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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Write Something Sad

Sometimes writing something sad can make you feel really good! Sometimes writing something sad can make you feel more sad, but in a good way.

How do you write something sad? Sometimes it's about the way you play.

Here is a list of suggestions:
1. Slow tempo
2. Play in a way that is heavy, relaxed
3. Pick a minor key
4. Keep it sparse and simple
5. Melodies with long notes and gentle transitions might work better than staccato or jagged melodies
6. A slow bend up to a note can sound sad sometimes
7. Sliding up or down to a note in your melody can sound tired in a sad way sometimes

This is extremely open ended. You could write a chord progression or a whole song. It could be an instrumental ballad or a single, solitary melody played to some slow acoustic chords. Whatever you do, if your creation feels sad, submit what you've written to the community forum and we'll all have a listen. If you tried to make something sad and you're not sure you've nailed it, submit it anyway! Maybe the community will have some more technical suggestions for how to make it sound sad!

If you're stuck on how to do this, keep in mind that your body language and the way you play will often translate more than what notes you play. So it might help to imagine how it feels to be sad and see how your body feels. Or if you're already feeling sad, pour that into the guitar and see what happens.

Yes, music theory is important, but ultimately music is about expressing yourself. The suggestions above will help, but trying to translate how your body feels when you're sad into playing the guitar can take some practice!

The idea here is to experiment, explore and have fun.

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Write something in a Major Key

Submit your creations to the community forum. These don't have to be perfect songs. They could be a rough sketch you spent five minutes tinkering with, then recorded on your cellphone. It could be something you hum while you strum. You're welcome to go all out with drums, bass, and keys using fancy recording software, but you never have to!

This one is pretty straightforward, but here are some ways to approach it:

Beginner: Write a simple three, four, or five chord progression using only chords from a Major Key. If you need a refresher, check out the first lesson of Music Theory Monday for a reminder on how chords in a key word - then check out lesson 3 on 7th chords if you want to get slightly fancier.

For example:

Triads in the key of D Major: D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim
7th chords in the key of D Major: Dma7 Em7 F#m7 Gmaj7 A7 Bm7 C#half dim

A chord progression in D Major might like like: D D Em A D D Bm G

Intermediate: Write two chord progressions that complement each other using chords from a major key. Something like verse and chorus. If you like, write a melody over the top.

Advanced: Write a whole song or set of sections with melody, bass, rhythm - just make sure you're in a Major Key! Secondary Dominants are allowed and I would accept some modal chord borrowing (like a mixo bVII) or even some sneaky blues stuff.

Please be prepared to explain how and why your creation is in a major key, as well as any other quirks about your creation! Part of the goal here is for you to participate within your current understanding of music theory. Writing CERTAINLY doesn't need to be this way all the time, but these challenges are supposed to help you apply what you're learning, so it's best to set out to write within your ability to explain.

Make sure you're submitting something you've written based on your interpretation of this assignment. The goal is to write something new, not to submit something you've already written.

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Write A Melody On One String

This week's challenge is: Write a melody on one string

This is pretty self explanatory but here are a few approaches:

1. The Easy Way: write a simple melody on one string. This could be completely unaccompanied. Just a nice, simple melody recorded to your phone. It could be freeform without a chord progression, or you could have a specific chord progression in mind while still submitting just a lonely melody.

2. Intermediate: Pick one of my Jam Tracks and write a melody to it. The melody only needs to be somewhere between 4 and 16 measures, certainly not the duration of the whole track. Perform the melody on only one string. You could record this to a cell phone, or use recording software. Whatever is comfortable for you.

3. Advanced: Write your own accompaniment for your one-string melody. You could even try a verse chorus or A section B section type thing. If you write two sections, each section's melody could use a different string. This could be with recording software, a loop pedal, etc.

4. Advanced II: You could write a whole song and have the intro riff be a one-string melody. If this challenge inspires something like that, go for it!

5. Advanced III: I suppose you could write a melody on the high E or B string and surround that melody with chords up and down the neck. If you try this option, keep your melody simple or you'll have a hell of a time trying to grab chords all over the neck. Or keep your chord progression simple and try to write in a key where you can use a lot of open notes.

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Write A - I vi ii V - Chord Progression

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Write Something with a Secondary Dominant

Write something with a secondary dominant in the chord progression

If you need a refresher (or just a first-time-fresher), check out my Music Theory Monday lesson about Dominant Chords. If you're new around here, that lesson might not make a lot of sense without being familiar with Music Theory for Guitar first, and then getting into Music Theory Monday. You can find the ideal order to watch all my lessons here.

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Sliding

This weeks' Community Challenge is simple: write something that involves sliding.

This could be:

1. A simple chord progression with chords that slide from one place to another
2. A full song with a guitar melody that slides around
3. A simple 8 bar sketch of something where some guitar sliding is involved

It's pretty vague. As long as you write a little something with sliding involved, you're doing the community challenge.

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Natural Minor

This week the challenge is simple: write something in Natural Minor

That "something" could be:

1. A chord progression you've crafted using only chords from Natural Minor

2. A nice melody you've written using the Natural Minor scale

3. A whole song with chords, melody, and bass line using only Natural Minor.

You don't need to write a whole song, you don't need to use recording software like in my GarageBand lessons, but you can if you want. A cell phone recording is completely acceptable. The idea is just to write something!

If this was a drawing exercise, a sketch on the back of a napkin would be just as acceptable as a finished work. Just write something!

Natural minor is the most straightforward of the minor keys, as it contains all the same notes as its relative major. Check out episodes 04, 05, and 06 of Music Theory Monday if you'd like a refresher on the difference between Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic Minor.

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