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.

Read More

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!

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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!

Read More

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!

Read More

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?

Read More