but splendid work ! i love it ^^
Thank you so much :)
Upvotes are great, but you taking the time to listen to some of my stuff means so much more.
Nice collection of songs for a guy who thought he couldn't write songs. You should be proud of this work.
You know its awesome when people from all parts of the world come together and share their talents!
For whatever its worth brother, im super proud of you!!
btw... i would still love to have you on overtime tomorrow.. so if you are up to drink some extra coffee and chat about music until a irresponsible time of the day, i encourage it.
You rock my effin' face off, @meno. Thanks! I'll definitely be there tomorrow night, although it maaaaaay not be coffee I'm drinking.
YOu have a real talent, have only had time now to listen to the first one but I was super impressed and really enjoyed it, will swing by this evening and listen to the rest as I am editing photos and preparing a post
Thanks, Jay! I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to some of my songs. The ones with Carrie backing me up are probably the two best ;)
Just listening to one of them now and it is great indeed
"I'm always looking for opportunities to fail"--what an excellent way to approach life! You never accomplish anything if you don't put yourself out there, and failure is sometimes the best tool to learn and grow. I will have to come back for a listen when I'm not at work later on!
Totally. Failure is one of my favorite things. I'm so good at it. There's this really awesome book by John C. Maxwell called Failing Forward. I like it a lot. 😄
Thanks for your support!
I'll have to check that book out. Thanks for the suggestion!
Upvoted and following!
WHat an inspiring, organized, and well-designed post! I feel like I got to take part in the journey with you, even though this is the first post of yours I've read.
I'd like to get involved with the music community here, and you are providing encouragement and inspiration just by being yourself. I appreciate this greatly!
<3
Thanks! I can't take all the credit for the "well-designed post". @carrieallen, my wife, figured out all the markdown stuff early and helped me out. She's pretty good; here's a tutorial she did for @helpie a few days ago:
https://steemit.com/helpie/@helpie/markdown-challenge-guest-teacher-carrieallen
This is a great place for musicians! Glad you found some inspiration in my post. :D
This post has received a 3.03 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @bennettitalia.