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.