February Album Writing Month-a challenge!

Well, I am over halfway into this crazy challenge called FAWM (February Album Writing Month). The object is to write 14 songs in 28 days. And then get some semblance of them posted to the official FAWM website, which is:


http://www.fawm.org



So far... I am a bit behind. I have 4 songs posted up there (plus at least 1 collaboration that will be posted by a fellow FAWMer known as CTS), but really and truly, I have, I think, 7 more songs that are in various states of unfinished-ness. Hopefully I will finish those and get them posted to the website soon. Plus I am doing a couple of other collaborations with other FAWM'ers in the competition.

Still, even if I don't complete all 14 songs by the 28th, I can safely say that just the fact that I have even 5 done is major progress compared to what I would have written this month without a challenge to make me write. So in that respect, I am already a winner, which is all the FAWM competition is all about. There's not really any gold pot at the end of the rainbow or anything (although a good track might end up on their yearly showcase CD). But I have met some truly supportive and loving fellow musicians and songwriters. And we have pushed each other to create beyond our normal boundaries. That's a blessing itself.

There are similar "competitions" or challenges that are online to cover all sorts of other artistic endeavors. Some of you may be familiar with NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month, http://www.nanowrimo.org/). I know that "pressure" doesn't neccessarily work for everyone. For some artists, it amounts to feeling like you are being "worked". But for those of you who want to extend themselves, to ... stretch a little... then maybe consider one of these challenges?

In my case, I know that nobody will kick me or yell at me or do anything bad at all if I don't complete this challenge; and it doesn't feel like work to me at all. Two of the songs I have produced this month so far, in fact, were simply inspired improvisations where I just sat down in front the piano, turned on the "tape recorder" and just let my conscious be the guide to what I play and sing. Sort of a musical "morning pages" as it were. And that alone has been very therapeutic.

I encourage you all to visit the site and listen to my music (you can search for "Roy Estel Hughes" or just "Roy" on the site), or anybody else's music on the site for that matter. There are some incredibly gifted musicians from all over the world that are part of this amazing FAWM community, and I bet you find something you will like from at least a few of them.

And I encourage you each, should the muse strike you, to try challenging yourself in your respective art forms in this manner, if it suits you. You may astonish yourself! I certainly have pushed my own envelope through this process.

More to come...