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.

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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.

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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.

…Continue this post on Patreon.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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

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