So what composition challenge do you want next?

Antique_Guitars

So far I have listened to some of your suggestions in previous threads and also made stuff up randomly but the challenge has been quiet recently so we need some cool suggestions.

Fretwired

It is the summer .. people are outdoors, on holiday and so forth. I know that's been my excuse.

Maybe some more open tasks to get people involved - for example a track in the style of one of your favourite artists .. jazzers can jazz, shreeders shred, rockers rock and indie loves make a strange noise ...

Folk is not really my thing and I've struggled to think of anything thus far .. will get something in though.

Lev

I agree that a more open task would work better. I know where you are coming from with the 'out of the comfort zone' tasks but the more challenging the task the more time it takes to come up with ideas and refine them. I really enjoyed the 80's challenge and the psychedelic blues because they were a bit more mainstream while still within definite style boundaries.

TTony

How about a completely free-form, whatever style you like, theme?

That might make it difficult to "judge" against any form of yardstick or reference though?

hobbio

How about just a one word prompt?

We would then be free to interpret it as we see fit.

steamabacus

I've not found the challenges restrictive - but then again, I've never really 'got' genres so always take them with a pinch of salt. Maybe I'm just getting old but one of the things I've noticed change in music is the over-proliferation of genres within genres within genres ...... I really don't know what to call anything anymore. I just take any mention of a genre to be an aiming point for some kind of style - if I then go off on a tangent, then so be it. Maybe genres can be taken a bit too literally? 'Folk' music is incredibly diverse, even without crossing into 'world' music (which is folk music too, surely?).

Some time back, there was some call for more 'musically defined' challenges (we had the 'three chord challenge') - after that, calls for more open ended. YCPAOTPAOTT.

I think the challenges chosen have been great. Some have been easy to get into, some have been tricky. Right at the beginning, I made a commitment to myself to enter these challenges in order to give myself a bit of a kick up the arse. I'm committed to entering every challenge and, so far, I've just about managed that. Once it was by the skin of my teeth with a few minutes to spare (with a quickly-edited version of a piece I had already recorded). This time, I got my dates confused and had it pretty much finished with a month to spare allowing plenty of time to review it and polish it a bit (which was nice. Note to self - begin early more often!).

I think the real benefit in doing these is in the name - the 'challenge'. But don't get too hung up on styles, genres, whether it's 'good enough', etc. Do what you do and make some music. And if you're a dyed-in-the-wool blueser, who's to say 'Bring on the funky folk' couldn't be a 12 bar shuffle? Just try and stretch yourself a little inspired by the remit of the challenge.

Personally, I'm up for whatever challenge is given. I expect it'll end up sounding like me (with whatever flaws or talents I might have) in the end.

Fretwired

steamabacus said:

And if you're a dyed-in-the-wool blueser, who's to say 'Bring on the funky folk' couldn't be a 12 bar shuffle? Just try and stretch yourself a little inspired by the remit of the challenge.

I agree. Maybe we're part of the problem. I've had a couple of instances of comments along the lines of "cool song but it didn't fit the brief so nil points" ... I'm pretty sure I made a similar comment to you @steamabacus ..

I also wonder whether having multiple riff of the month and solo of the month competitions takes people away from this challenge.

steamabacus

Fretwired said:

steamabacus said:

And if you're a dyed-in-the-wool blueser, who's to say 'Bring on the funky folk' couldn't be a 12 bar shuffle? Just try and stretch yourself a little inspired by the remit of the challenge.

I agree. Maybe we're part of the problem. I've had a couple of instances of comments along the lines of "cool song but it didn't fit the brief so nil points" ... I'm pretty sure I made a similar comment to you @steamabacus ..

I also wonder whether having multiple riff of the month and solo of the month competitions takes people away from this challenge.

I do think trying to fulfil the remit is important - there needs to be some focus to the challenge.

At the same time, personally I've found the general perception of 'genre' expressed in these challenges (and I don't want to single out @Fretwired or anyone else here) to be quite conservative compared to how I approach music. I've always been a little left field in my approach - I gigged before I could really play (literally within weeks of picking up a guitar), I never really learned any covers, I can't do most guitar techniques (I never really learned to bend strings!) - so my chances of playing anything properly are nil.

But that's just me. Someone else may have studied various styles of blues, know all the various 'dialects' and traditions within that genre but not a lot else. That is just as valid a place to create something original from. Some people are more 'songwriters' than 'players'. We're all different. It's all good.

steamabacus

[double post]

Fretwired

@steamabacus ... I'm offended .. :-) .. I'm not conservative at all .. my musical tastes are left-field, in fact my last effort was conservative for me but not many people seemed to like it (not enough musical content) ... ;-)

steamabacus

Should've played some blues.

Chuffola

I like the challenges but just haven't come up with anything for the latest one due to a lack of creative spark on this occasion and it being the holiday period / school exams (with teenage boys) / family hols etc.

I think we've been fairly loose in our interpretation of the various challenges and that has allowed some great creative stuff to shine through.

But, it might be nice to have the occasional "open" one. I quite like the one word idea, as long as that word is eighteen-minute-progressive-rock-epic.

steamabacus

How about something from Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies ?

Web version of original deck here.

TTony

Fretwired said:

I also wonder whether having multiple riff of the month and solo of the month competitions takes people away from this challenge.

Not for me.

The other challenges, I can generally find an hour or so to get an entry together and submitted.  It's not planned, it's a Sat/Sun PM when I suddenly find that there's nothing else I *need* to get done.

For the main challenge, that's a major effort for me, and an effort that I can't always be certain that I'll have the sustained time for it.  If I'm not reasonably sure that I can get something finished, I'll not bother starting.  Taking the other challenges away wouldn't really change whether or not I try to enter the main challenge.

steamabacus said:

I do think trying to fulfil the remit is important - there needs to be some focus to the challenge.

I agree. 

Otherwise it's just a "submit something, anything, whatever you like" challenge.  

That's challenge enough for me most months, but I still think that some common theme makes it a more focused challenge, makes you (usually) create something specifically for the challenge rather than dusting off something that you'd half done years ago.

Although, if people are more pressed at this time of year, perhaps a relaxation of the theme-approach for the summer challenge might allow more people to submit something.

kin

Nothing wrong with the challenges as they are imo, 

I know that I was guilty of coming up with something and then spending far too much time worrying how I was going to fit it into the brief, consequently I never got around to doing anything.

Instead, I should have just recorded something because I liked it and enjoyed doing it.

Roland

How about a challenge targeted at a specific purpose, such as an advertisement for cars or shampoo or breakfast cereal?

Roland

Or a phone ring tone

Antique_Guitars

Great suggestions everyone keep em coming

Fretwired

Roland said:

How about a challenge targeted at a specific purpose, such as an advertisement for cars or shampoo or breakfast cereal?

I quite like this idea if there was some film .. gives everyone a reference point. I liked the film music task where you had to add a piece of music to a zombie chase scene; I recall it was popular. The cool thing with this is there was a reference point (the film) but people were free to record whatever genre of music they thought would work. It was hard to pick a winner which is the sign of a good task.

mellowsun

I like the idea of adding music to a short video. Or even a photographic still.

But I think an open composition challenge of 'any instrumental piece you like, under 3 minutes' is ideal, for me at least.

One other thing, I think it would be cool for those of us who are regular participants in the Riffs challenges to meet up for a jam sometime and show each other how to play our riffs.

EricTheWeary

I don't enter as I would win every time and I want it to be fair for everybody. But the zombie film one was ace and something like that again for a car ad or a kitten video or the end credits of a film where it's fairly open is good.