Write Something Using Only Single Notes
This challenge is pretty straightforward - Write something using only single notes - that means no strumming, no playing more than one note at a time. There are a variety of fun ways to interpret this and I'll go over it in the video. I hope you can join!
Write Something with the Chords EM D C B7 in Any Order
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
Write a Melody with Harmony
If you have a difficult time writing melodies and harmonies, here are some lessons that will be helpful:
Melody Making
Writing Harmonies
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Write Something with a Guitar Solo
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
Write Something Simple
I figured this would be a good place to start for the New Year.
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Polish a Previous Challenge
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
ONLY Write a Chord Progression
Make it as simple or interesting as possible. If you're just joining us, pick a few chords you like in a key! No melody, noIf you don't know how to do that yet, choose a few chords from one of the sets below:
G Am Bm C D Em F#°
C Dm Em F D Am B°
D Em F#m G A Bm C#°
If you're more advanced, try playing around with more interesting voicings, secondary dominants, modal progressions, and whatnot.
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Write Something in 20 Minutes
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN RIGHT HERE ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Write Something with an Excessive Element
That could mean writing something with a crazy amount of bending or sliding, or a track with ten rhythm guitars playing simultaneously, or excessively longwinded verses, or an excessively busy chorus with too many countermelodies. You can either try to figure out how to do this tastefully, or you can have fun with it and make it sound wild!
Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.
If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.
Rewrite Something
This one is pretty straightforward. The goal is to rewrite something you've written before. Maybe you like parts of something you've written, but the verse feels off - try writing a new verse or adjusting the melody or chord progression! Maybe you like all the parts, but want to tinker and adjust to see how it feels.
Thats what I'm going to do when I go live. I'll share my general approach as well as whatever tips and tricks I have for going about this less creative and more thinky process.
Upload your rewritten thing to this community forum post along with the following:
1. Why you chose what you chose to rewrite
2. A link (or upload) of the previously written thing
3. How the process went - was it smooth or janky? Did you have a hard time?
This stuff takes practice, so don't be too hard on yourself and make sure to HAVE FUN!
Write something in Phrygian Mode, rooted on B, with BONUS
If this challenge seems like TOO much, try out an easier challenge from the previous 64 I've posted so far.
The idea is to write whatever you can based on your free time, skill level, and interest. You don't have to write a whole song and you don't have to use recording software. It could be a chord progression, a melody, a bassline or a riff recorded to your voice memos. Just try something and have fun doing it!
This was my first time doing a live community challenge and I think I'd like to do it this way from now on. If you have any community challenge ideas, throw them in the comments below! After 65 of these, it's getting more difficult to come up with new and exciting challenges!
Write Something Inspired by Rothko Paintings
Here is a little online Rothko gallery so you can get a better idea of what his art looks like.
Post audio (or video!) of whatever you write to the community forum.
Write a melody to poetry
The video gives you plenty of ideas, but the general principals are:
1. Find the meter of the poem - if it's a sonnet, it'll be 10.10.10.10. If it's in common meter, it'll be 8.6.8.6. but you'll likely find all kinds of things in the list of poems below.
2. Once you find the meter, write a chord progression - or at least pick a key and try writing a phrase to the first line of the poem.
3. Write a new phrase for your second line, or repeat your first line again (aka repeat your A phrase or turn it into a B phrase)
4. Arrange your phrases however you deem appropriate. Common Meter lends itself to a melodic structure like ABAC or ABCB, or even just ABAB because the lines are 8.6.8.6, and sonnet meter (10.10.10.10, also called "iambic pentameter") is a little more forgiving - you could do AAAA or AABB or AABC. In general, the options are much more open ended when your poems have an even meter like 8.8.8.8. or 6.6.6.6.
Keep in mind, the poems I've linked below are written in an antiquated version of English - sometimes that actually takes the pressure away because it sounds kind of silly and impersonal. Scroll through a few of these poems, count the meter yourself (like I did in the video) and see which poem you can imagine having a melody.
Post your melodies to the community forum and remember: these should be more like napkin sketches than full songs - no need to try too hard or get anything perfect. The goal is to practice and have fun.
Write Something Sad
In the video I talk about a few technical ways make something sound sad, put part of the goal here is for you to explore how you might make something sound sad.
Post what you write to the community forum. Feel free to explain HOW you went about writing something sad.
Fun side note - I was originally feeling like my chord progression was in Am, using dorian mode, but I'm starting to think it might be in E minor - what do you think? Which chord feels like home? Em or Am?
Write Something With A Lot Of Space
The video helps explain what I'm talking about here. Have fun! And remember, you don't need to write your best work, just write something.
Write something using G Am Em D
Check out the video for more details and to watch me give some examples.
If you get into the habit of writing a little something once a week or so, you'll start seeing guitar differently. You'll figure out songs quicker. You'll learn new things quicker. You'll have more ideas when you jam with people. You'll be a better band mate. There are only benefits to learning to write, even if you have no intention of becoming a songwriter!
Write Something In A Minor
The goal of a community challenge is for YOU to write in a fun, low pressure environment. No need to write a whole song, no need to write multiple parts. You start from your comfort zone and write from there. Wether thats a single-note melody, a chord progression or a whole multitrack song. You can record what you write with your cell phone, your ipad, or your home studio. Post what you write to the community forum.
Write Something Difficult (For You)
You don't have to write something CRAZY difficult, just set out to write something that is hard for you to play. Watch the video for elaboration.
What is a Community Challenge? It's an invitation to all of my Patrons to create SOMETHING. When you're learning guitar, it's easy to lose track of what ALL your favorite musicians have in common. Creativity. It's easy to lose track of the fact that music isn't something to study, it's something to explore and experience.
The goal of a community challenge is for YOU to write in a fun, low pressure environment. No need to write a whole song, no need to write multiple parts. You start from your comfort zone and write from there. Wether thats a single-note melody, a chord progression or a whole multitrack song. You can record what you write with your cell phone, your ipad, or your home studio. Post what you write to the community forum.
The only rules are:
1. Write something new
2. Write something based on the prompt
These rules mean you're supposed to write something new, based on the writing prompt, rather than posting something you've previously written that might fit the prompt.
These challenges come out every other Thursday. This gives you about two weeks to write something for each prompt, but I recommend spending no more than an hour or two on each challenge.
Write Something with a Big Transition
Here are a couple ways to approach this challenge:
1. You could think of it as a position transition. For example, this could be a jump from the 3rd fret to the 12th fret in either your melody or chord progression. For example, if you're playing a D Shape D Chord down in open position, you could write a progression where you zoom that shape up to frets 7&8 for that G chord. To be more general, write something that takes you up and down the fingerboard.
2. If you like writing lyrics, write about a big transition in your life.
3. If you want to be more etherial, think of the big transition as a transition from one section of a song to another section. Maybe the first section is playing low low bass notes, the chord progression is also using low voicings, and the melody is using lower notes. The second section could be an explosion into a higher register for each instrument, creating the effect of "woah that was a big transition from one section into the next."
Remember, keep it simple. Good music does not equal difficult music.
Write Two Quick Things in Under an Hour
The idea behind this challenge is to help you see what you create when you don't have a lot of time to stop and think. What are your go-tos? What are your hangups while you're writing? What slows you down?
In the video I talk about this as your baseline. It doesn't mean this is how you always write, it's just supposed to be a snapshot of your strengths and weaknesses at the present moment. It's a good opportunity to think about the kinds of things you might like to practice and improve and adjust.
You could set a timer for 30 minutes two times, or just a 1 hour timer.
You don't have to write the way I did in the video, thats just my comfort zone. Your comfort zone should be your starting point - wether thats just guitar and voice, just guitar, or a full DAW experience.
Have fun, don't overthink it and post what you come up with to the community forum. As an added bonus, I would love if you could share what you learned through this process about your own writing.
Check out the Lesson Archive for more Community Challenges - you’re welcome to participate on any past Challenge at any time!
Harmonic Minor II
Since I've switched to offering Community Challenges every other week, I decided it would be worth it to include a quick review or lesson about the topic. This way, you can get involved without digging through lessons.
I got a little fancier in this quick lesson since I got a few questions about harmonic minor in the previous challenge. If you have more questions about harmonic minor, or you feel that you need more clarification on these concepts, lets have a deep dive discussion about harmonic minor on the next Office Hours!
One thing I mentioned, but would have liked to emphasize a little better is this: the bizarre and awesome fully diminished chord that results from the sharp 7 can function like the V chord. Meaning you can use it in place of the V chord, or even do a fun transition like i - V7 - #vii° - i or i - #vii° - V7 - i
Have fun with these weird, cool concepts and post what you write on the Community Forum.
Write Something In Harmonic Minor
I'm switching to every-other-week Community Challenges to promote more community involvement by giving a little more time between challenges. I'm also switching from text to video so I can do a mini lesson about the topic before diving into the challenge myself! I'm still playing with the format, so expect these videos to have a different vibe to them as I settle into the ideal method. Feel free to comment below if you have any ideas for how to make these community challenge videos more engaging.
Write A Chord Melody
A chord melody is honestly kind of a silly name for it, because all you're doing is playing a melody and chords simultaneously.
I give a few ideas in the video but the ideas break down like this:
You could either:
1. Write a simple melody, then find chords in the key to play over each note of the scale
2. Start as above, but add chords only to some of the notes of the melody
3. Write a melody to be played between chords
Keep it simple! The simpler your melody is, the more room you have to add chords!
You might need the note name scratch paper attached below and linked here.
Post your creations on the community forum!
Write something in the Key of G Minor
This is a pretty straightforward challenge. All you have to do is write something using the chords and/or scale of G Minor.
The easiest way to participate might be to write a simple riff or melody using a G Minor scale or even a G minor pentatonic scale. With this method, you could make things a little fancier by using a melodic or harmonic minor scale. Dorian or Phrygian modal melodies would count as a “G Minor” melody as well. We don’t need to stay in natural minor for this exercise. Just explain what scale(s) you’re using when you post your creation.
If you want to get a little more involved, you could write a chord progression with a melody over the top. In this case, you’d want to make sure you’re targeting chord tones with your melodies, especially if you’re mixing natural minor and harmonic or melodic minor, because some of the chords in melodic minor will clash with some of the scale notes in natural minor.
While I’d STRONGLY recommend figuring out the G Minor scale and chords using WHWWHWW, and reviewing Music Theory Monday if you don’t know how to do that, I’ll break everything down below:
G Minor Scale:
G - w - A - h - Bb - w - C - w - D - h - Eb - w - F - w - G
G Minor chords (natural minor):
i = G-Bb-D = G minor
ii° = A-C-Eb = A diminished
III = Bb-D-F = Bb Major
iv = C-Eb-G = C minor
v = D-F-A = D minor
VI = Eb-G-Bb = Eb Major
VII = F-A-C = F Major
If you want to explore harmonic minor, think about how you have the option of sharping the 7th note of the scale (F to F#) and think about playing that sharp note while playing a D Major chord instead of D minor. There is more to it, but that’s the essence of harmonic minor.
If you want to explore melodic minor, think about using F# and E natural, which would be a sharp 6th and 7th note, and the chords that go with those notes would be C Major chord for E natural and D Major for F#. Keep in mind, “E Natural” means “E NOT-flat.” In the key of G minor, E is flat to fit WHWWHWW, so when you talk about wanting to sharp an Eb, you say “E Natural.” Think of it as “E that is typically flat in this situation, but not right now.”
Post your creations on the community forum.
Write Something With An Odd Number Of Measures
This is going to be fun. I had a writing session recently where I realized that I not only enjoy writing in even measures, but that I get thrown off by odd measures and have to REALLY concentrate playing along with a progression that is 3, 5 or 7 measures long.
As a review, a measure is just a count of 4 (like 1 2 3 4) or a count of 3 (1 2 3) if you’re in 3/4 time signature. A measure and a bar are the same thing. In other words a "four bar progression" is a "progression consisting of four counts of four, as in 1234 1234 1234 1234."
Read more on the Patreon post…
Write Something “House” Inspired
Your goal is to write something vaguely inspired by "house music." What is house music? The wikipedia article says its "a music genre characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culturein the late 1970s, as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat."
Part of what inspired me for this challenge is the thought of having students try to write a riff or chord progression to a constant foot stomp to simulate that four on the floor beat, which is a fancy way to say the kick drum just hits 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 over and over.
So thats the simplest cell-phone recording version of this challenge: try writing a riff or chord progression to your own foot tapping 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4.
If you want to get fancier with it, you could use recording software. Make a beat that starts with that constant kick on 1 2 3 4, then build snare on 2 and 4 and get fancier from there.
Post your creations to the Community Forum! Have fun! Don't aim to write a masterpiece! Just aim for fun.
Write Something Using Dorian Mode
There are a few ways to build a mode: starting from scratch with whole steps and half steps, adapting a familiar scale, or using the "which note of a major scale is it based on" method.
I'll quickly run through all three methods.
Dorian mode, in whole steps and half steps, is WHWWWHW
With scale-degree numbers, it looks like this:
1-w-2-h-3-w-4-w-5-w-6-h-7-w-8
Using "A" as the 1st note, we get a scale like this:
A-w-B-h-C-w-D-w-E-w-F#-h-G-w-A
Using "E" as the 1st note, we get a scale like this:
E-w-F#-h-G-w-A-w-B-w-C#-h-D-w-E
If we start with the second method - adapting a familiar scale - a Dorian scale is simply a natural minor scale with a sharp sixth note.
For example:
A Minor Scale: A B C D E F G A
A Dorian Scale: A B C D E F# G A
C Minor Scale: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
C Dorian Scale: C D Eb F G A Bb C
D Minor Scale: D E F G A Bb C D
D Dorian Scale: D E F G A B C D
The "which note of the scale" method gets confusing for a lot of people, but it's also the method that makes it easiest to figure out which chord goes with each note of the scale.
Dorian mode is like creating a new scale based on the SECOND note of a major scale. The way you can think about it is like this:
"If I want X note to be the start of my Dorian scale, I can to go BACK a whole step from X and build a major scale and keep X as my root note."
Let's try is. If I want to build a Dorian scale based on "A" I can go back a whole step to G and build a major scale. Then use the second note "A" as the root note for Dorian.
G Major: G - w - A - w - B - h - C - w - D - w - E - w - F# - h - G
A Dorian: A - w - B - h - C - w - D - w - E - w - F# - h - G - A
The reason this method is SUPER useful is that it makes it a lot easier to figure which chords go with which notes of the scale:
Chords in the Key of G:
I = Gmaj
ii = Am
iii = Bm
IV = Cmaj
V = Dmaj
vi = Em
vii° = F#°
Chords in the Key of A Dorian:
i = Am
ii = Bm
III = Cmaj
IV = Dmaj
v = Em
vi° = F#°
VII = G
I have some lessons about this stuff in Music Theory Monday. A great starting point with Dorian chord progressions is to start with a simple i IV progression and slowly add other chords into the mix to see if "i" continues to feel like home.
Have a blast and remember, this is writing PRACTICE, so nothing needs to be perfect or even "good" for you to post it. It's all about experimenting and learning how YOU write to further your musical development.
Post what you come up with on the Community Forum.
Write Something With A Fast Tempo!
As usual, there is no need to spend a ton of time on these projects. The idea is to think of the community challenge as your weekly sketchbook. If you're planning to write something that might take 5 to 10 hours, that likely means you'll NEVER participate. Think about writing a little something that takes you 5 to 10 minutes to come up with. It doesn't have to be a complete thought, it doesn't have to have a melody. It just has to be music.
The idea is to get into the habit of writing SOMETHING without putting too much pressure on yourself. Just try to have fun with it! When you've written something you like, you're welcome to record it as simply as possible - with a cell phone for example - or with recording software using drums, bass, guitar, etc. Whatever you have time for. If you feel that you never have time for the community challenges, you're putting too much pressure on yourself to be the most amazing musician.
When you've written something you like, feel free to post it on the community forum thread for this post!
Write Something Lethargic
Often, the key to getting something to sound lethargic is to get your arms and fingers to mimic how it feelsto be lethargic. Lazily sliding from one note to the next, arriving to your notes late, playing behind the beat as if the drums have to pull you along - these are all ideas.
Explore, have fun, and try your hardest to write something with some lethargic elements to it. When you feel like you've got something - wether it's a VERY simple chord progression, a melody, or a full blown song, post it to the community forum.
Remember, not everything you write needs to be a complete song, not everything you write needs to be finished, and not everything you write needs to show people who you are. This is just practice. Have fun with it!
Write Something With Guitar
I gave this one an EXTREMELY low bar because I want to invite new people to try participating in community challenges.
The only rules are:
1. Write something with one guitar - no DAW, no multi-layered recording - just use a single guitar without drums, bass, keys.
2. Record what you've written with your phone or recording software and upload it to the community forum.
You don't need to write a song, you don't need to write a rough draft of a song. It could be a little pentatonic riff that takes 5 seconds to play. It could be a set of chords you like together. It doesn't have to be amazing, it just has to be something you came up with.
IF YOU ARE A NEW PATRON and this is your first community challenge, feel free to say hello and introduce yourself in the comments below! Welcome!
Have fun, and if you've written something you like, you can share an mp3 OR a link to a video or mp3 on the community forum.
Write Something With Improvisation.
We'll keep it loose for this challenge. You could START by improvising a melody or chord progression and then refining from there, or you could include a section to improvise. You could try a multitrack recording where you improvise each layer. It's all about exploring. Use improvisation at the beginning or at the end of your process. The only rules are:
1. You must write something AFTER reading this post - you can't post something you've already written.
2. You must give a brief explanation of how improvisation played a part in your composition.
To be clear, improvisation means you're making something up as you go. HOWEVER, you can pick a key (ie. the Key of D Major) and you can pick a specific scale (ie. D Major Scale or D Major Pentatonic Scale.) You could pick a set of chords (ie. D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim) and improvise a chord progression by playing random chords from the set. Or you could write a chord progression like "D Bm Em F#m" and try coming up with a melody on the fly. There are lots of options!
Have fun, and if you've written something you like, you can share an mp3 OR a link to a video or mp3 on the community forum.
Write Something With Arpeggios
You don't have to write a whole song. You don't even have to write a whole section. A chord progression would be fine! Record it to your phone and upload it to the community forum! If you want to get a little fancier, you could use recording software to write a whole song with bass, drums, guitar, a vocal melody, lyrics, etc - if you WANT to do that, you absolutely can. But you don't have to.
The goal of the Community Challenge is to remind of the joy of MAKING music. Yes, learning songs is important. Yes, practicing technique is important. Yes, learning music theory is important. But to me, making music is the most fulfilling and satisfying musical action one can take.
In this case, just write a little something - even just a chord progression or a guitar melody - and make sure that you're using arpeggios somewhere in there.
An arpeggio is simply playing the notes of a chord, in order. It could be root, third, fifth or third, fifth, root or fifth, root, third. Or if you want to get fancy, you could include 7ths and 9ths or something.
If you need to brush up on (or learn) your roots, thirds, and fifths, I recommend checking out Music Theory for Guitar.
Post your creations to the community forum
Make Your Own Limitations and Stick To Them
This challenge is a bit of a tightrope. The goal is to FIRST sit down and decide on some limitations for yourself. This could be something technique focused like:
• Only ever play two notes at a time
• Play as many open notes as possible at all times
• Only use bar chords
• Write a melody that emphasizes hammer-ons
Or you could go music-theory focused:
• Only use minor chords
• Only use major chords
• Write in a specific mode
• Implement fifths and major sixths into your melody
Or you could go emotion-based:
• Write something sad
• Write something happy, with a sad section
• Write something hopeful
The idea is that you come up with parameters/limitations for yourself FIRST, and THEN you start writing. Again, you don't have to write something difficult - it could be simply a chord progression or a single-note melody. But you must try as hard as you can to fulfill the limitations you've put on yourself.
Have fun! And remember, you're not setting out to create the masterpiece of your life, you're just practicing creating your own music.
Write something with fingerpicking.
This is pretty straightforward - You could write a folky chord progression on acoustic guitar. You could write an electric guitar part using fingerpicking. You could play a melody without a pick. It could be something elaborate or something simple. A five second blip recorded to a cell phone or a full blown multitrack song recorded in your home studio. Whatever it is, here are the only rules:
1. You must write something new, something that didn't exist before you read this post.
2. You must use your fingers to perform at least the initial/main guitar part.
Write Something “Sign Painter Style”
What the heck do I mean by "sign painter style?"
To be honest, I'm not sure yet. But I watched this video of a guy doing some brush lettering this week and I was feeling inspired.
Sometimes when you're writing music, it can be useful (and fun!) to draw inspiration from something or someone outside of music. In this case, we've got a guy showing how a steady hand and a lot of practice can result in some beautiful lettering. He's not doing anything very complex. He's not stopping to think. Not second guessing or analyzing his progress so far. There isn't room for that. He's just doing something he's done a million times.
For musicians, it's easy to write a little bit, and then stop to wonder if it could be different. I've also had this thought more than a few times: "If it's hard for me to play, it must be good music." This is not always the case. In fact, I try to ignore that reasoning because it usually leads me down the wrong path.
On the flip side, there are things most of us do that are not very difficult at all for us. Maybe it's a pentatonic scale. Maybe it's a few chords you're very comfortable with. Maybe there is a certain scale in a certain position that you always warm up with. Use these things as your starting point.
For this challenge, try writing something thats easy FOR YOU, being sure to emphasize the "FOR YOU" part.
Whatever comes naturally, whatever feels comfortable, whatever that stuff is that you usually noodle around with, try starting there.
You don't have to record in one take, but if you're doing take after take and still not getting it, that might mean you're not in your comfort zone!
Wether you write a whole song, a chord progression, multiple tracks, or a very simple single-guitar pentatonic noodle, start writing from a place where you're very comfortable. The results might feel simple, because they will be easy for YOU.
Write something weird!
"Weird" is a completely subjective term. The idea here is to not take yourself too seriously - an important aspect of being a good musician! "Weird" here could mean a chord progression that doesn't quite make sense or has a wonky chord in there. It could mean a melody that meanders too much or jumps around a wide range. It could be a meter that switches from 3/4 to 4/4 or from 5/4 to 3/4. It could be a weird guitar tone that makes you laugh because it doesn't feel like a guitar. It could be a composition where you just leave too much space, then jam too much stuff into another area.
One of the advantages of exploring deliberately weird things, is that you quite often stumble upon things that end up being kind of cool! If you accidentally stumble upon something cool, you are absolutely welcome to share that too!
Focus on Dynamics
We've already covered this concept in Community Challenge 08, when I asked you to write something with extreme dynamics. I don't need extreme dynamics this time, I just need you to write with dynamics in mind.
The word "dynamics" basically refers to the sheer volume you're putting out. In classical music, you'll see dynamic markings like "p" for "piano" which translates to "quiet" or you'll see "forte" for "loud." There is a lot of variety in sheet music for this kind of thing. Sometimes you'll see "pppp" which would mean "play really really soft" or "ffff" which means "play really really loud" or even "mp" which stands for "mezzo-piano" or "moderately quiet."
What I need from you for this challenge:
1. Think about wether you want to focus on one louder section and one soft section, or if you want to play louder than usual for the whole song, or quieter than usual. The emphasis here is for you to observe
A) what is your personal middle-of-the-road volume/intensity/effort and how would you go about deliberately playing significantly quieter or louder than that?
B) how can you write some music that makes you think about playing quieter and/or louder than you usually do.
2. When you submit your creation to the community forum, give an explanation of the dynamic flow of your creation. It could be "In this 8 second voice memo, I was trying to play softly on X, Y, and Z chords, then I tried to gradually increase the intensity and volume until I reached this H, I, J section where I dug in deeper to make it feel much more intense."
Here are a few things to consider: volume and intensity are relative. Something might be "louder" but not played very intensely. For example, you could turn the volume up on your amp and be WAY louder, but physically strum the strings at the same intensity. In my opinion, the goal of dynamics is to increase or decrease emotional intensity. Ideally, your body language should match the intensity you want your audience to feel. So strumming or picking softly will feel relaxing and gentle and strumming really hard or picking really hard will FEEL intense. Basically, "volume" is a nice quick way to think of dynamics, but if you think of dynamics as "physical effort," it is easier to imagine how dynamics actually translate to guitar.
Team up with another Patron!
I'm so excited to see what happens with this one! There are a couple of tricky things about something like this, so I'll have to throw down some suggestions:
1. THOSE OF YOU WITH DAW CAPABILITIES: If you'd like to participate in this challenge, I'd love for you to type something like "I'm a DAW person" in the comments here or on the community forum.
2. THOSE OF YOU WITHOUT DAW CAPABILITIES: If you'd like to participate, please comment below or in the community forum saying something like "I am NOT a DAW person."
3. For ease of use, each track you share with another patron will require an accurate count-in or either one or two measures. This can be spoken (eg. "1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4" then music) OR you and your partner can establish a count in that you both agree to (eg. two measures of drum beat or two measures of muted strums) THIS IS CRUCIAL
You're more than welcome to work with more than one person AND you're more than welcome to work DAW-DAW or non-DAW to non-DAW, but let me lay out a few scenarios:
IN GENERAL, STICK WITH WRITING SIMPLE THINGS SO YOU CAN FOCUS ON WRITING "TOGETHER"
IN GENERAL, IT IS EASIEST TO USE A DAW FOR THIS PROCESS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'D LIKE TO PASS TRACKS BACK AND FORTH TOGETHER A FEW TIMES, BUT OTHER METHODS ARE POSSIBLE.
I'll try to lay out options for every situation here:
1. Two non-DAW patrons writing together: If you and your writing partner do NOT have a DAW, you gotta at least have a phone to record with PLUS a separate device for playing your partner's tracks through speakers. The idea here is important: Pick one person to start the writing process with something like a chord progression. Record your progression (making sure to count yourself in in some obvious way) and send it to your partner. Your partner can then open the file, listen to it on speakers, and then (with their phone) record themselves playing along with the track on speakers. This is important so you can capture both YOUR idea AND your partners recording on one track. This is less than ideal, and you likely won't be able to add many layers due to lack of mixing abilities and whatnot, but if you don't have a DAW it's worth a try.
2. One non-DAW Patron and one DAW Patron: This situation is a little better, but also more one-sided. Probably the best idea in this situation is to have the NON-DAW Patron record something first, making sure to count in AND play something simple enough that it's EASY to keep good time. Then send that to the DAW person, who can import it into their computer and record over the top of it. The downside here is that it can still be hard to play in time so the initial person needs to really play something simple enough that they can really play nicely in time.
3. Two DAW people: You've got the easiest time. STEP 1: pick a tempo and make sure your project's BPM is always set to that tempo when you're adding layers. STEP 2, pick someone to write first. Maybe one person starts with a drum beat and the other person adds the first guitar, then sends it back. The coolest thing about this setup is that you can send the track back and forth to each other without ANY degradation of tone or mix. One person could be the "Master mixer" - meaning the person who has the main project file (like the Logic Pro or GarageBand project file.) This person has the job of compiling each separate audio track and mixing as you go.
4. Oldschool aka "In person:" Remember that thing we all used to do so often before March of 2020? That thing where you knock on someone's door and hang out inside? If you feel safe from Covid AND you know someone you could collaborate with in person, this is such a fun option.
To be clear: I don't necessarily condone meeting strangers you meet on the internet! You could collaborate with a friend and ask your friend if you can post audio to our community. Or you can try it out and just report back on the community forum about how it went.
If you've got a rapport with someone in the community forum AND you somehow happen to live close to each other, that might be a fun conversation to have with that person.
POST YOUR CREATIONS, THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PROCESS, AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMMUNITY FORUM.
Reach out to me via private message here or on the community forum if you can't find someone to work with and I'll try to link you up with someone. Or just post in the comments. We'll get it figured out.
Write something in 3/4 or 6/8
Time signatures are not SAID as a fraction even though they are a fraction.
We say "three-four time" or "six-eight time" but it's actually easier to think of them as fractions when trying to apply them in real life. But hold that thought while I explain a few things.
Pick 1 technique and 1 mood
Your post must include which technique and mood you've chosen
This writing prompt is designed to get you to marry two concepts together. Maybe if this goes well, I'll do more of these where I get specific like this:
"Make sliding feel happy" or
"Make pulloffs feel sleepy" or
"Make fingerpicking feel energetic"
But for this week you get to pick a technique, then pick a mood to try to emulate.
Picking a technique is fairly straightforward - you can be specific or broad. For example, strumming and fingerpicking are extremely broad. Hammer-ons and slides are a little more specific. Long slides (like from 5th fret to 12th fret) or double pull-offs are examples of even more specific techniques. You could also mess with artificial harmonics, pick harmonics, picking close to the bridge, playing lead with octaves only, playing a melody on one string, double-stops, sweeps, chord melody, slide guitar, - - - anything you can think of as long as it is a definable way to play the guitar.
Beginners, feel free to be somewhat broad - like strumming or pull-offs. Those of you really looking for a challenge, feel free to get much more specific with your technique choice.
Then, pick a mood to emulate - sad, happy, angry, frustrated, awkward, weird, grumpy, playful, sleepy, depressed, desperate, etc -
The trick with picking a mood to emulate is - well - what do I do?
There is no correct way to do it, but here are some elements to consider:
1. Dynamic range
2. Phrase length and complexity
3. Space between phrases
Imagine that your guitar is your voice and imagine how your mood can change the way you talk. When I'm sad, I don't wanna talk much and when I do, I talk softly and I take my time. In these terms, my dynamic range is mostly soft, my phrase length is going to be shorter and simpler, and I'll probably leave space between my phrases.
Imagine how you feel when you're angry. When I'm angry, I often want to say a lot, very quickly, without a lot of space between phrases. I might have an outburst and I make mutter some stuff quietly under my breath. In these terms, my dynamic range would be mostly intense with some occasional soft (muttering) spots, my phrase length might range from very long and complex to short repetitive bursts, and there probably won't be a lot of space between phrases.
The most important thing to remember is: think about how your body feels when you're experiencing a particular mood - when you're feeling a certain way. Imagine playing guitar in a way that matches your body. Imagine your body language translating to the way you play guitar.
Feeling tired? Let your fingers be lethargic and slow. Feeling excited and energetic? Let your fingers fly around. Feeling chaotic and out of control? Let your fingers be a little sloppy and make some mistakes. Feeling intense and focused? Play much more carefully and conservatively, letting each note, each strum really mean something.
Post your creations to the community forum, and please make sure to mention the technique and mood that you chose!
IMPORTANT THING: While it's important to give this a try, sometimes you set out with an intention and end up with something that did not meet your expectations. That is OK! Please post anyway. Sometimes we try to write something happy and end up with something melancholy. Or we set out to write something uplifting and we end up writing something sad. This is normal, especially when learning to express yourself. Lets embrace this normal thing that happens and have a nice chat about it over in the community forum.
Write Two Seeds In Half An Hour
For this week's community challenge, we're doubling down on last weeks concept. A few of you truly discovered the relief of only spending a short amount of time to "complete" something. It's so easy to get carried away and spend hours on something only to find you don't really like it that much. Side note: IT IS NEVER A WASTE OF TIME DO TO THAT. But still, writing quickly is an important skill and impulse to hone in on and develop.
Thats why this week I'm challenging you to write two song seeds in half an hour. What is a song seed? It's two sections of music. You could think of it as verse and chorus, but that might be too specific. Just think of it as two sections that go together.
The easiest approach would be to write a quick chord progression in under 7 minutes, then write another one in the same key and record it before fifteen minutes is up, then repeat the process and voila: two quick song seeds.
If you are looking for MORE of a challenge, try coming up with two, two-part song seeds with chords and a melody in under fifteen minutes. OR if you're more of an instrumental DAW person, try coming up with two raw songs seeds with guitar, bass, drums.
THE MAIN POINT: When you're sitting down to write, it's sometimes difficult to define what it actually means to write music. An exercise like this can give you a sense of how easy it is to get distracted from a specific goal. It can also help you see the things you actually prefer over bare bones essential writing concepts. You might find you keep getting distracted by different voicings or different drum tones or just not liking certain chords in a progression.
Deliberate practice (the kind that actually helps you improve) is all about identifying specific things you'd like you work on and then deliberately ignoring other things while you focus on that one specific thing. This exercise is a great example of focusing on one specific thing and seeing what happens.
So try this one out, set a timer (or a few blocks of timers) and see what happens when you limit yourself to an extremely short amount of time. Post what happens to the community forum and feel free to talk about wether it was freeing, frustrating, exciting, weird, disappointing etc. Have fun!
Write Something Quickly!
For this community challenge, the goal is simple: write something - anything - but don't spend more than 30 minutes on it.
This is a little bit like my Ten Turds Challenge (which you're welcome to try anytime you like!) where you spend a very short amount of time trying to write something, then move on to the next.
For those of you curious about participating in a community challenge, but haven't jumped in for a try yet, this might be a fun one! There is something about having an excuse like "I could have done it better but I only had half an hour" that makes it easier to get into writing.
Give it a try! And post what you come up with on the community forum.
Write something based on Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Last week I asked you to analyze the song "Signed Sealed Delivered" by Stevie Wonder. This week, I'd like you to write something based on this analysis.
If you didn't do the analysis yet, thats ok! I recommend starting from what other folks have already posted to the thread and testing it out for yourself.
When I say "write something based on this analysis" here are some ways to go about doing that:
• Use a piece of his chord progression as a start for your own
• Use a fragment of his melody as your starting point
• Use a music theory concept you learned from this song as the starting point for your creation (bass line walking down, modal/bluesy stuff, etc
If this all feels WAY too much for you, that is ok! Here is a more basic option:
• Find something you like about this song - wether thats the drums, the bass, the piano - the vocals - the energy of the song in general - and just think about that while you sit down to write. Don't get too specific about mimicking any one aspect. Just try to write something with the song in mind and see what happens.
Those of you going with the simple option, let us know in your community forum post.
Those of you going with the more specific option, let us know what specific element(s) you were trying to emulate, mimic, or conceptually integrate into your creation.
On my livestream tomorrow I'm going to do a live song analysis and write something myself. Keep an eye out for that post. We'll see how it goes.
Post your creations to the community forum. They can be anything from a rough 8 second phone recording to a full blown multitrack DAW production. Whatever you're comfortable with or have time for.
Write something intricate
This is a vague one. Open ended. You're free to explore what intricate means to you, or define the way you'd like to be intricate before you start writing.
You could think of it as detailed, lush, interlocking parts - like if you played single notes only on guitar and kept stacking them.
Or you could think of it as an intricate chord progression, where you're focused on specific voicings of each chord - maybe the progression itself is a detailed story. Maybe the melody and chord progressing interlock in some intricate way.
The dictionary definition of intricate is "very complicated or detailed."
You could focus on lyrics that are detailed in some way or complicated. The idea is that some element of your creation feels intricate.
Antonyms of the word include "simple, easy, straightforward, plain, direct"
Having said all that, not every part of your creation needs to be intricate, just a part or concept of your choosing. Have fun and post what you write on the community forum!
Write something in harmonic minor.
Now, to be more specific, I might call it "write something that uses harmonic minor." If you've watched my Music Theory Monday Series, you're familiar with the harmonic minor scale and the resulting chords that come with. If you haven't watched that series yet, I recommend at least watching the first three episodes or so.
For example I'll use the key of B Minor
Natural B Minor uses these notes:
B C# D E F# G A B
and has these chords:
i = Bm
ii° = C#°
III = D
iv = Em
v = F#m
VI = G
VII = A
harmonic minor scales use a sharp 7th note like this:
B C# D E F# G A# B
And the most significant impact this has on our chords-in-a-key is that the v chord (F#m) becomes a major V chord, but more specifically, it becomes a dominant 7th chord (F#7) which resolves back to i (Bm) beautifully.
You are welcome to participate in whatever capacity you like! Wether you write a fully complete song with guitar, lyrics, bass, drums or you just record an 8 second rough sketch to your phone, all submissions are equally welcome. The only requirement is that you write it AFTER reading this post.
I'm going to be pretty flexible on the other "rules" here because harmonic and melodic minor get thrown together in the same situations often, but to put it simply:
if you write a chord progression starting with natural minor chords, then just turn the V chord dominant, you've essentially written a harmonic minor chord progression.
Melodically, if you write a melody over that progression and make sure the 7th note of the scale is sharp when then V chord is happening, you've basically written a harmonic minor melody over your progression!
Post your creations on the community forum!
Write something in the Key of D Major
The rules:
1. You might write something new - that means something you've written AFTER reading this post
2. Your creation must be in the key of D (if you use modal substitutions, thats OK, as long as a D Major Chord feels like home)
If you're not sure how to do that, I recommend watching Music Theory for Guitar, then Music Theory Monday.
Your creation DOES NOT have to be a full song - it can be a 7 second voice memo recorded on your cell phone. It does not have to be fancy or complicated. It does not have to have words, or even a melody. It could just be a simple chord progression, strummed on your guitar. This challenge is just about making SOMETHING. As long as it's in the key of D Major, it's welcome! Whatever you have time for! You certainly can write a full song with guitar, drums, bass, vocals, etc if you want to, BUT you do not have to.
Post your creations to the community forum.
P.S. I think D Major is my favorite major key. I don't know why. Maybe because the chord shapes feel good on guitar. Maybe the key of D Major just sounds nice to my ears. I don't know why! But I love the key of D Major. Do you have a favorite key?
Write Something Simple
Each week I've been asking my Patrons to write some music! In my opinion, writing music is the key to loving and learning music your whole life. Of course it's valuable to learn songs, practice technique, learn theory, etc - but writing music is where all the magic happens. Thats when you step into ownership. The feeling of "I made this" is just such a powerful feeling.
This feeling is so powerful, that I think the more you write, the more you want to understand how music works and the more inspired you are to work on all the tedious things. Writing music gives you a context for practice.
You don't have to write music with the intention of being a frontman, a songwriter, a singer, etc. All of those things are more specific than just writing music. If you want to be a bass player, a lead guitarist, a rhythm guitarists - etc - WRITING MUSIC HELPS WITH ALL OF THOSE SKILLS.
In any band, you'll be more valuable if you can write music - even if that just means writing your own parts. Even if you want to play other people's music for the rest of your life, being able to write music will still make you a more flexible player.
If you want to learn to speak a second language, the ultimate goal is to able to say what's on your mind as freely as possible. Writing music is kind of like that, the more you write, the more you'll be able to write the way you want and find the kinds of sounds you want.
Write Anything!
This week I've been in the studio with my band! We've already worked on four new songs and I'm very excited. So excited, in fact, that I forgot to post this week's community challenge.
Since I'm in the studio writing all day I thought it would be fun to give you the opportunity to write anything you want.
The rules here are incredibly straight forward: Write something new after reading this post.
You're welcome to write just a melody, just a chord progression, just a riff, just a bassline, etc - it doesn't have to be a complete song. It doesn't have to be recorded with fancy software. But if you want to write a whole song with drums, guitar, bass, etc, you're more than welcome.
Write A Melody Over One Chord
I was inspired by the Community Song Analysis Challenge Rock Steady, because the verse is mainly a one-chord vamp. Stevie Wonder's Superstition also has a verse with just one chord!
For this assignment, you're free to write a whole song where one section (either verse, chorus, intro, etc) only contains one chord with a melody over the top.
This melody could be a riff or a melodic line. As long as there is a melody (something like ABAC) over a progression that consists of one chord in some section of the song, you're doing it right!
Write A Riff
A riff is essentially just a melody. As usual, for melody writing lessons, check out MTM 17, 18 & 19for melody making basics.
Generally, when I think of a riff, I think of an intro riff like in MGMT's Kids or The Black Keys I Got Mine but a riff can also be used in place of (or alongside) the chords in a song, like in the verse of the Beatle's Daytripper, or as a riff/chords combo like in Seven Nation Army.
There are other uses for riffs, but try to focus on this type of riff for this exercise! Generally, a riff used for an intro or as a chord replacement has simple, memorable phrasing. If it gets too fancy or the phrases get too long, it might not have that anthemic effect. Also, this is a great opportunity to try a phrase scheme like ABAC or AABC or ABCC.
As usual, your riff can be an on-the-fly 8 second phone recording or part of a full fledged, multi-layered song recording in your DAW. Whatever you have time for. Whatever doesn't stress you out. The idea is to have fun!
Write something sparse
Sometimes I write a challenge involving a specific music theory concept and sometimes I write a more vague challenge. This one is in the second camp.
The dictionary definition of sparse is "having widely spaced intervals" but that might seem too specific to music so lets define sparse this way:
Sparse music:
1. gives room for empty space
2. favors utility and simplicity over ornamentation and "extra" notes
Ways to approach this challenge (you could focus on one or two or all of these things)
Tonal sparseness:
In tonality, sparseness could mean vagueness. Like, you could barely provide enough information to figure out what key you're in. For example, the guitar could play just roots, or roots and thirds. Or if you're playing bass on your track, the bass could play roots and the guitar could just play fifths or thirds and fifths. If you're sticking to just guitar, you could think of spread out chords and only playing the minimum number of strings possible.
Rhythmic sparseness:
Instead of strumming the entire time, you could try strumming once at the beginning of the measure. Or doing something like ::root strum root root root:: where you're keeping rhythm with just the root note and occasionally (maybe once a measure?) revealing the chord. This might be a fun opportunity to mess with a pedal tone (keeping the same bass note going with different chords over the top) as well, since it keeps things sparse too.
Aesthetic Sparseness:
You are welcome to explore your own ways of being sparse, wether thats a guitar tone that feels sparse, lyrical content that feels sparse, or some other part of the song that feels sparse. If you've got other ideas, go for it!
Write something in the key of Eb Major
You can write anything you want! Sad, happy, weird, folk, rock - I don't care! As long as it's in the key of Eb Major, anything is welcome.
As usual, keep in mind that what you write can be really fancy using a DAW or full blown recording studio OR you can write a partial, half-baked concept that takes 5 seconds to play into your voice memos on your phone. I'll gladly accept both extremes and everything in between because this isn't about performance, but about being creative.
Along with the audio of your creation, please write a little explanation of what you've written and why you're convinced it's in the key of Eb.
Post your creations to THE COMMUNITY FORUM
All you need to know is:
A) how to make an Eb major scale (Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb)
B) how to turn that scale into a set of chords
I = Eb Maj
ii = Fm
iii = Gm
IV = Ab Maj
V = Bb Maj
vi = Cm
vii° = D°
From there you can write a chord progression, and create a melody over it if you like.
For those of you who want to get a little fancier (and maybe apply some of the things you've learned from the first Community Song Analysis) I'd happily accept some mixolydian modal stuff in your Eb Major composition.
Write a Minor i - III - VI - V progression
This is a classic progression. You can hear it in a lot of songs. Here are a few:
Crazy by Gnarls Barkley (Cm - Eb - Ab - G)
If You Want Me to Stay by Sly and Sly and the Family Stone (wait for the song to get going, you'll hear it) (it's not tuned to A440, but if it were the chords would be Bbm - Db - Gb - F)
Here are the rules for this challenge:
1. Use this progression, in order, in one section of your song.
2. Whatever you write has to be written after reading this post.
The first rule means you can't play i III V VI or III i VI V instead, it's gotta be those four chords in order! However, if you wanted to write something that went something like:
i III VI V
i III IV IV
that would be ok! As long as you're including one complete set of i III VI V
For those of you who might be new, let me do a little breakdown of these roman numerals:
Lets take the key of E Minor
Scale first: E F# G A B C D E
If you remember the order of chords in a minor key, it's minor dim maj min min maj maj so:
I = Em
ii° = F#°
III = G
iv = Am
v = Bm
VI = C
VII = D
These are the chords in E Natural Minor, but the chord progression we're using for this challenge has a Major V chord (you can tell because it's UPPERCASE)
Major V chord means we're in harmonic minor territory. So the scale gets the option of a #7 and while that can have an effect on other chords in the key, the main chord effected is the V chord.
So now, instead of Bm = v, we've got B = V, and since it's the V chord, we can make it a dom7 so B7 = V7
The basic triad version of this progression is: Em(i) G(III) C(VI) B(V)
If you want to add 7's to each chord it's: Em7 Gmaj7 Cmaj7 B7
If you need a refresher on this stuff, check out Music Theory Monday's first few lessons.
Your creation can be the equivalent of a scribble on a napkin, something you did quickly and recorded on your phone, or a full song. As long as you follow the rules, your creation can be as sloppy an hastily recorded as you like. Perfection is not necessary. You could even just pick a key and play this chord progression to make sure you understand the assignment. But if you want to write a full song, you're more than welcome to do so!
Pick any previous challenge!
To be more specific:
You could pick a previous challenge that you missed when it was first posted, or pick a previous challenge that you feel like you could have done better or differently.
If you haven't tried a community challenge yet, you could pick one that looks the easiest, the most interesting, or the most fun to try! I strongly encourage anyone who hasn't tried a Community Challenge to participate in this one, since you've got a lot of options!
Write Something Using Hammer-Ons
The easiest way to participate would be to write a melody or chord progression that includes some hammer-ons. Then record that to your phone. No need to get fancy.
If you want a little more of a challenge, you could write both a chord progression AND a melody using recording software. Or a whole song. This particular challenge is pretty open-ended! Have fun with it.
Write Something In Melodic Minor
In this case, something can mean:
1. a whole song
2. a chord progression
3. a lone melody
It has been absolutely inspiring to hear all the submissions for community challenges so far. If you've been nervous to participate or feel like you're not ready, I'd like to remind you of two things:
Thing 1 is that you can submit your creations for any previous challenge at any point! They are open for you to participate wether you're reading this now in 2021 or later in 2045 - if the community challenges are posted, you're welcome to participate.
Thing 2 I'd like to emphasize is that you are welcome to participate at whatever level you're comfortable. This is a place for learning. If you were already a professional musician, you wouldn't be here. These challenges are designed to meet you where you're at so you can learn and grow in the most important way possible: by creating your own music.
Even if you don't want to be a songwriter, making music is (in my opinion) THEE way to understand and grow and become a musician. You don't need to write songs. Even just something as simple as writing a chord progression once a week can radically change how you approach your instrument. It's powerful. It is life-changing. It's fun.
If you're not familiar with Melodic Minor, I recommend brushing up on your Music Theory Monday.
Essentially, Melodic minor is about having the option of using two extra notes and therefore two (plus maybe a few more) extra chords. That turns something like this:
E Minor Scale: E F# G A B C D E
Into something like this:
E Minor Scale (with added Melodic Minor notes) E F# G A B C (C#) D (D#) E
Which gives you some chord options:
E Natural Minor Chords:
Em • F#° • G • Am • Bm • C • D
chord options added by melodic minor:
A • A7 • B • B7 • D# fully dim
Write Something Sad
Sometimes writing something sad can make you feel really good! Sometimes writing something sad can make you feel more sad, but in a good way.
How do you write something sad? Sometimes it's about the way you play.
Here is a list of suggestions:
1. Slow tempo
2. Play in a way that is heavy, relaxed
3. Pick a minor key
4. Keep it sparse and simple
5. Melodies with long notes and gentle transitions might work better than staccato or jagged melodies
6. A slow bend up to a note can sound sad sometimes
7. Sliding up or down to a note in your melody can sound tired in a sad way sometimes
This is extremely open ended. You could write a chord progression or a whole song. It could be an instrumental ballad or a single, solitary melody played to some slow acoustic chords. Whatever you do, if your creation feels sad, submit what you've written to the community forum and we'll all have a listen. If you tried to make something sad and you're not sure you've nailed it, submit it anyway! Maybe the community will have some more technical suggestions for how to make it sound sad!
If you're stuck on how to do this, keep in mind that your body language and the way you play will often translate more than what notes you play. So it might help to imagine how it feels to be sad and see how your body feels. Or if you're already feeling sad, pour that into the guitar and see what happens.
Yes, music theory is important, but ultimately music is about expressing yourself. The suggestions above will help, but trying to translate how your body feels when you're sad into playing the guitar can take some practice!
The idea here is to experiment, explore and have fun.
Write something in a Major Key
Submit your creations to the community forum. These don't have to be perfect songs. They could be a rough sketch you spent five minutes tinkering with, then recorded on your cellphone. It could be something you hum while you strum. You're welcome to go all out with drums, bass, and keys using fancy recording software, but you never have to!
This one is pretty straightforward, but here are some ways to approach it:
Beginner: Write a simple three, four, or five chord progression using only chords from a Major Key. If you need a refresher, check out the first lesson of Music Theory Monday for a reminder on how chords in a key word - then check out lesson 3 on 7th chords if you want to get slightly fancier.
For example:
Triads in the key of D Major: D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim
7th chords in the key of D Major: Dma7 Em7 F#m7 Gmaj7 A7 Bm7 C#half dim
A chord progression in D Major might like like: D D Em A D D Bm G
Intermediate: Write two chord progressions that complement each other using chords from a major key. Something like verse and chorus. If you like, write a melody over the top.
Advanced: Write a whole song or set of sections with melody, bass, rhythm - just make sure you're in a Major Key! Secondary Dominants are allowed and I would accept some modal chord borrowing (like a mixo bVII) or even some sneaky blues stuff.
Please be prepared to explain how and why your creation is in a major key, as well as any other quirks about your creation! Part of the goal here is for you to participate within your current understanding of music theory. Writing CERTAINLY doesn't need to be this way all the time, but these challenges are supposed to help you apply what you're learning, so it's best to set out to write within your ability to explain.
Make sure you're submitting something you've written based on your interpretation of this assignment. The goal is to write something new, not to submit something you've already written.
Write A Melody On One String
This week's challenge is: Write a melody on one string
This is pretty self explanatory but here are a few approaches:
1. The Easy Way: write a simple melody on one string. This could be completely unaccompanied. Just a nice, simple melody recorded to your phone. It could be freeform without a chord progression, or you could have a specific chord progression in mind while still submitting just a lonely melody.
2. Intermediate: Pick one of my Jam Tracks and write a melody to it. The melody only needs to be somewhere between 4 and 16 measures, certainly not the duration of the whole track. Perform the melody on only one string. You could record this to a cell phone, or use recording software. Whatever is comfortable for you.
3. Advanced: Write your own accompaniment for your one-string melody. You could even try a verse chorus or A section B section type thing. If you write two sections, each section's melody could use a different string. This could be with recording software, a loop pedal, etc.
4. Advanced II: You could write a whole song and have the intro riff be a one-string melody. If this challenge inspires something like that, go for it!
5. Advanced III: I suppose you could write a melody on the high E or B string and surround that melody with chords up and down the neck. If you try this option, keep your melody simple or you'll have a hell of a time trying to grab chords all over the neck. Or keep your chord progression simple and try to write in a key where you can use a lot of open notes.
Write Something with a Secondary Dominant
Write something with a secondary dominant in the chord progression
If you need a refresher (or just a first-time-fresher), check out my Music Theory Monday lesson about Dominant Chords. If you're new around here, that lesson might not make a lot of sense without being familiar with Music Theory for Guitar first, and then getting into Music Theory Monday. You can find the ideal order to watch all my lessons here.
Sliding
This weeks' Community Challenge is simple: write something that involves sliding.
This could be:
1. A simple chord progression with chords that slide from one place to another
2. A full song with a guitar melody that slides around
3. A simple 8 bar sketch of something where some guitar sliding is involved
It's pretty vague. As long as you write a little something with sliding involved, you're doing the community challenge.
Natural Minor
This week the challenge is simple: write something in Natural Minor
That "something" could be:
1. A chord progression you've crafted using only chords from Natural Minor
2. A nice melody you've written using the Natural Minor scale
3. A whole song with chords, melody, and bass line using only Natural Minor.
You don't need to write a whole song, you don't need to use recording software like in my GarageBand lessons, but you can if you want. A cell phone recording is completely acceptable. The idea is just to write something!
If this was a drawing exercise, a sketch on the back of a napkin would be just as acceptable as a finished work. Just write something!
Natural minor is the most straightforward of the minor keys, as it contains all the same notes as its relative major. Check out episodes 04, 05, and 06 of Music Theory Monday if you'd like a refresher on the difference between Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic Minor.
Extreme Dynamics
This weeks challenge is to write something with extreme dynamics.
This goal is fairly simple, but important. Dynamics make music feel human, and thats one of the more important things about making music. Also, lets give a definition:
Dynamics are the musical idea of loud and quiet, but that also means that the music might feel intense when it's loud (like strumming harder, singing louder, etc) and the music might feel relaxed or almost cozy (or creepy) if the guitar is strummed or picked very very softly and the singing voice is at nearly a whisper.
You can take the "extreme" part with a grain of salt. I don't need you to yell or shout, but I would like to see some distinct contrast between a loud or intense section and a soft, gentle, quiet section. You could also have a middle dynamic section if you choose. Just write something with dynamic contrast.
This week, you could:
1. Write a melody with a combination of very soft and very intense parts
2. Write a chord progression or two with soft gentle sections and loud sections
3. Write a whole song with perhaps a very soft, quiet prechorus and an explosive intense chorus. Or something like that.
Whatever you do, keep it fun and focus on intensity. No need to go overboard or reach too far outside your comfort zone. Just write something with a combination of soft parts and intense/loud parts.
Some other things to consider and terms to learn:
Crescendo (/krəˈSHenˌdō/) : increase the volume and intensity of a section over a period of time.
Decrescendo : decrease in volume and intensity over a set period of time.
In proper sheet music, there are markings for dynamics like pp, ff or mp. Read more about it here.
Write Something in Dorian Mode
This week's Community Challenge is: Write something in Dorian Mode
This means, write a chord progression, a melody, a whole song - whatever you like! Something simple, something complex. As long as it's in Dorian, you're good!
I love Dorian mode and I've noticed that music like funk and soul tends to be in Dorian mode very often.
Compare the chords in Em to the Chords in E dorian:
Minor: Em F#° G Am Bm C D
Dorian: Em F#m G A Bm C#° D
You've got Em, G, Bm, and D in common
Except in Em, D is D7 (dom) and in E Dorian, A is A7 (dom)
The most simple Dorian chord progression (an excellent starting point) is a i IV progression:
Em A7, for example
If you want to get fancier, you can do the "Dorian reveal" progression:
Em G D A7 (Mad World Verse does this progression i III VIII IV but in the key of F#m)
This progression is nice because it lets Em really feel like home, then ends with the A7.
Sometimes people call Dorian Mode "Hopeful" because of that major IV chord. I like to think of it as Hopeful Minor or Cool Minor because to me, Dorian is like Natural Minor but more interesting.
If you want to mix and match Natural Minor and Dorian mode, that is OK for this challenge! But do not mix it with Harmonic or Melodic Minor. (Thats ok in general, but don't do it for this challenge)
Open E Bassline
For this challenge, you're going to start by playing a consistent beat with your picking-hand's thumb on the low E string. Then, while you're doing that, try playing an E minor or major pentatonic scale, or part of one.
If you've never tried this before, it can be difficult, but once you get a hold of the concept it can be quite fun. If it's really difficult, first plan the scale or scale fragment to play, practice it a bit without the bassline, then try to incorporate the bassline. This one is a little more challenging than usual, but give it a shot!
Those of you who feel like you're getting the hang of it, try writing a little melody instead of playing a scale.
For those of you feeling really adventurous, try making a melody using on and off beats.
Write Two Different Parts of a Song Using The Same Chord Progression
This week's community challenge is simple:
Write two different parts of a song using the same chord progression
It doesn't need to be a full song! Just two sections of something. This is just practice!
Here are a few ways to approach it:
1. Guitar only
Write a progression with a simple strumming pattern, then try a different strumming pattern for the next section OR use different voicings up the neck like in CAGED Basics
2. Guitar and voice
Write a chord progression to use for both parts of the song, but write a unique melody for each section
3. Recording software
You could do all of the above, but with bass, drums, keys, etc. Have one simple section and one filled-out section.
Write something using 7th chords
This weeks challenge: Write something using 7th chords
This could be:
• A simple chord progression
• A simple chord progression, but played as arpeggios
• A combination of riffs and chords, as long as you use at least one 7th chord
• A whole or partial song using partly or mostly 7th chords! Bonus if you include the 7th of a chord in the melody
• Basically write whatever you want this week as long as it has some 7th chords
I want to keep it simple this week. If you haven't had a chance to participate, this is a great community challenge to start with.
Write A Riff For Your Song
This week will be fun but still a challenge. Your goal is to write a riff for at least a section of your creation.This could be interpreted as loosely as you like.
Here are a few ways to look at it:
1. Write an intro riff, then play a chord progression during a melody. If you don't feel comfortable singing OR you haven't delved into recording software, you could just write a riff followed by a chord progression in the same key.
2. Write a simple riff as a turn around/ending section of a chord progression. This could be as simple as Am Am Dm riff.
3. If you want to be more adventurous, you could write a chord progression with a melody over the top, then write a riff to replace the chords.
But what is a riff?
A riff is an incredibly vague term, which is great! It means this challenge might be based on your interpretation. Often the word "riff" is accompanied by another word to clarify it. For example, above I talked about an intro riff, a turn-around riff, a verse riff.
For an intro riff, your role is to take over the spotlight. That could be playing the melody the vocalist will be singing later in the song (maybe the chorus melody or part of it, for example)
For a turn around riff, your role is to (usually) turn attention away from the singer for a second or sort of let your audience know "we're going to repeat this section now" or "we're moving on to something new now."
For a verse riff, this could be thought of as a rhythmic figure that you play for each chord, kind of like a bass line. Specifically, you could write a bass line, but for guitar to play instead of chords! For example. You could play R 5 R 3 for each chord instead of actually strumming the chord and you'd be playing a riff instead of a rhythm part. If you're sticking to a set pattern per chord, I tend to think of that as a vamp, which is just a more specific term under the umbrella of "riff." But not everyone uses the word that specifically so watch out.
Mixolydian
This week's Community Challenge is to write something in Mixolydian. That's it! You can either stick to exclusively mixolydian the entire time, or you can write in a Major Key (or even minor if you wanna get fancy) and use Mixolydian substitutions.
I, ii, V and vi Progression
A few weeks ago I issued the first community challenge where I asked Patrons on the community forum to write a chord progression using only the I, ii, V and vi chords. Those of you who participated wrote some AMAZING, fun, and beautiful music.