Personalized Birthday Songs – a Creative Collaborative Songwriting Exercise

Combining our mutual interest in playing music, my partner and I began writing birthday songs for our families.  This was a new experience for us to make our own music instead of interpret known songs. It started with the first birthday of the year in early January for our then 10 year old niece.  We wanted to give her a unique birthday gift after spending some of our Christmas holiday getting to know her better.  Within the next month, both her mother and sister also had birthdays, challenging us to write two more unique and personalized songs.  Our family and friends began to expect more birthday songs, and, receiving this positive feedback encouraged us to keep creating. Over the next year, we wrote 15! unique birthday songs for our family members.  

Maybe you could write some too!  Go on, give a try!
 

The following collaborative creative songwriting practice developed: 

1. Brainstorm words, sentences and ideas that represent the birthday person,
2. Draft some loose lyrics, experiment with melody, rhythm and style,
3. Don’t think too hard – just go with what seems to fit, and let go of the rest.
4. The song starts to take shape, so an arrangement is discussed – chorus, verses, bridge, intro, outro, instrumental, etc.
5. Decide who will do what – sing, harmonize, who will play what instruments
6. Make sure you are still having fun at this stage!
7. Rehearse the song 1-2 times.
8. Find appropriate clothing or costume to represent the creative idea or birthday person
9. Get the camera ready and do 2-5 takes, max. 
10. This whole process should not take more than 1-2 hours.  If you are getting stuck on any of the steps, just make a decision and and move on! 

 
The liberating components to this creative collaborative songwriting exercise were as follows: 

• It was fun and exhilarating to let the creative ideas run wild!  (sometimes it felt stressful and restrictive, but we endeavoured to limit that as much as possible)
• A final polished performance was not the goal!  (this reduced the pressure for perfection)
• The song was meant to be short and simple! (this kept the time commitment to a minimum and allowed us to get on with our other plans for the day)
• We knew our audience would appreciate our efforts.   (and if they did not, we still liked our songs)
• This challenged our musical, creative, and collaborative abilities, requiring us to stay focused and apply our knowledge and skill effectively!
• The environment was positive and supportive!

Check out a sample of our family birthday songs!  May this inspires YOU to try it!