How did you find FAWM?
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@helenseviltwin Jan 2022
Question particularly for new fawmers, but returning fawmers too.
My band mate posted about it on Livejournal, and I didn't think I'd manage 14 songs, but I wanted to do more than her. We both finished 14. -
@zecoop Jan 2022
Simple Google search for me, although i am not exactly sure what I searched for and why I didn’t dismiss the search results as a crazy joke, lol. I’m certainly glad I investigated further, but as I have found out, trying to explain the concept to people gets some funny looks. It took a few years of asking to even get the people in my band to join!
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@metalfoot Jan 2022
Folks at NaNoWriMo and my friend Robin both suggested this as a good venue for my newly reawakened desire to write songs. I showed up, good things happened.
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@vomvorton Jan 2022
I did an album-a-day ( http://crapart.spacebar.org/aad/ ) and then found RPM and FAWM when I went looking for more fun challenges to attempt. FAWM won me over quicker because of the community.
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@silvermediapro Jan 2022
I heard about FAWM through an acquaintance who had participated a couple times in the early 2010s. Took me a until a couple years later to partake for the first time though!
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@beyondthelimes Jan 2022
A good friend and fellow musician told me about it.
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@nathansurles Jan 2022
A friend of mine who was roped into it by the Delaware FAWMers roped me into it in 2012. I fell in love with how connected, supportive, and inspiring the community is. I
have done it every year ever since. -
@bachelorb Jan 2022
I think I found 50/90 first through Yahoo search and that led me to FAWM.
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@andygetch Jan 2022
2011-12 I was in an online weekly songwriting group on the Guitar Noise forum, which I heard about in a songwriting forum then run by Acoustic Guitar magazine, which I subscribed to at the time. One of the regulars posted about FAWM.
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@carleybaer Jan 2022
I met @victoriavox when we got booked to play some shows together in the mid-2000s and she told me about it.
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@elesimo Jan 2022
I have no idea how I found FAWM!
I joined FAWM for Feb 2016, after getting back into songwriting for ~1 year. In 2015 I had successfully done a song-a-week challenge from Reddit, and I was looking for similar challenges. That's probably where I heard about FAWM.
Even after having done 52 songs in a year, the idea of writing 14 songs in a month was scary! -
@philkmills Jan 2022
A few years before I heard of FAWM, a musician friend had written an album in a weekend. I thought that was a cool -- though generally impossible -- idea. When a different friend posted on LiveJournal about FAWM's existence, I thought back to the earlier event and decided this was *somewhat* saner.
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@johncrossman Jan 2022
I find it quite nice, thank you for asking.
Oh, @nancyrost raved about it at a local songwriting gathering in April, 2007 and I was pulled into its gravitationsl orbit the next year. -
@wobbiewobbit Jan 2022
in 2011 i used stumbleUpon a lot and stumbled upon a songwrting blog with prompts and exercises and articles about being blocked as a songwriter. it was called Song Written and the blogger Nicholas Tozier was a Fawmer. I was excited to have found something so Me and remember raving about it to friends. so when he wrote about FAWM i was right up for it! so 2012 was my first year and i haven't looked back (well i suppose this is sort of looking back - in the loveliest way). :)
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@dragondreams Jan 2022
Through a guitar forum I was a member of. The forum no longer exists, but I'm still here 12 years later.
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@downburst Jan 2022
I read this book (while in the bookstore):
https://www.amazon.com/Frustrated-Songwriters-Handbook-Radical-Overcoming/dp/0879308796
and I think it mentioned FAWM. But it was summer, so I ended up at 5090, too timid to post anything, but people were friendly, and so when the next February rolled up I was ready. -
@nancyrost Jan 2022
This was back in 2006. Burr lived in Madison at the time, and his wife Natalie was in an arts business class with my songwriter friend Amy. Natalie was especially encouraging more women to join FAWM -- it was mostly men in those days. Amy emailed a bunch of us, saying she was going to try it and see how it went. It was a great adventure to share with some of my local friends. I'd be at parties that February and I'd be jotting down lines of conversation to use in songs.
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@downburst Jan 2022
@wobbiewobbit I remember Song Written! There were a few blogs I was reading in those days, trying to find some kind of community who wanted to talk about the things I was thinking about. But FAWM was like the sum total of all the songwriting blogs squared. There was so much here, it was like stumbling into the mother of all songwriting blogs. And thank god, people here weren't constantly talking about how to have a hit or how to get famous stars to record your song--it was just about creating.
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@wobbiewobbit Jan 2022
@downburst Totally that!
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@kenmattsson Jan 2022
In late January 2020, @yam655 mentioned FAWM on a podcast episode he was on (granted, I didn't know him then, but have gotten to since!) I had done NaNoWriMo twice, but had never written any songs, although I had been a singer and musician for years. I had 3 days until FAWM started and the concept made me quake in my boots. Given that, I had to give it a go. Managed 6 really bad and 1 decent song until I broke my shoulder half way through the month. Then the pandemic happened. Continued to write songs, did FAWM 2021 and won, and then participated in 50/90 and had a lovely time (goal was 5-10 songs over 90 days; ended up with 16), and now I'm back and psyched!
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@vivalarayna Jan 2022
I was going through some ish in 2014; trying to sort out a lot of health issues and reconnect to music. My childhood friend @humblecomposer told me about FAWM and I figured, why not? Nothing to lose and everything to gain! Wrote some real clunkers, but I wrote and that's what mattered. The community was very welcoming so I stayed with it. FAWM 2020 was my most successful to date with 17 songs, the worst of which was likely still loads better than anything I'd written in the years prior. I completed my first 50/90 this past summer with 63 on the board. Excited to see what this year brings!
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@coolparadiso Jan 2022
An Australian songwriter said to me a few years ago, mate you write more songs than anyone i know, especially as you are not in Fawm! Not in what? i replied…… and thus it began. I was amazed from day 1 of the support and kindness of the people! Just a tip for fawmlings “give and you shall receive”. Get involved wherever you can!
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@seanbrennan Jan 2022
Great to learn some of your origin stories - some of you have been among my favorite digital acquaintances for years now.
How did I find FAWM? Actually, FAWM found me! For those who know @joy212 (lovely FAWMer, whom I hope is coming back around this year), we did our Bachelor's degrees at the same university. We were in a string trio together and all three of us shared songwriting as a common hobby (which is surprisingly rare in the classical world). She mentioned it offhand, I went looking, and ten years later, here we are. -
@jjmickey Jan 2022
I've been chatting with the fantastic @blackrose1313 via Facebook Dating, and she brought up FAWM today. That was the first I'd ever heard of it, and as a song-writer myself, I just had to come join.
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@kaminokai Jan 2022
My friend/musical brother/compatriot (@anthonykapfer666) told me about it, and so here I am, 20 minuted later.
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@gubna Jan 2022
In late Jan 2018, I found this article:
https://medium.com/music-thing-modular-notes/how-i-recorded-an-album-in-an-evening-with-a-lunchbox-modular-and-a-python-script-443ca08f34da
The album: https://tomwhitwell.bandcamp.com/album/bakusre
which led me to this article:
https://makingmusic.ableton.com/arbitrary-constraints
which mentioned FAWM.org.
Because I found it in late January, and after years of wanting to become better at writing songs (still working on it!), I took it as a sign I needed to sign up and do it. This will be year 5 for me. -
@zeekle1998 Jan 2022
I read an advert on Facebook for a song writing session run by Georgie @jibbidy34. Georgie told me all about FAWM and suggested I get involved. ‘Twas excellent advice.
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@unpronounceable Jan 2022
I think I must've found it while researching co-writing retreats, bc that's around the time I started.
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@logrinn Jan 2022
Can't remember when and where I first heard of FAWM. I know it was at the same time I also heard about the RPM challenge.
I believe I stumbled upon one and a search gave me knowledge also about the other. -
@bradbrubaker Jan 2022
I was lurking around fawm dot com back when it was a site for people with particular interests. One day I typed in dot org instead. I decided to fight my perverse addiction and become a musician. Saved my marriage and my life.*
*None of this is true. -
@nadine Jan 2022
Made my day. @bradbrubaker , you should write a song about this.
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@seppo Jan 2022
I'm part on Finnish music community and been watching for years when my friends has been doing fawm.
I never thought that I could do it.
Had no experience of recording stuff or even composing songs.
Last year I decided to give it a try and for my suprise I could do 14 and learn a lot of recording things on the way.
Now is year 2 and try to do the same, but a bit better I hope. -
@calumcarlyle Jan 2022
i found it very friendly and supportive, thank you for asking!
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@plumptunes Jan 2022
Fairly certain I heard about it on Ultimate Guitar forums way back in the day. I didn't really consider myself a songwriter back then so I didn't think too much of it. I think I ended up being reminded of it when searching songwriting tips articles.
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@jp123 Jan 2022
I heard about it from Rob Hinkal and Jon Patton on Rob's VOM (virtual open mic)
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@candle Jan 2022
@isaacq (an old University friend of mine & actually the reason I met my wife - but that's another story LOL), told me about it back in 2009. I joined in 2010 & wrote/recorded my Chromatics Album (which you can hear on my Bandcamp page). @isaacq was gracious enough to come out to the CD release show that September to help support me. I've been a FAWMer ever since.
See You In The Shadows… -
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
Like a few others here, I heard about it through NaNoWriMo. Also did Inktober a couple times (mostly to build up my stockpile of track art) but for me, FAWM is where it's at.
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@timfatchen Jan 2022
2007, I followed @hummingbird (Vikki Flawith, in case she's not here this yer) out of Irene Jackson's songwriting blog/website into FAWM. More in hope than anger. The FAWM support and encouragement got me through, to the point where I had the courage to follow @hummingbird (again!) into TAXI.com, which put the polish on my musical education (via a lot of cutting and abrasion, mind you). But FAWM has remained first inspiration and then the place to pay forward what was done for me.!
[@bradbrubaker that's wonderful! Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.] -
@tukayandryan Jan 2022
Two of our good friends @mariekevinkmusic and @celineellis strongly suggested we join last year. Best decision we made. Awesome community and so much inspiration!
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@mariekevinkmusic Jan 2022
Erhm... I joined out of spite (long story) and ended up loving it.
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@looprication Jan 2022
I was Googling "remix contest" and found a few, started on CC Mixter back in 2008 and used some samples and acapellas from that site and actually finished some tracks, which was cool. One day in 2009, the search engine rabbit hole led me to FAWM.
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@regis Jan 2022
I too came here from NaNoWriMo, back in the late aughts. NaNo was fun, but FAWM is much more my forced creativity death match cup of tea.
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@sbs2018 Jan 2022
I don’t remember exactly who but I think it was from an email from CDBaby.
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@yunachu Jan 2022
My dad used to do FAWM for years. He doesn't have time this year, and because I wanted to learn how to write music, he suggested I try this year.
Maybe next year we'll both do FAWM! -
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@ajna1960 Jan 2022
@stevenwesleyguiles dragged me here 10 years ago :)
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@sunnymae Jan 2022
@jeanmann my wonderful seattle-based singer-songwriter told me about FAWM over 10 years ago. I started without any technical skills on the website and never posted my songs. But I did write 14 pieces and record them at home on my phone. It was a mystical experience. It's the only way I can describe it.
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@intoyourlight Jan 2022
Found the hashtag via instagram a few days ago, didn‘t know what it meant so I looked it up, was intrigued, so here I am :)
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@syneryder Jan 2022
I was actually looking for the RPM Challenge, which I heard about from Hunz tweeting during his 2019 RPM album creation. But when I searched for RPM this year, FAWM is mentioned in the snippet for the RPM Wikipedia entry that shows up 1st in the Google results!
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@pugetive Jan 2022
I didn't found NaSoAlMo but I took it over from the founder and ran the site/community for a few years before passing it on. I think it still lives on with roughly 100 participants per year, same as it was back then. The relative popularity of FAWM is a testament to how well the community elements are organized here. So now I do strictly FAWM even though February is the WORST month of the year for my winter allergies. ::sniff sniff crappy vocal take sniff sniff::
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@tasia Jan 2022
Sunday at TRIFILKTA the chat gave me the last clue I needed to make it here. I've heard multiple other filkers talk about this place, but did not know how to get here until today.
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@momentegalerie Feb 2022
A friend of mine said: hey, isn't that a great idea and community to be part of? Oh yes, it is! that was 5 years ago, and now I'm fawming for the 5th time. Great invention, great community :) i just love it and look forward to every febuary. Eva
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@victoriavox Feb 2022
Burr made me do it. :)
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@anthonykapfer666 Feb 2022
i heard about it a week ago from @insaneian on twitter and i'm glad i'm here now. everyone is doing such cool, fun, interesting work
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@kyrla Feb 2022
A twitter mutual was doing NaSoAlMo last year so I hopped on and did an album for that (rxnmix) and as a kind of natural result of that I found my way over here.
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@jlampson Feb 2022
This may be head canon, but I'm pretty sure I heard about it from @ericdistad around the time we played a show together in the real world. Now I'm solidly in The Matrix, though. So is he, but don't tell him.
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@aniya Feb 2022
I chanced upon it on Reddit. Literally the first thing I saw when I opened the site. And then I thought, what a cool way to practice songwiritng, interact with other musicians, and discover music!
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@lenorealdisnow Feb 2022
My best friend (a 3rd year FAWM writer) introduced me. So excited to learn and get people's opinions.
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@improvyssey Feb 2022
A lot of my friends were here before me. Also, I know Eric and Jen. I just didn't join for a long time because February is a terrible month for university instructors.
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@azraelarmond33 Feb 2022
This is my first time here. My aunt and uncle are heavily involved in the filk community and they told me about it.
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@jayjay Feb 2022
I was listening in on a TSA late night chat and one of the members mentioned this site. Good way of keeping the brain muscle active. Thank you
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@andrewrusse Feb 2022
I've been hosting my songs on alonetone for years. Lots of folks on there do RPM, but I just couldn't manage that to my satisfaction. A couple of hours ago I heard of FAWM, checked it out... HEY! I could WRITE 14 songs in February, I just couldn't record them all. I decided this would get the songwriter engine moving again (been dormant, concentrating on learning about mastering) ... and even though 5 days have already gone, I decided to join up now and make a stab at it.
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@redhauer Feb 2022
My husband has been doing FAWM for years…even going to FAWMstock a few times. I thought it’d be neat to try my hand at writing lyrics. Maybe have people put music to them/sing them. I got started late in the month, but…challenge accepted.
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@adambeiter Feb 2022
Someone in my composition studio at the music school I attend let us all know that they would be participating and invited the rest of us to join in--I am one of four of us who accepted the invitation and are trying out FAWM for the first time this year! Couldn't be happier with my experience so far, and I will hopefully be back for future years!
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@jwhanberry Feb 2022
I found fifty/ninety through the Just Plain Folks forum. That led me to FAWM.
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@mhorning Feb 2022
Several of the filkers have done FAWM for several years. No doubt heard about it from them.
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@stmon99 Feb 2022
It all started way, way back in 2001 for me when I participated in 50/90. I was hanging out at the old usenet something something music makers group. I think it was there that I heard about FAWM, and my first year was 2007. Somewhere along the line, my email must have changed and I made a new login because now my profile says 2015.
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@nadine Feb 2022
@ampersandman brought me here last year after a severe musical crisis. I couldn't thank him enough!
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@cblack Feb 2022
Learned about it from someone on the Absolute Write forums. Joined there in 2009 after writing my first novel. Found out about NaNoWriMo, did that, asked about other events, and someone mentioned FAWM.
I don't think he's on here anymore, and I'm not on AW since quitting writing to pursue music more.
At some point I forgot my old username here, so my profile doesn't say 2010... Ehh... -
@robheron1 Feb 2022
Some kind of online notification I believe. I may have done a 'songwriting' search on Google.
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@jamkar Feb 2022
I was participating in the RPM challenge which is similar. I befriended Wolf Kier, and he pointed me over here. That was 10 years ago.
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@musicbymichelle Feb 2022
This is my first time doing fawm and at first I felt very intimidated by the idea of trying to come up with 14 songs in a month, but the experience has been amazing. I have collaborated with some amazingly talented people and stretched myself musically beyond what I thought I could achieve. Thanks so much to everyone for the continual encouragement I've received throughout the month.
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@thomasfred Feb 2022
I heard about “the idea” of FAWM in 2018 through speedsongwriting.com. Graham made it into a write and record your album type of deal. Too much for this hombre. Still I loved the idea of working on a whole bunch of songs in a short period of time. After going through with the FAWM.org version I think I love the idea even more! I’ve finished 16 songs and have one more to add tomorrow. It’s a pretty sweet way to kill the shortest month of the year and the last month of winter in our hemisphere. I love the variety of music I’ve heard on here so far too. And I’ve sure felt supported in my own efforts of songwriting, as insecure as I may feel about presenting some of them publicly - well, or at least to FAWMers. The one tune I felt weakest about garnered some of the kindest most heartfelt comments. I’ll be back for my second year in 2023!!
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@danvaillancourt Feb 2022
CharlieFest 2007.
15 years of FAWM later... this is still all your fault @charliecheney ;) THANKS! -
@ianuarius Feb 2022
yea I found it pretty fun
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@sherrycanary Mar 2022
I found out from Rob Lincoln of PASA..( Philadelphia Area Songwriters Alliance. Many are on FAWM as well.
It was January 30,2009.
I mostly did lyrics. I recorded some to YouTube and posted from there.
First Songwriter that really caught my attention was Mike Skliar. I read who commented and started listening to them, and the network grew.
This is now my 14th FAWM.
I went through a horrible break-up a number of years ago, and my FAWMily helped me through it.
I went to FAWMstock the year before the Pandemic and had I marvelous time putting faces to names.
The past few FAWMS I have had health issues that limited my participation. Last yes it was recovering from carotid artery surgery. I literally couldn't sing until the end.
This year I was in the hospital recovering from surgery and got a pen and paper from a nurse, and wrote by cell flashlight at midnight on Jan 31st.
It is a powerful experience to be part of it -
@br0th3rh00d Mar 2022
Via #DIYMusicChat on twitter
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@br0th3rh00d Mar 2022
(three years ago)