10♥ The songwriting game

10♥ Ten of Hearts in The Rock Songwriter’s Deck: 52 Ways to Write a Song

The Ten of Hearts tells us that songwriting doesn't have to be a lonely sport. You can make a friendly competition of it.

Get together with two or more songwriting friends, and agree on a set of criteria for writing a song. Maybe someone will suggest a title, for example. Once you agree on the rules of your game, each one of you goes off and writes a song, and you get back together a week or two later and compare your results. Which song is best? What different approaches did you take? It's always interesting and illuminating to see how other songwriters took the same songwriting challenge as you and came up with something different.

What's that? You say you don't have songwriting friends? Well, it's never too late to make friends! And what could be more natural than finding friends who share your keen interest in rock songwriting? There are songwriters everywhere, and if you ask around you're sure to find a few.