Community Challenge 08 | Extreme Dynamics (Patreon)

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Here is a hard link to the stream: https://youtu.be/5q7mX0bHtsA

Hi Everyone,

Also, special welcome to new folks!

This is a new thing I've been trying out around here. Each week I've been giving a Community Challenge. The idea is to write some music based on a weekly writing prompt! You don't need to write a full song and you don't need to do anything fancy. A phone recording will do! The idea is for every skill level and every technology level to be able to participate. You can submit audio, link a video, or even just talk about something you've written in text form. I just want you to write some music based on the idea.

I'll go live this evening at 5:30PM to do my version of this challenge, and you're invited to submit your writing to the community forum.

This weeks challenge is to write something with extreme dynamics.

This goal is fairly simple, but important. Dynamics make music feel human, and thats one of the more important things about making music. Also, lets give a definition:

Dynamics are the musical idea of loud and quiet, but that also means that the music might feel intense when it's loud (like strumming harder, singing louder, etc) and the music might feel relaxed or almost cozy (or creepy) if the guitar is strummed or picked very very softly and the singing voice is at nearly a whisper.

You can take the "extreme" part with a grain of salt. I don't need you to yell or shout, but I would like to see some distinct contrast between a loud or intense section and a soft, gentle, quiet section. You could also have a middle dynamic section if you choose. Just write something with dynamic contrast.

This week you could:

1. Write a melody with a combination of very soft and very intense parts

2. Write a chord progression or two with soft gentle sections and loud sections

3. Write a whole song with perhaps a very soft, quiet prechorus and an explosive intense chorus. Or something like that.

Whatever you do, keep it fun and focus on intensity. No need to go overboard or reach too far outside your comfort zone. Just write something with a combination of soft parts and intense/loud parts.

Some other things to consider and terms to learn:

Crescendo (/krəˈSHenˌdō/) : increase the volume and intensity of a section over a period of time.

Decrescendo : decrease in volume and intensity over a set period of time.

In proper sheet music, there are markings for dynamics like pp, ff or mp. Read more about it here. 

I look forward to hearing your submissions and I'll see you at 5:30PM EST if you'd like to join in on my writing session.