Six Compositional Challenges

[wub]

http://rachmiel.org/blog/?p=244

I’m a great believer in growth by challenge: taking on tasks that force you to reach beyond your personal comfort zones and clichés. With that in mind I give you the following six compositional challenges. Take them seriously and I guarantee they will nudge (perhaps even kick) you forward in your personal musical evolution.

1. Create a piece of free groove. A piece with great rhythmic vitality and interest, but whose rhythms do not adhere to a meter or BPM grid. Think: extraterrestrial IDM.
2. Create a piece for your own solo voice. Song, narration, mouth percussion, whatever. But no effects, no overdubbing, no accompaniment; just you, in all your vocal glory.
3. Create a piece with (at least) 50% silence. Regard the silence as a presence rather than an absence. Strive to make the piece breathe … rather than choke and gasp.
4. Create a piece that uses only sounds the likes of which you have never heard before.
5. Create a piece in your least favorite genre. Can’t stand hardcore? Write a piece of death metal. No fair trashing or satirizing; the goal is to compose something competent in a genre you despise.
6. Create a piece that no one (except you) will ever hear. Observe carefully how your composition process and results differ from pieces you write for an audience.

If you’re into it, please share your results (except, of course, for the last challenge). I’d love to hear what you come up with.

[Mad_EP]

great challenges!!!

[wub]

The silence one is particularly interesting...so many producers I hear tracks from seem to be scared of silencce. Like it's a case of OH MY SWEET JESUS I've got a bit that's got nothing in it best chuck in some pads/ambience etc.

[Marzz]

How do you make a track without a bpm so to speak?

[wub]

How do you make a track without a bpm so to speak?

Making a track without adhering to a BPM grid...like turning grid off and free placing your sounds, letting the vibe dictate the placement and your own feelingd dictate the development/progression of the track.

You hear a track played in a club/on the radio and you KNOW when certain bits are going to happen. Like you know when the bassline in the house track is going to kick in because you feel that's where it should happen as you have experience of listening to tunes, or you know when pop singer is going to do their key change because...just because.

With those songs chances are you're listening to them and not counting the BPM. So if you can listen without counting BPM and still know when things are going to happen, so use the same intuition when producing and see what happens.

[didi]

sounds gd. Post results in this thread?

[hasezwei]

only voice with no overdubbing and fx?

hell naw

but the rest sounds pretty interesting.

[Brothulhu]

I think I'll try this except number 5. I don't want to make house

[Marzz]

I think I'll try this except number 5. I don't want to make house

Me too. I will not be making Gabba (who knows though)

will make some country. just the instrumental though. Hate the singing part

ill be killing two birds with one stone because im keeping the track all to myself

[Marzz]

only voice with no overdubbing and fx?

hell naw

but the rest sounds pretty interesting.

Am I the only on who is gonna do that challenge? haha

[Mad_EP]

I'll post some results... if i am allowed to post tracks that already fit the criteria (I don't have time to do ALL from scratch... but the ones I haven't tried yet, I will do).

[accordionfan]

damn who else gonna make some trance after readin this

[Fbac]

Nice find, rachmiel is a legend (assuming its the same guy from computer music ofc)

I dont know what my least fav. genre is tho... happy hardcore or breakcore or maybe J-pop... dunno lol.

The vocal one sounds interesting, could leave you with some cool samples to use later on in your production. Nice post wub!

[Shum]

"Create a piece for your own solo voice. Song, narration, mouth percussion, whatever. But no effects, no overdubbing, no accompaniment; just you, in all your vocal glory."

My brother and my sister don't speak to me.

But I don't blame them.

But I don't blame them.



1. and 4. are excellent exercises.

[Genevieve]

I think Ill try 6. :0 I'm thinking that maybe I'm letting technicality keep me from progressing much. (Not saying that it kills creativity, but I'm trying to make shit waaay too clean and perfect)

[Italus]

Wow, this is a really awesome idea!

[niallr]

I actually did something similar to number 5 very recently.

To challenge myself, I decided to shuffle my iTunes library (which contains tunes I've listened to since I was about 10), take the genre of the first tune and make a track with the same genre. It ended up being a DJ Manian track with no name (well done, past me!) - I was doing Eurobeat. I gave myself a timeframe of a week to do it - i've been very busy with personal lifestyle changes and getting ready to move.

Soundcloud

I did quite a lot of research for it as I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Info about Eurobeat production specifically was difficult to find, so I looked at production websites for other "cheesy" dance music genres and went from there. A lot of what I did was trial and error - There is a lot of layers going in and out in Eurobeat, and a lot of repetition.

The driving force of Eurobeat is the big synth leads with catchy melodies, so I was there for a while jamming on my keyboard trying to get some cool melodies going. This was very fun and a good learning experience for me, as the type of tracks I usually listen to and produce have quite linear melodies, or no clear synth lead at all.

Overall, it was a really fun and eye-opening experience, and I really do suggest you all do something similar!

[wub]

Good to see such a positive response on this...I'll be getting on it myself this work.

My least favourite genre is happy hardcore / hardstyle

[accordionfan]

i'd love to hear if someone does the first one, or any of them rly. if i do any ill post em (except for the one for myself!!!)

[thelmbrjck]

http://rachmiel.org/blog/?p=244

I’m a great believer in growth by challenge: taking on tasks that force you to reach beyond your personal comfort zones and clichés. With that in mind I give you the following six compositional challenges. Take them seriously and I guarantee they will nudge (perhaps even kick) you forward in your personal musical evolution.

1. Create a piece of free groove. A piece with great rhythmic vitality and interest, but whose rhythms do not adhere to a meter or BPM grid. Think: extraterrestrial IDM.
2. Create a piece for your own solo voice. Song, narration, mouth percussion, whatever. But no effects, no overdubbing, no accompaniment; just you, in all your vocal glory.
3. Create a piece with (at least) 50% silence. Regard the silence as a presence rather than an absence. Strive to make the piece breathe … rather than choke and gasp.
4. Create a piece that uses only sounds the likes of which you have never heard before.
5. Create a piece in your least favorite genre. Can’t stand hardcore? Write a piece of death metal. No fair trashing or satirizing; the goal is to compose something competent in a genre you despise.
6. Create a piece that no one (except you) will ever hear. Observe carefully how your composition process and results differ from pieces you write for an audience.

If you’re into it, please share your results (except, of course, for the last challenge). I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Considering I've hit a brick wall recently with composing tunes, I'm going to take on all 6 of these challenges in their glory. I'm not particularly looking forward to #2, but hey... I'll come out a better producer. TO BE UPDATED!