5 in 5 Song Challenge - Day 1! LET'S GO

Cool. We are live. I'm going to pull this up on my other computer to verify that the stream has started. But hi, welcome. My name's Sara Spencer. If we haven't met, I'm a singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. And today is day 1 of the Five in Five Song Challenge. The Five in Five is a free songwriting challenge that I host every 2-ish months, give or take. And we all come together and we write 5 songs in 5 days. The same 5 songs, like we're not all working on the same songs, but we're all working independently on our own music every day for 5 whole days. So I am going to be streaming my songwriting session for today. Today is day 1 of the challenge, and I'm gonna be writing day 1 song. Another aspect of the Five in Five is that every day for these 5 days, I share a songwriting prompt with the group. So I am going to pull up that prompt. And get started. I also want to see my chat. Should be able to see a chat, right? We got YouTube chat pulled up there. Awesome, looking beautiful on YouTube. So I am testing out this app called Melon. You can see over here, this is just a little free version of it. Um, it's super cute. I like the interface a lot so far. So we're going to see if this works really well, and if it works out awesome I might start using it for Song Club too.

We'll see. Cool.

So can I pull— can I screen share? I think I can screen share and actually show you today's prompt. Cool, I can. So I'm going to pull up this prompt and show you— actually, I'll show you what the challenge looks like as well before I get So I want to— oh no, I can't do it. Bummer. That's okay. I gotta upgrade to a Pro plan, but I will grab it on my phone and show you guys. Let me know how you're doing in the chat. Tell me, are you participating in the challenge with me? Are you a challenge member, or are you somebody who knows me through my music? Tell me what's up, what's going on, how are you? Alright, so pulling up Facebook. So this challenge takes place inside of Facebook. We have a private Facebook— actually, it's not private anymore. We have a Facebook group called the 5in5 Song Challenge Group, and I'm gonna pull that up right now. So you can find this group on Facebook. Facebook group, 5in5 Song Challenge, presented by Song Fancy. And I'm going to grab today's prompt. Okay, I love this. I remember setting up this prompt and thinking this has mad Taylor Swift vibes, and I think I'm gonna do a Taylor Swift, like, Willow type inspired song where there's lots of just beautiful, almost percussive guitar playing, um, fingerstyle. I kind of want to just see what I can follow there. That's, that's sort of a vibe I'm feeling right now, so I want to see if I could follow that. But here's the prompt. Trying to get no glare for you. Essentially, this is what the prompts look like. They are a visual paired with the actual prompt itself. And I usually put them over a color. And so we have sort of at the end of the challenge, we have this nice palette of colors. But yeah, this prompt in particular is a word set prompt. Prompt. So you can see we have 10 words here, and the goal of the prompt, or our goal when we sit down to write, is to use at least 5 of these 10 words in our songs. So we've got maple, wool, light, sting, charcoal, owl, searched, fallen, moon, and needle. And you're more than welcome to write along with me if you'd like to. If you stumble across this stream, you're more than welcome to write along with this prompt. If you want to join the challenge and write along with us inside the Facebook group, go to songfancy.com/5in5. It's actually in the description down below. Okay, maple, wool, light, stain, charcoal, owl, searched, fallen, moon, and needle. So this is definitely giving me— I was a little—

like, you know, that sort of—

it almost feels like bells. I don't know, that has nothing to do with songwriting and everything to do with the production, but I feel like it's such a mood, it's such a vibe. I kind of want to— that's what I want to chase for this. I'm also eating soup, pardon me while I eat a little bit. I need to get this workstation a little bit turned over here. We're gonna move my junk and get a little cozy and get my guitar on. Try not to knock the soup into the studio computer. Let's see, she probably thinks it's a tear.

Yeah, damn, these are new strings, so they're a little flexy. I'm so scared. The harmonic.

Ugh, nothing like bass strings.

Koosi.

I kind of like that vibe, but the That actually brings me to another thing I want to tell you about, which is the amplifier. So you saw the prompt. We start with the prompt every day. And today's prompt is a word set prompt. We also have an optional amplifier. Amplifiers are sort of musical counterparts to these prompts. And they are optional. But if you like having a musical place to start as well, you can use the amplifier. And so today's amplifier is a chord progression. So the challenge here— so much glare— the challenge here is to utilize this chord progression somewhere in your songs. We've got F# minor, A, B minor, and D. And these are fun complex chords that I know that I can't play, so I'm probably not going to use this, but I'll stick to the prompt. Cool, love it. I do love these words: maple, wool, light, stain, charcoal.

I'm such a girl.

A little lower so you can actually see I'm playing. Don't mind my room, it's a mess. That's an absolute mess. I was trying to do that, never works out the way I think it will. I really wish I could share my screen for lyrics, but I'll just have to show you a little bit on my phone. Okay, check in on the group, see how we doing.

Cool, love it.

The songs are coming in, y'all. It's really cool seeing where people take this prompt. Normally I don't listen to like what other people have written before I've written my own song, but today I just said screw it, I want to listen to what other people are doing. So it's really neat seeing like how we all start from the same place but we come in on something different—like we all write something different. Okay, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm actually going to copy these words into a Word doc.

Do-do-do-do-do! Get the word doc! Word doc! New doc.

I'm going to call this Day 1 Create. And so, okay, our words are— where are our words? Okay.

Maple, wool, light, sting, charcoal, owl, searched, fallen, moon, and needle.

Ugh, okay, cool. Needle makes me think of like pine needles. Love it. I'm gonna pull up my Word doc up here too on the computer box. I really wish I could side by side, like, show you guys my Word document while also streaming. That'd be so cool. I think this app will let me do it. I just had to pay for it. I'm on the free plan right now. Oh, it totally will. That's so cool. I love it. Okay, love it. Okay, in the meantime.

I like this reverse. Almost get there. How was I doing it?

Thank you.

Okay, we're just gonna go with that. Um, okay, maple pancakes, moonlight on your face, baby you, baby I sing to you. Okay, we have some ideas. Um, one of the things about this challenge that really— that I encourage everyone to do is to write quickly. We are not focusing on writing like a finished, perfect song. You just want to get it out. Like, everything that's going to be coming out right now, you're going to love some of it, you're going to, eh, about some of it, and you're probably not going to like a lot of it. That's OK. Pick and choose the best of what you're coming up with right now. Put it down quickly, and don't judge yourself. Don't allow yourself to be like, this is so terrible that I'm not even going to say it. I know we kind of get in those ruts sometimes of like, man, is this any good? And that can be really, really paralyzing. So for this challenge, the goal is to just get it out. Speed write. Don't allow your inner critic to even be able to jump in for a minute. And focus on a draft.

Flannel.

Hmm, I like the word flannel.

Spoiler alert for anybody watching who's in the challenge, I think the word flannel might be in another prompt in this week's challenge. I think it is. I'm gonna roll with it right now because I like the vibe. Something something something pine needle. Thank you. Something something something pine needle. I might be really taking this from a Taylor Swift melody, but that's okay. We know we are paying homage to Queen. Ah, it's probably not gonna fit.

You picked me a bouquet. I need you.

I think I'm gonna bring this up a little bit.

It's kind of low. I'm gonna pop this up and down so you guys can see what I'm doing. We might go that direction for a chorus. We'll see. Okay.

Maybe that's just all it is. Bouquet, flannel, big me, bouquet, funny. Maple pancakes.

Flannel! Mm-hmm. Pan— meow? Punching? Meow? Mayo flannel?

Hmm... Rhyme scheme is A-B-E. So it needs to be A.

B. E.

Pani balaani, do you all, uh, I'm thinking of all the words that rhyme with flannel, and flannel's not in the rhyming position. Like, I don't need to rhyme it.

Bouquet, mantle.

Okay, we're just gonna do that. We're gonna ditch flannel. We'll use it for next time's song. Bouquet, mantle.

Bouquet, glass vase, mantle.

'Cause you picked me a bouquet, Pani. I think we'll do a glass vase. Blown glass. What's the word for like antique glass? Isn't there like another word for that? No idea. There's a lot of— there's a lot of words. Amber. Okay, maybe we just do that.

Glass vase, mandal. Amber glass vase, mandal.

Hmm, there's so many options. Amber glass vase on the mandal.

I think that's gonna be it.

On the mantel, it's a bouquet of pine needles. Yeah, I needed you all my life.

And then my brain wants to go, "Will you say the last I know of you?" Whatever the chords are.

Maybe. Okay, I need one more line. In my verse. Here's what I have so far. I changed the chords. On the mantle— Google Docs autocorrected mantle to mangle.

On the mantle you pick me a bouquet. I need you, yeah, I needed you all my life. Amber glass vase on the mantle, you pick me a bouquet.

I know there's another Taylor Swift song in there, but I don't want to think of it because then I'll just write it, write the melody. I think we gotta rhyme those last two lines of the verse with each other. Let's see, I'll pull up the doc and I'll show you what I'm talking about. So, okay, probably can't see too well, but we've got our first stanza here and our second stanza here. And you can see that little dash, a little hyphen, that's where there's a missing line. That's usually where I just put a little hyphens, so I know I need a line here.

So, "Maple pancakes, catch the morning light on your face." I think that last line needs to rhyme with this last one.

"Pine needles, I needed you all my life." Something that rhymes with that "all my life" there. Let's see what that come up with.

Let's shout! Oh, you know what?

There's things that make this easier, and that is wiki rhyming. So we've got life is the word. What words do we have that rhyme with life? Knife is a good one. Can we use knife? I just like knife because it's a really loaded word. Maple pancakes, catchin' morning light on your face. Nice. Dry.

Fly. Sky. Good night.

Face waking up, waking up, middle of the night, waking up to sun, waking up to watch you, waking up just to want you.

Am I getting a little weird?

Waking up just to watch it, love the night.

It's just not enough space.

Maple pancakes, kiss your morning light. Maple pancakes, catch the morning light on your face. Waking up just to watch it, love the night. I'm gonna leave it. I like the pocket.

I don't think it's very clear, but we're striving again for that draft. And I like the thought, I like what I'm doing. I want to finish this song, have to finish this song, like, in this time that I have to finish it. So I'm moving forward with that as a first verse. Cool. I'm actually going to record it. It's a little voice recording app, it's just iPhone's voice recorder app. This thing is so stuffed with voice memos that I'll press record and you literally have to wait like 10 seconds for it to start. Okay. Okay, we got something, we got something. I'm just gonna call this Day One Verse, not inverse, but Day One Verse. Okay, we've got our first verse. Excuse me, my lip is super dry. First verse and some chords for the chorus. So let's see, I don't have a hook, which always bothers me. I'm so used to writing, like my comfort zone is writing two a hook. So like, a hook is— for those who may not know, a hook is like that phrase at the end or beginning of a chorus that just ties the song up in a nice little bow. And sometimes it's the title of the song. Um, Willow doesn't really have the hook in the way that I'm describing it because it appeared— the title of the song is Willow and it appears in the verse. Um, what's in— that was a Taylor Swift song. I'm just dying right now.

Taylor Swift songs.

Give me a song that has that quintessential hook. Love Story. Duh. All Too Well. That's actually the perfect example because she says, I remember it all too well. It's like the last line of the chorus. And yeah, hooks can appear in many different ways, but that's just the type of hook that I'm used to writing to. Excuse me. I don't have that for this song. Usually when I'm writing, I have the hook first, and I know, okay, I've got this hook, so that sort of gives me the whole overview of the song. I already know what the whole song is really going to be about. Because I have the hook and I know what the hook is. It's like a key. I don't have a hook for this song. I'm just kind of like freewheeling based on these lyrics and a vibe that I want to write to. So we'll see, I'll get there eventually.

Maple pancakes, ketchup, ketchup, maple pancakes, catch the morning light on your Face waking up just to watch me love for nothing. Amber glass vase on the mantle, you picked me a bouquet. Pine needles, I needed you all my life. Oh, we met, we met in a fairy tale and I think we all I'm just gonna open with that.

Met in a fairy tale.

We met, we met in a fairy tale.

Also gonna cross off the words that I've used. So I've used a couple words from the prompt already. How can I cross them Strike through. So we're not going to use maple. We use maple, we use searched. Format, text, strikethrough. What else we got? Maple. We've got needles. Oh, I didn't use searched yet. Okay, okay, okay.

Text don't strike through.

We've used needle. I had searched in there and then I decided against it. Okay. Oh, we used light. I didn't realize light was a word too. Cool, so we've used 3 words. I'm so drunk. Um. Trick 3 on light. Cool. I think the temptation is usually with these word prompts, these word set prompts, where you have a list of words to use throughout your song, the temptation is to use as many of them as we can in the very beginning of the song to kind of like crush them all in and leave that quick little story with just as many words as possible. But we We don't have to. We don't have to do that. We have plenty of words and plenty of time to get to them. So I've got 2 words used in the first stanza, 1 word used in the second stanza. I feel like I'm on my way, so I'm not gonna force it. I feel like it's easy to wind up writing a song that feels more like the prompt if you're trying to force all the words into the first half of the song, it sort of starts to feel like we're just trying to, to ace the test, if you will. And I kind of don't want to do that. I kind of want to just have a song that's good that I enjoy. And I encourage anybody else who's writing along too to find what you enjoy the most. Maybe you just want to ace the test today, and that's totally fine. There's nothing wrong with that at all. If you are writing music to release or writing music because you're trying to find your way back to what you enjoy about writing music, follow what it is that interests you. Even if you don't wind up using all the words, even if you don't wind up using any of the words, just use one. And then you're like, oh shit, I'm abandoning this prompt because this song is really cool and I don't want to have to ace the test and use all the words. Um, I just want to write a good song. That is the heart and soul of this challenge, is if you can come out with a song that you're excited about. I mean, that's the best. That's the biggest win. So, uh, let's see here. I've got our 3 words, and I'm gonna move on to the chorus.

We met, we met in a fair, we met in a fairy tale, hearts beating.

I want to sing All Too Well.

We met in fairy tale.

Maybe searched is kind of like our hook somehow. Here's another instance of like, okay, this is just such a unique prompt situation. So we've got the word searched in the list of words. That's one of the 10 words that you're challenged to use in this prompt. Prompt, but I feel like I found an interesting way to use the word searching, not searched. So what do you do? Do I really want to focus on acing the test, or do I want to focus on just writing a song that I love? And I would encourage everybody to follow whatever it is that they are most inspired by. I'm inspired by writing the song that I love right now, so that's what I'm going to do. I really wish I had a cup of tea in here. I do need water. This is your hydration reminder, friends.

Okay.

You found, you found the last century.

I don't know, backsearched.

Yeah, find that hook. I'm so— I feel like so out of my element without a hook to write to, um, so I'm kind of like looking for something to really say. Here because I have like fun description in the top of it and it's just like nice scenery, it's nice furniture. But, um, what are we saying here?

You got me, we made it a fairy tale. You found me, that island. You found me, that massive tree.

Oh my gosh, hi, that's me. Whoops, get out of here. Get out of here, me. Get my livestream pulled up.

Um. And out.

Hurts like hell. Oh, okay, let's try this. I love this because the story is unwinding. The story is starting to like present itself, but I don't know what that nice little hook is that wraps everything up in a nice little bow.

I'm going to remove fallen from this list.

So one of the words is fallen, but I'm using the word fell, and I feel like that— like, I just don't want to try to use the word fallen in the rest of the songs. It's too close to fell, so I feel like we're good. It's also really close. The words are basically— they mean the same thing, you know, just different tenses or whatever. So I'm going to go ahead and scratch off fallen. In. I can't really claim that I used the word exactly, but I just don't want to be sure. I'm actually going to move all the funnies that I've used out of my—

—like pennies down a wishing well. Time ran out, now it hurts like hell.

Oh, I like that. Time ran out, now it hurts. Like how you have a little bit of internal rhyme and then you have like the urgency of like time now.

We met in a fairy tale, like pennies down a wishing well. Time ran out, now it hurts like hell. Can't sleep, can't cry. All in me, I, all in Maybe I just—

okay, okay, I might have a hook. It doesn't include one of the words. I was trying to get one of the prompt words into the hook, but it doesn't matter. I just want to write a song that I enjoy, right? That's the main goal. So I'm going to not force myself to use a prompt word in the hook and write something that I think is cool. Okay, we're going Blank Space Taylor here. Willow meets Blank Space Taylor.

Um, we met in a fairy tale, felt like pennies down a wishing well. Time ran out, now it hurts like hell. Call me crazy, call me off, but I love it every time. My mind, but I love every time. But I love the way it feels each time.

Let's see.

Not very clear, but okay, we're just— we're drafting, right? We're just drafting. This is a speed songwriting challenge. I'm not going to try and like let perfection get in the way of progress. So I feel like the story is about somebody who is addicted to falling in love and doesn't care if it goes to hell. In the end, um, just kind of loves falling in love and loves the chaos around just making chaos in the relationship.

Watch me love tonight. Amber glass vase on the mantle. You pick me a bouquet. Pine needles, yeah, I need it. Pine needles, yeah, I needed you all my life. Oh, we met in a fairy tale, like any kind of wishing well. Time ran out, now it hurts like hell. Call me crazy, call me out my mind, but I love, love it every time. But I love the way it feels each time I fall in love.

We're getting there. I like the way it moves. I think it's cool.

Call me crazy, call me out my mind, but I love the way it feels each time, each time.

I rip into you something you can't buy.

I rip into something you can't buy. It's a little visceral. Call me crazy, call me out my mind, but I love the way you feel each time.

Rip into the fan, rip into me.

Into the blank of—

moving to the blank of you and I. Coming up on an hour here, so I will probably close this stream out in like 15, 10-15 minutes here. Okay.

Me crazy, call me out my mind, but I love the way it feels each Each time I pull on the thread of you and I.

Okay, that's what I'm going to do.

I pull on the thread of you and I.

I like that a lot. You know what happens when you pull on a thread of something? It can unravel.

We met in a fairy tale, felt like any standard— okay. I don't know, it's kind of—

they're so happy. I want it to turn around a little bit. Have I used any words? I haven't used any other words.

We met in a fairy tale, felt like pennies down a wishing well. Time, time ran out, now it hurts like hell. Call me crazy, call me out my mind, but I love the way it feels each time I pull on the thread of you and I. Oh, are they in me? I hope it is.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, I have a first verse and a chorus, so I think that is a great stopping point for us now. Thank you for watching. If you've tuned into this live stream or you're watching the replay, Thanks for watching. I hope you've enjoyed seeing me write a song. It's one of my most favorite things to do in the entire world, and I enjoy sharing it. And I hope that you find it inspiring for your own songwriting. Um, if you would like to join us for the 5 in 5 Song Challenge, please, by all means, come join us. We're having so much fun. It is happening all this week, that is November 29th through December 3rd. At the time of this recording, and there will be more challenges if you can't make it this week. So definitely sign up at songfancy.com/5in5. Can I put this text on the screen? Like, can I do this? Like, can I do it? Yes! Okay. Okay. songfancy.com/5in5. 5. This is— this software is so cool. If you would like to join us, head over to songfancy.com/5in5 and get registered. The challenge is happening all this week. Today is just day 1, and you can totally pop in anytime during the week, um, and join us. So please do. It's free fun, and it's a kick in the ass if you need a little bit of a kick in the butt and, uh, need some help getting out of a writing long, this challenge is for you. Also, something super fun is happening. I'm also opening up registration for Song Club again at the end of this week. At the end of the challenge, I'll be opening doors for Song Club. Song Club is my year-long songwriting membership community. It's a paid community, and we do all sorts of great things like live write-ins, which is a weekly meetup kind of like this where I stream a song writing session for an hour, and I give you guys little milestones like, hey, we're halfway through here. There's a chat, and we just enjoy each other's company. We all meet up and write in solidarity. So you can kind of think of it as like your weekly songwriting session with yourself, your songwriting appointment with yourself, but with friends, kind of like study group. It's really great for feeling less lonely in songwriting, feeling less like you are writing in a vacuum, and and working on your craft and staying in practice with your song craft. So the live write-ins are super fun. We do them every Thursday from 12 to 1 Central Time. So if that sounds like something you wanna get in on, join Song Club. If you join the challenge, if you register for the Five in Five Song Challenge, you will be hearing all about Song Club, I promise you. And if you would like to get on the waitlist for Song Club, you can do so by going to mysongclub.com. And I think I can put this on the screen. Yes. Wow, there's a ticker. Here we go. Breaking news at this hour. Um, but you can get on the waitlist at mysongclub.com, and you will also hear the moment we open doors, and you can sign up. It's $22 a month. We do our weekly live write-ins. We're going to have some really cool events in the new year. I haven't said anything about it yet, but you should totally get on the waitlist so you can hear about it. Um, a vibrant, beautiful community of songwriters and weekly song prompts, because why not? The prompts are so much fun in the challenge, let's do them every week, all the time, inside of Song Club. So I will leave it at that, y'all. Happy writing, and I will see you inside the challenge group. Bye, gang!