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Hi Everyone,

Every other week I post a Community Challenge. These challenges serve as a regular reminder that MAKING music is the single best way to get music theory concepts into your fingers and brain.

Sometimes the challenge is about applying some specific music theory concept. Sometimes it's about a specific technique. Sometimes it's an exercise in limiting yourself to some really specific parameters. Other times it's about writing from a very open ended writing prompt.

This week the challenge is: write something simple

I figured this would be a good place to start for the New Year.

Your personal skill level, comfort zone, and free time are all important considerations when approaching a Community Challenge - I’m not asking anyone to write a full song! I’m asking for whatever you have the time, mental bandwidth, and skill to accomplish in roughly two weeks.

If you end up writing ANYTHING, I consider that a huge success. Write SOMETHING. It could be just a simple chord progression you put together or a riff you came up with using a pentatonic scale. Use the writing prompt to guide you and watch my video if you need more ideas.

POST WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN HERE 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!

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Community Challenge 72 | Write something simple

Comments

Graeme B

Those harmonies are very inspiring, Scott. One day I'll have a try that sort of thing... Perhaps it could be my goal for CC72. Oh boy, my singing voice....

Scott Paul Johnson

It's so fun to write harmonies and practice singing in tune with yourself! Staying in tune is the most important thing to try to do, and if you're learning how, record your first harmony as "in tune" as possible, and use it as your listening reference for each consecutive layer, so you're not referring to each next layer for your intonation.