The Rules of the Game

The rules are pretty simple:

1. One complete song is due every Sunday night
2. The song should be in some format that can be posted to this blog (not just in your head)

Now what constitutes a complete song?  We'll leave that at the discretion of the songwriter.  Since this blog is about bad songs, it obviously doesn't need to be perfect and ready for the recording studio.  Rough drafts are absolutely fair game, as long as they're complete.  For example, we won't leave holes in the lyrics - at least we'll write down something crappy.  We can always go back and polish that turd later ;).  I think we're generally going for songs with chords, melody and lyrics, but if an instrumental song is what comes out, then that's still a song.  Momentum is key though.  If we're really busy some week(s), maybe we'll only have time to write a two stanza nursery rhyme (think Mary Had a Little Lamb).  That's still a song.

Also, we only specify a due date of completion.  I see no problem with picking up an unfinished song and finishing it.  I could see in the course of working on a week's song, getting stuck, putting it aside, and completing it later.  Or maybe we'll be extra productive some week and start a few songs in addition to our completed one for the week.  I know I have a backlot of song fragments that I've never gotten around to finishing, so I'm hoping to chip away at that here.  Starting songs is much easier than finishing them, and we want to get better at the finishing.

As for what format the deliverable should be, that's also pretty open to the songwriter's preference.  I tend to prefer making a rough audio recording, since it's really quick compared to writing out sheet music.  But there's nothing wrong with writing out the song as sheet music, or tabs or whatever.  If you don't want to sing, you could also play the melody on piano or some other instrument.

Maybe at some point in the future we'll start having themes for each week, like different song styles, topics, musical techniques etc...  But for now the goal is just to get something done.