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!

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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