About three months ago, we asked our listeners to suggest a songwriting challenge or prompt for us to explore. Organizations like the Toronto Songwriting Association often prompt their members with challenges such as “Take a cliche and turn it on its head”, or “Write a song about a home appliance.” Singer-songwriter and former Song Talk Radio crew-member Linda Lavender joined us as a co-host – thanks Linda!

We received several songwriting challenge suggestions, and chose one from listener Don Thompson (who is now our audio tech genius) to write a “happy or positive lyric in a minor key.”

We gave ourselves about a month (including the 2019/20 holiday break) to write a song to the challenge. Don even joined in on the fun!

Mike wrote a heartfelt lyric, arguably in a major key, while Neel tried his darnedest to not use any major chords, Phil wrote an inventive chord progression with a cool modulation into the chorus, and Don wrote a sweet lyric while starting each song section with a minor chord.

This episode has 40% more fat, without any added sugar. (It’s 20 minutes longer than our typical episode, kids).

We talked about:

• our different approaches to the challenge
• how a challenge can force you to write in a way you never otherwise would
• what it means to be in a minor key
• the suitability of an f-bomb in a happy/positive lyric
• an interesting article on the success of Bille Eillish
• The TuneSmith Writing Application for Mac & Windows
• Rhyme Genie the ultimate desktop Rhyme-assist tool for songwriters

Download the lyrics to follow along

Rich In Love by Michael Proudfoot

Sweetest Thing by Don Thompson

Music and Me by Neel Modi

All I do by Phil Emery