Spring 2022 Co-write Challenge Results

Congratulations to our Spring 2022 Co-Writing Challenge songwriters!

Each time we run these challenges, it's a special treat to see what songs are created from the same set of prompts they are given.

Some writers selected their own co-writer, and some were adventurous and let us pick a writer at random for them.

The talent, creativity, and heart of our writers shows up in their work.

You'll hear it in a second.

If you're interested in jumping in on the fun our members have, click here to find out how you can join MAS today.

What was the prompt this time?

This month, let's practice ‘writing in the key’ of ideas. As with all our challenges, these are just jumping-off points. It’s okay to try this and go in a different direction; there are no points, awards, or expectations here. But I think you’ll wanna play with this technique a little bit.

First, pick a concept. For example, ‘ocean’. List all the words that come to mind when you think of oceans. Here’s a few:

Sand, water, salt, octopus, lighthouse, shell, beach, spot, blue, waves, roll…

Pick a second concept, perhaps an emotion like ‘lonesome’:

Empty, dark, shadows, quiet, walls, thoughts, walk, soul…

We could have a perfectly serviceable song there, but take it a step further and see if any interesting rhyming combinations arise:

Walk/salt; thought/spot; roll/soul…

And so on. This is meant to be a ‘mining’ process. You might pick a few concepts to play with. You might just pick one. This can be as challenging and elaborate as you like:

Level 1: Pick one ‘key’ and write a song from it

Level 2: Pick two ‘keys’, but weave them together in a rhyme scheme such as ABAB. What interesting meanings arise when you pair rhymes from Key 1 with those from Key 2?

I suggest you brainstorm ideas one week, then come back to them the next. Like photos, you never know for sure how things are going to look once the critic has gotten bored and moved on to something else.

Here are the songs.