Community Challenge 43 | Write something with improvisation (Patreon)

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Hi Everyone,

If this is your first Community Challenge, let me explain what's going on! These challenges are a reminder and invitation to actually use the theory you've been learning here on my Patreon.

(Nearly) every week, I offer a writing prompt. Sometimes it's a detailed, specific prompt like "write something using Melodic Minor" or "Write something using secondary dominants." Sometimes the prompt is a little more vague like "write something sad" or "write something that involves sliding techniques."

The idea is to give you a low pressure, low bar project to just practice writing music. You're invited to participate in whatever capacity you're comfortable. Wether you write a whole song using your DAW (like GarageBand) or a quick, rough sketch of a chord progression or single-note melody it DOESN'T MATTER. Just have fun and enjoy yourself.

This weeks challenge is 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. 

Check out the Lesson Archive for more Community Challenges - you’re welcome to participate on any past Challenge at any time!

Other helpful links:
Scott's Recommended Lesson Plan
Searchable Lesson Archive
How to Join the Community Forum
Scott's Jam Tracks
SPJ Live YouTube Channel
Scott's Main YouTube Channel