Think songwriting prompts and exercises can’t turn into something good?
Zane Williams shows you how he took some fan suggestions as a song prompt and turned it into a challenge for himself as part of his Music Mondays video series.
This song was written over eight months before it became a #1 radio hit on the Texas Music Chart.
Pretty cool for a simple song prompt and songwriting exercise!
Zane Williams’ Social Song Prompt You Can Do With Your Fans!
He asked his fans via Facebook and twitter for random words . . .
. . . he selected 10 (not the easiest ones either) and used them in a song.
The words he selected?
- roller skates
- 121 North
- Bear Cats
- Jill
- oil
- Ephesians
- Jayton
- sassparilla
- flambouyant
- 4th of July
While roller skates didn’t make it into the song, he managed the rest!
This is the song Zane Williams ended up with: “Jayton And Jill” – plus a free guitar lesson!
Zane Williams “Jayton And Jill”
Zane Williams’ Guitar Lesson for “Texas Like That”
More Song Prompts:
Holiday Song Prompt: Worst Gift Ever?
Song prompts are a way to get your creative mind going. They’re also a way to change up your regular song idea routine. They’re great at getting you into a different mindset and make it easy to try something new without worrying about the song meeting some expectation level, like a co-write might. I mean, […]
Holiday Song Prompt: Holiday Memory
Song prompts are a way to get your creative mind going. They’re also a way to change up your regular song idea routine. They’re great at getting you into a different mindset and make it easy to try something new without worrying about the song meeting some expectation level, like a co-write might. I mean, […]
Song Prompt: The Life Of An Historic Character
There are great characters who create great stories throughout history. The best thing about those stories is that all you have to do is a little research, find the human side of all the facts, and bring it to life as a song. OK, so maybe it sounds a little harder now that I’ve typed […]
Song Prompt: Picture Of Yourself
I recently got a song prompt at a songwriting workshop (yes – a virtual workshop), that initially I was going to pass on. The prompt? Find a picture of yourself and write a song about it. In the moment I thought, there’s nothing more self-aggrandizing that writing a song about a picture of yourself! Who […]
Song Prompt: Hometown Theme
You can find quite a few songs with a hometown theme. That’s because they’re usually great places to write about – for a few reasons: Hometowns are idyllic for many, and a source of pride – or some other emotion – depending on your experience. Hometowns bring up a lot of nostalgia, so lend themselves […]
Song Prompt: Start With The Chorus
It’s pretty easy to start a song with a Chorus. But how do you do it well? And . . . why even start with a chorus? Usually, you start with the chorus to get the song focused on the vibe and the message right up front. But, you can’t start with the chorus if […]
Song Prompt: Break The Rules
Who doesn’t love breaking the rules? But, just throwing rules to the wind isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about intentionally breaking the rules for a specific reason. A great example is Brandi Carlile’s “The Eye” that only uses four lines for the last stanza, or Lori McKenna’s “Bird & The Rifle” that doesn’t […]
