Tony Mendoza, St. Paul
Listen
This would be an example of a very rough sketch of a song. When I write songs for my band, Frank Brownstone and Associates, I "sketch" them out on Garage Band, as I did with this song. I've used a drum loop for the basic beat, and then played all other instruments myself. Vocals are rough! It would be fun to do a followup on this after I've had a chance to work the song up with my band and record it professionally. Other writers submitting their versions might agree. This was fun to do.

Tony Mogelson, Minneapolis
Listen
Web site
I made up, played, and recorded this song myself on our computer using Garageband.

I came up with the melodies and chords on acoustic guitar and then, after adding the basic guitar and vocal tracks, began adding other instruments. The chords and melody came very quickly - I pretty much went with my first ideas for everything.

As I proceeded in the recording process, I had to make many little decisions by choosing what to get rid of and what to alter. I wanted the end result to be simple and catchy even though there are a lot of lyrics in the song and many instruments in the mix - I wanted my ideas to be conveyed clearly.

One way of keeping things moving and working with a lot of lyrics was to break the lyrics up, and sing two lines at the same time as two different vocal lines/melodies.

One interesting thing was that when I originally recorded it I had scrapped the "three season porches with a car door open on contentment why..." verse, and I had to figure out a way to get that into the song. So I quickly came up with that part and had to figure out how to get it inserted into the song.

I think it ends up functioning as a sort of middle eight - I sang the lyrics really fast and made the part short so the song wouldn't get slowed down. I felt like the rest of the song was working together very nicely and was wondering how I'd sneak that part in without slowing the song down by adding yet another part. That section ends up being perhaps my favorite section. The way it came together surprised me.

I really enjoy the challenge of creating something within a given framework. This was a great opportunity to get back into making music. I think I'll keep the ball rolling.

Dan Nestor, Woodbury, Minn.
Listen
I spent one evening writing the music and three evenings recording it. It was a challenge to work out the phrasing of the lyrics as written. My music required some of the words to be sung quite fast for me. I played all the instruments and did all the singing, so it was a solo effort.

Darin Novak, Morris, Minn.
Listen
I did all of the instruments, recording and mastering myself on my very sketchy laptop using Acid Pro. I recording the drum track on Wednesday at a friend's house, first by looking at the lyrics and playing a drum pattern. I didn't have anything in mind and just started playing. I recorded it in one take.

On Thursday, I took my laptop back to my apartment and tried to figure out how I would piece the acoustic guitar and lyrics over the drum track. It was scary, since I didn't even have a guitar riff or melody in mind yet. I finally came up with something by the end of Thursday and recorded the acoustic guitar track.

On Friday, I was able to use another friend's house to record the vocals (I can't really sing out in my apartment since the walls are so thin). I recorded the first vocal track and second vocal track mostly by the end of Friday. Today I finished up a few more vocal dubs, and also added some electric guitar and bass guitar to the mix. I finished mastering the tracks about 20 minutes ago, which was very stressful, because like I said, I was using a sketchy laptop.

Lorenzo Policelli, Toronto, Ontario
Listen
Web site
I'm a "non-performing" songwriter (heard that somewhere and I like it. I have a blog about my endeavour to be a published songwriter and I did the whole song myself.

I had a melancholic feeling when I read the lyrics and it came out in the music I think, though the remembering of days past gave it a bouncy childlike feeling in my head as well...

Vijay Ramanathan, Eden Prairie, Minn.
Listen
From the outset, I wanted a "light" sound. While playing around on my keyboard, I got an interesting chord progression based on the F scale that I developed very quickly (much to my surprise). The hardest part was getting a grasp of the meter for the song, and deciding on a proper tempo.

My first cut was vocals with simply guitar, bass and a drum loop. As I kept repeating the tune in my head, I discovered shades of Indian Classical Raagas (A Raaga is similar to a scale. There are thousands of Raagas in Indian classical music). I decided to incorporate those Indian music elements into the song. I created a Dholak loop (Dholak is a double-headed barrel-shaped drum, played with bare hands) to go along with the drum loop, which gave it an interesting groove.

I also added Raaga Aalap (free-form singing of the Raaga) at various points in the song. The end result is an interesting combination that I hope people will like. I programmed all the music on my two keyboards. I recorded the song in my home studio, DigiRaga.