Songstream - Day 3 of the 5 in 5 Song Challenge
In this 2‑hour live stream, songwriter Sarah Spencer conducts Day 3 of the 5‑in‑5 Song Challenge, a five‑day speed‑songwriting contest where participants write a full song each day based on a daily prompt. Sarah streams simultaneously on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, shares the challenge link, and engages with viewers via chat. She explains the challenge’s structure, introduces the day’s prompt—“What are the words you promised yourself you’d never say?”—and shows the accompanying visual “amplifier” (a suggested chord progression). Throughout the session she works through technical issues (audio drop‑outs, MP4 upload limits on Circle, Zoom noise‑cancellation), practices a B‑minor bar chord, and experiments with a chill, groovy vibe. She drafts lyrics, iterates on song titles (eventually settling on “Enemies”), and explores dark thematic material about abusive relationships, using vivid imagery such as “blood on the walls, mud on the floor, dragging by the hair, nails on the boards.” Sarah invites audience members to share their own progress, offers encouragement, and promotes the challenge via songfancy.com/5in5. The stream ends with a brief performance of the newly written song and a reminder to join future challenge days.
Chapters
Alright, and while that's cooking, I'm also gonna come over into Facebook so I can share the link to this stream with everybody in the Five in Five group. And alright, so YouTube is probably streaming right now. Awesome, live on YouTube. That's my voice. Facebook mute. Okay, fantastic. Hi YouTube, hi Facebook, and anybody who is watching this replay or is joining me on the stream. I'm about to start my day 3 songwriting session, so I'm going to come over here and actually share this livestream with my friends inside of the Five in Five Song Challenge group. Logging in over there. If you are watching, give me a comment in the chat and let me know if you are also writing today, if you are a member of the challenge, or if you are a songwriter who is just working on some material today. Let me know. I want to know if you're writing or not. And if you're not a songwriter, hi, welcome. Introduce yourself in chat so I can say hey and know who you are. But let's go over to challenge group. A little bit of clicking around before I get started. All right, I'm gonna make this post real quick. Hey gang, streaming over on YouTube. And Insta if you want to join. Happy writing! And then my Insta is @sarahspencermusic. And post. And with that, we are going to get started over on Instagram as well. I want to stream in all the places. Um, okay, live. We're gonna put on our super cute filter because why not? Oh, I like the one with the glitter. Okay, cute. Love it. And live. Checking connection. Awesome. Hi, Instagram.
Hello, hello, hello.
I'm live streaming in all the places right now, so looking at all the cameras. Hi, welcome to my stream. I am about to get started writing day 3 of my song for day 3 of the 5 in 5 Song Challenge. So welcome to the place. Okay, I think I'm streaming everywhere that I need to be. Um, we've adjusted some volume settings on Zoom, so hopefully she won't go haywire like last time and not pick up any of my vocals. Surf Green Guitar, hi, welcome! Jason Drake, hello, welcome! DJ Rose, welcome! Thank you guys for joining. I am going to get sorted here. Put my YouTube chat so I can see anybody who's in here. Are you guys writing? Tell me what you're working on. I want to know if you're writing anything right now.
William, what's up?
I know you're writing. Actually, you've probably already written your song. Um, I don't think I've seen it yet in the group. Tell me if you've written your song yet for today. And then I am going to say, if you want to join S4D5, 5 in 5 Song Challenge, sign up at songfancy.com/5in5. See you there. And for my friends on Instagram, there's so many cameras. Um, you can join along at songfancy.com/5in5. In 5. And I'm gonna pin this.
Pin, pin, pin comments. Wink.
Got it. Awesome. Love it. Okay. I'm trying to put the cameras in the middle so I'm like looking at both of them. Hello. William says, wrote it, but I'm having trouble uploading.
Oh no.
By the way, I heard back from support about the part of our video issues over there. And Circle allows this. I could just email you about this, but I think I'll just tell you right now. Circle only allows like uploads of MP4s. I guess you can upload anything that you want, but the MP4 is like the best file type that's going to use, just the way that it's programmed. They told me it's the way that they code it. They use HTML, like HTML's video tag. So then that uses your browser's native player, and MP4s work best with the native player, to my understanding. So that might have been why it was giving you some trouble earlier. Sorry, mini freakout, it's up now. Hi Zach, what's up? Uh, that's like the worst feeling though when you've spent so much time on a song. Like, something similar happened to me yesterday. It's like you spend so much time writing a song, a whole hour and then you take the time to record it and you have to play it all the way through and get it like perfectly right in one go, perform this new song that you literally just wrote, and then if you go to share it or watch it back and it doesn't work, it's the worst. It's the worst feeling. And that happened to me yesterday because I did a stream here like this where I performed my song and the audio kept cutting, cutting in and out. It literally I think it was like Zoom's audio settings where it's trying to filter out like low background noise, but it was filtering out me like gently playing my guitar and my voice. So the song kept coming in and out. Anyway, technology, we love it, we hate it, but we're here. So I'm gonna go ahead and get started and pull up this prompt. Um, for anybody who doesn't know, so in the 5in5 This is a speed songwriting challenge. It lasts for 5 days, and for every single day for 5 days, um, we write a song. We write a full song based on a prompt that I post in our group. And I'm gonna go grab today's prompt. I remember reading it, but I don't really remember it. That's right. Okay, this one's gonna be hard. I remember reading this and thinking, I'm gonna have a hard time with this today, but I think I can actually I'm gonna screen share over here on Zoom to show you guys what I'm looking at. Share screen. Excuse me, hiccup. So this is the prompt over here. What are the words you promised you'd never say? And on Instagram, what are the words you promised you'd never say? And I always try to pick background images that like add to the story, kind of treat it like, I guess, like B-roll footage or something like that. So you've got— but, but also like that goes in line with whatever season we're in, whatever time of year we're in. And so it's holiday season right now, things are cold and we're bringing out a lot of candles and lights. So I tried to grab this one here. It feels a little bit moody, little vibey. What are the words you promised yourself you'd never say? So that's the prompt. And I also include amplifiers, which are little additional sort of prompts that you can add on to expand your prompt, expand your challenge, or give you another place to start. So prompts are usually pretty like lyrical in nature, and amplifiers are musical in nature. So you can see here, today's amplifier, we have a chord progression, and the idea with this is to try and use this chord progression somewhere in your song. I may or may not do it, we'll see. I need to practice my B minor chord. I am trying to teach myself bar chords. It's hard. I've avoided it for many years. I'm not looking forward to it, but you just gotta do it, man. Gotta learn bar chords. Nix, what's up? Ace, what's up? Will says the pic can be an amplifier too. Yeah, I like to think of it that way as well. Like, the photo in the background is like there to kind of help zap you somewhere else. Um, songwriting prompts that are just sort of like words on a page are great and they're fine, um, but with these prompts, I really like— I really want you you to tap into an emotional element, like, as soon as you look at it. So we use, we, I use words as well as imagery and color and really minimal design so that everything feels like you're just sort of taking a glimpse at a story in progress. And then you as the songwriter, it's up to you to figure out that story and tell your own story based on it, based on what you see. So I call them, immersive— sorry, I had a brain fart— I call them immersive song prompts because it's sort of— there's more going on that helps you dive into that emotional state really quickly. Hi, welcome! Okay, so I'm going to stop streaming here. I mean, stop— not stop streaming, stop screen sharing. How do I do that? Okay, cool. And I'm gonna pull up my chat on YouTube so I can see that. What We're gonna get started. So, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. All right, words. What is it again? What are the words you promised yourself you'd never say?
Hmm.
This one's hard. I'm having a hard time figuring out what that would be, just like autobiographically for me. But I'm gonna pull up a Google Doc. And get started. And I'll probably screen share my Google Doc. Hello everybody! If you have just popped in, go ahead and say hello in the chat so I can give you a little wave and a little hey. Create and share.
Okay.
I'm gonna try and make it to yoga today, y'all. I've never been to a yoga class in my life, but today's the day. Um, okay, so the prompt is— I'm actually going to copy and paste this image in the top of my Word doc because why not? It's visual, like, let's look at it. Let's have it right here with the lyrics. Oops, let's not delete it. What are the words you promised yourself you'd never say? That's hard. Another little goal that I have for myself with this week's challenge is to write like chill music, to write just music that I can see myself having a whole set of songs that are just laid back, chill, kind of groovy, like just you can sip on a fancy cocktail at the really nice bar and you're wearing your outfit and you are feeling yourself, you feel really good, you're on a date. And it's low-key, and I'm just in the corner singing this music that's just like really beautiful, really groovy, and it's not rowdy. Like, literally the chill background music. If I could make an entire career out of just performing chill background music, oh my god, it'd be amazing. Mom with 5 Blog, hello, welcome! Thanks for joining. Alright, let's see. I want to— I can show Instagram, I can't show YouTube, but I want to show you my setup here. So I put Christmas lights out. Isn't that cute? I'm obsessed. I love it. I love lights in the studio. And then I have all my crystals, which is silly. But I'm starting to get into crystals and I love them. And the candle and candy. I stole the candy tray or the candy thing from the living room. Okay, Camila, what's up? Welcome, thanks for joining. The words you promised you'd never say. So I think I'm probably just gonna strum for a little bit and see what happens.
Take off my thumb ring.
You can't see how gnarly this bar chord is.
God. Clay Mills, what's up?
Thanks for joining. All right, chill, vibed out shit that nobody's really paying attention to, but they are feeling and they're having a good time. That's what I want to write. I might just fucking recycle those chords this entire time.
Dave— Dave, am I supposed to—
Davo?
Davin?
I'm so sorry, I'm gonna mispronounce that. Welcome, thank you for joining. Chairman George, what's up? Thanks for joining, y'all. I kind of like the way that felt.
Ooh, child, you done it now. Can't await it, but you can't wait out. Had to wait it, couldn't wait it out. Had to something, couldn't wait it out.
Once again, don't know what I'm writing about. This is like— I feel like I'm repeating myself every stream, so if you've heard me say this before, I apologize for saying this rant again, but like The 5 in 5 is about speed songwriting, so it's about like, okay, let's get it out. Like, how quickly can you get it out? And I am so used to writing to like an idea that's already like a hook, and I don't have a hook, so I'm like, hmm, what's this song about? I feel like I get better at it every time, honestly. Hey Paul, what's up?
Good to see you. Had to say something, couldn't wait it out.
Okay, Had to Say Something. I feel like this is kind of in line with the prompt. What are the words you promised yourself you'd never say? I don't know what the words are, but we're setting up for it.
Child, you done it now. Had to say something, couldn't wait it out. Sit on your hands. Sit on your hands, bitch. Shut your mouth.
It's like such aggressive language for someone who wants to write a chill song.
Hi, Brad!
It's so good to see you.
Vicki, welcome back. Excuse me. Welcome, welcome. Good afternoon.
How's that poem going, Vicki? He said it was called like Love on the Back Burner or Life on the Back Burner.
Sit on your, sit on your hands, baby, shut your mouth. Damn it. Ooh, done it now. Had to say something, couldn't wait it out. Sit on your hands, baby, shut your mouth. Mm, mm, no. There he goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it.
I don't know what this is about. I want to turn it in some direction, but I also want to like just let shit come out. Whoa, hi!
Ooh, there he goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it. Problem with it. Just wait.
Okay, I know what this is about.
Just wait till we get in.
Camera Rock, welcome! Brad, hope you had a great holiday too, my friend. Thank you for joining. Why did I think this is Christy Carlson Romano? Oh my goodness, I actually don't know who that is. I'm Googling. She's stunning. Thank you. I'll be your doppelgänger any day. It's going well. I was able to rewrite it and now it's called Lies to Keep Me Around. I will be really honest with you, Vicky, that's a super cool title. I like that title so much better than the first one. Not like it matters what I like and what I don't like, but like that hits me as like, ooh, I haven't heard this like before. It's not like a figure of speech, and it's not like, lies to keep me around is interesting. I feel like the easy thing to say would be lies that keep me around, and then somebody might expect it to be like a list of lies or something. But lies to keep me around is like, is it that he lies to keep me around, or is it that— is it some other way of Why Sticky Mirror? Like, I feel like there's different ways to kind of chew on that title. I hope that makes sense. That's cool.
<LYRICS>There he goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it. Just wait till we get back in.</LYRICS> What rhymes with mouth? Just wait till we get back.
Okay, I could take this in two directions, and I'll admit they're both very morbid, but it is a seed writing. Challenge, so we're just gonna go with what we have.
Ooh. There he goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it. Just wait till we get back to the house. Mm-hmm.
Okay, yeah, I'm gonna—
Yeah, this is gonna be fun.
Okay, McSwervy, what up? Welcome, Larry, welcome. Thanks for joining, y'all. Are you guys writing today? Have you written already? Have you done your challenge song already? Are you doing the challenge? Let me know.
Child, you done it now. Had to say something, couldn't wait it out. Sit on your hands, baby, shut your mouth. Oh, baby goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it. Just wait till we get back to the house.
gonna be my structure. All right, I'm just gonna get really vague, like I'm gonna just I'm the kind of writer that wants everything to be crystal clear what's going on, but I think I'm just gonna purposefully kind of not be crystal clear about it. Nick Swervy, nice track. Thank you. Greg, what's up? Hi, thank you for joining. Groovalicious. Thanks. Can't stay, keep doing your thing.
Good to see you.
Bye, have a good day.
Tiptoe like in the movies, walking on eggshells carefully.
That's kind of redundant.
Walking like eggshells, shouting, moving like eggshells, moving like eggshells.
That's kind of a lame line, but that's okay.
Moving over, it's just kidding me. The toe like an army, moving directions carefully.
Excuse me.
Last time I checked, I can leave. Last time I checked it. Last time I used to think that I can leave. Used to think that I can leave. Used to think I can leave.
Used to.
I didn't know like an army's moving over the oceans can't leave. Used to think that I could leave. Used to think that anytime, used to think that anytime I could leave.
We'll see, maybe I'll play it through and see if anything comes to me.
Ooh child, you've done it now. Had to say something, couldn't wait it. Sit on your hands, baby, shut your mouth. There he goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it. Just wait till we get back to the house.
I'm just gonna put that for now. Time I can leave.
I used to think that anytime I could leave. Mm-hmm.
Side and Side, what's up? How are you?
Welcome, welcome, welcome. Did so like in the me's, in the me's.
It's not a day, it's not a day for the riffs.
Moving over eggshells carefully. Used to think that anytime I could leave.
I think I'm just gonna fuck around and like take it wherever I want it to go. Again, I'm usually the kind of writer that wants to have like that really strict pop structure, so I love it when I hear other people not doing that, but I rarely allow myself to not do that. So I think I'm just gonna mess around with the structure and just like listen to where I think I want it to go, um, and not worry so much about like verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. Andrew, what's up? Welcome.
Dragon by the head, nails on.
Okay, we're gonna get weird. I might be done.
Okay.
I'm gonna play through what I have. I might be done. How could I be done? It's only been 30 minutes. But mostly because the structure. I just hear like movement and some repetition of what we already have and trying to create something that's emotional and like moves. Moves you through a moment rather than tells you like a literal story from start to finish. I'm also gonna— I should pull out my recorder. I'm gonna record this so I don't forget it. You don't wanna forget it.
Okay. Child, you done it now. Had to say something, couldn't wait it out. Sit on your hands, baby, shut your mouth. Mm. Ooh. There he goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it. Just wait till we get back to the house. Mm. Ooh. Okay, we'll do that.
Okay, I need one more line. Also, I apologize to everybody that I just hollered at. I— that devolved from singing to hollering. Nisio, is that how you say it? Welcome! Hi, fellow Reason— would you say Reason gang? Reason gang, what's up? So, okay, so our like back half of the second verse.
It's like, but it's like blood on the walls, but it's like blood on the walls, blood on the floor, dragged by the hair, nails on That's my line that I need. It's like—
oh my god, I'm still recording. That's good, Voice Memo app. Uh, what am I gonna call this? We're just gonna call it Enemies. Will says, I still want a thesis. Maybe the title would be enough. What do you mean by a thesis, my dude? Let's see. Okay, the title would be enough. Oh, do you want me like explain what it's about?
Callie, what's up?
Oh my gosh, beautiful. World, hi! Callie's an incredible musician, y'all. Go follow her. Incredible voice, incredible playing, incredible songs. Okay, I need one more line.
It's like, but it's like, but it's like— so the chorus is like blood, but it's like blood on the walls, blood on the floor, dragging by the hair, nails on The main idea of the song in a pretty package that wraps it all together.
Ah, the hook.
I don't think this is one of those songs.
Writing more than ever, Sarah. Hell yes, rock on.
It's like blood on the walls, mud on the floor, dragging by hair, nails on the board. Yeah, sit on your hands, baby, shut your mouth.
Uh, the other one.
Just wait till we get back to the house. Dah dah dah dah dah dah dah! [SINGING IN FRENCH] What do I want to say here?
Moving over our shelves carefully, used to think that in a town could be this. Blood on the walls, mud on the floor, dragging by the hair and nails on boards. I'm going to screen share. Ooh, will it let me? I want to screen share my Google Doc over here on YouTube. Yeah, that's good. Okay, so y'all can see If you're over on YouTube or Facebook, you can see the Google Doc.
<LYRICS>It's like blood on the walls and mud on the floor, dragging by the hair and nails on the boards.
I am the only one left here for you.</LYRICS> I used to think anytime I could leave, so I needed something in the arms, I would leave.
It is like blood— no, it is like blood on the walls, blood on the floor, dragging by the head, nails on the boards. Every single time, baby, I think I'm free. Okay, I'm gonna play this all the way through.
I wrote this dang song in 45 minutes. That's cute.
J Montero, what's up?
Jason, hey, welcome. Liz says, all this gorgeous lyric you've created is orbiting a sun. What's the sun called? I think the sun is called the physical abuse in the home. Legit. I think that's what this song is about. I'm drawing on not personal experiences with physical abuse, but personal experiences with being with people who don't treat you well and what it feels like. Um, so yeah, I don't think this is a clear-cut song. I think it's one of those tunes that you just sort of, if you're listening to it you'll get pictures, you'll get a bit of a story, but a lot of open ends. And yeah, I dig it. I like it. I rarely write like this. It's actually kind of refreshing and nice.
Hi, welcome!
So I think I'm gonna call it— I think I'm just gonna call it Enemies, which I think— I feel like that it's not like a hook that, you know, like perfectly ties it up like a beautiful clever pun hook. But I feel like it, uh, it gives you an overview of what it's about, that there's some people who are not friends. They're not friends. It's a little more complex than that. Okay, I'm gonna play this through. Good luck, my voice. Thank you guys for joining. Um, once again, I am writing, uh, as part of the Five in Five Song Challenge, so if you want to join the challenge, you are more than welcome to. On Instagram, the link is right here. It's pinned to the bottom. That's songfancy.com/5in5. And on YouTube, you can head to— actually, I'm gonna put it at the top of my lyric sheet— songfancy.com/5in5. You can head over there to join the challenge. We're on day 3 of 5 this week, so we're halfway done. You're still more than welcome to come and join. There's a couple more days of songs going on, so come join the fun, come join the party. William Czech, got it. Yeah, it's like, it's, it's not pop, it's just kind of like, I don't know, man, just vibe, I guess. Vibe, I suppose. Sarah, you're doing great. It's midnight here in this part of the world, so I will leave now.
Good night.
The Blood on the Floor reminded me of MJ's song. You're great. Okay, I might need to look that up to make sure I'm not like writing too close to something that exists already. Thank you for that.
Welcome—
or I mean, not welcome— good night, have a great night, thank you for joining. Okay, I am— all right, let's see how this goes.
Ooh child, you done it now. Had to say something, couldn't wait it out. Sit on your hands, baby, shut your mouth. Ooh, there he goes again, acting like he ain't got a problem with it. Just waiting to get back to the house. Tiptoe like an anemone, moving over edges carefully. I used to think that any time I could leave Said blood on the walls, blood on the floor, dragging by the head, heels on the boards. Every single time, baby, I think I'm free. Gotta figure out how to end it.
Probably just end it immediately.
Baby, shut your mouth. Mm-hmm.
That was goofy. Anyway, that's the tune. I'm gonna go get ready for yoga. Wow, I thought I'd be late for sure. I might still be late. Who knows? Thank you guys so much for watching, for tuning in. I really appreciate that you would spend this time with me. It's crazy thinking that, like, people want to jump on and watch me write a song. That's amazing. It's incredible. Thank you so much for joining. My streams. And if you want to join the Five in Five Song Challenge, all you gotta do is head to songfancy.com/fiveinfive. We're going all the rest of this week. And even if you just kind of want to join and see what it's all about, come into the challenge, grab the prompts, and use those prompts to write with. And I will see you next time, guys. Bye! Okay, wait, I'm going to end Zoom first. Okay, bye on YouTube and Facebook.
