Project 80Bars

I just made a track for Project 1906, and I felt an itching for another collaborative watmm project, so I'm proposing my own.

This one is basically like Project 1906, except the goal is to produce a non-noise piece of music. The goal is to make something with melody and harmony and rhythm.

In order to accomplish this, I've created a skeleton of a track. It's just a chord progression pretty much.

A pdf of the chord progression can be found here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2773099/80Bars/watmmcp1.pdf

A midi file can be found here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2773099/80Bars/watmmcp1.mid

An mp3 can be found here:

There are 80 bars, the meter is 4/4, and the tempo is 110 bpm. The resulting track is about 2:54 long, but I imagine that it might end up being a bit longer to account for a decay/reverb tail at the end.

Anyone who wants to participate should create ONE PART of a finished song. For instance, you might choose to make the bassline, you might choose to make the drums, you might choose to make the melody, or you might just choose to make sound sound effects or filter sweeps. Then everyone sends their tracks to me, and I'll mix them into a polished piece of beautiful music.

The point of the chord progression is to unite the parts into a whole. However, you are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to incorporate non-tonal notes.

I'd also like to emphasize that YOU CAN HAVE SILENCE for some/part/most of your track. That way not every instrument will be playing at once. Feel free to make a part that only plays a bit in the middle, or something like that.

It's probably best it you avoid using compression and reverb and stuff, as I can add that while I'm mixing. Although if you're just making a reverby texture to go in the background, obviously you can use reverb, or if you're making a crazy Clark-like drum line, you can obviously use compression. Use whatever you want for effects, but don't worry about mastering.

So that's the idea. Hopefully people are interested. If you're interested, sign up in this thread, and maybe indicate what part you'd like to make. That way we can avoid having 4 basslines. I'll wait and see if anyone's interested before deciding what part I'd like to make.

I forgot some important stuff:

Deadline: I'm not really sure when the deadline should be. Since it's just one part of a track, not a whole track, we don't need that much time for it. Let's say September 1st as a tentative deadline?

Another important reminder: If you are reading the pdf file, PLEASE REMEMBER THE KEY SIGNATURE! THERE ARE THREE SHARPS THERE. IF YOU FORGET ABOUT THEM, THE MUSIC WILL SOUNDS WEIRD! You are free to use non-tonal notes, but please do so intentionally.

no offense but in my opinion on first glance your chord progression "melody" is pretty random sounding and quite ungroovy, even taking into account it could have really amazing drums to make up for it. Maybe I'm wrong but we will see.

Think of it as a challenge! But then I don't think this is going to turn out too great..i think 80 bars 2 bars at a time would be better. Yeah it'll be disjointed and fucking weird but it'll be interesting yeah?

you need to specify a key/s to work in if we're having chords and melody...

  On 8/16/2010 at 8:51 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

no offense but in my opinion on first glance your chord progression "melody" is pretty random sounding and quite ungroovy, even taking into account it could have really amazing drums to make up for it. Maybe I'm wrong but we will see.

Maybe you're right, but maybe not. I've had success with similar chord progressions. Try to think of it in terms of 8 bar phrases.

  On 8/16/2010 at 9:28 AM, Al5x said:

Think of it as a challenge! But then I don't think this is going to turn out too great..i think 80 bars 2 bars at a time would be better. Yeah it'll be disjointed and fucking weird but it'll be interesting yeah?

That's the spirit!

  On 8/16/2010 at 10:42 AM, BCM said:

you need to specify a key/s to work in if we're having chords and melody...

The first 32 bars are in E major. The next 32 bars are in a minor. The last 16 bars are in E major again. I know that isn't obvious on first glance of the chord progression, but trust me those are the root keys.

cool, sorry if you already made that clear - posting from my iPhone and didn't see the PDF link...

without hopefully just sounding like a complete asshole, your chord progression is terrible.

I'll definitely give it a shot, this is the kind of odd chord progression I end up working with quite a bit... might just do some sparse rhythmic sound-effecty type things

  On 8/16/2010 at 5:59 PM, BCM said:

cool, sorry if you already made that clear - posting from my iPhone and didn't see the PDF link...

It's cool. Hope you can participate with some of your insane skills.

  On 8/16/2010 at 6:27 PM, messiaen said:

without hopefully just sounding like a complete asshole, your chord progression is terrible.

It sounds terrible as just a series of chords, but it is more than possible to make good music following chords like those. I've done it before. It's just a matter of emphasizing the phrasing. Think of it in 8 bar phrases throughout the whole thing.

  On 8/16/2010 at 6:34 PM, Sprigg said:

I'll definitely give it a shot, this is the kind of odd chord progression I end up working with quite a bit... might just do some sparse rhythmic sound-effecty type things

Cool. I hope others are interested as well.

  On 8/16/2010 at 7:15 PM, Root5 said:

  On 8/16/2010 at 5:59 PM, BCM said:

cool, sorry if you already made that clear - posting from my iPhone and didn't see the PDF link...

It's cool. Hope you can participate with some of your insane skills.

lol sarcasm? yeah, i'm up for this!

  On 8/16/2010 at 8:18 PM, BCM said:

  On 8/16/2010 at 7:15 PM, Root5 said:

  On 8/16/2010 at 5:59 PM, BCM said:

cool, sorry if you already made that clear - posting from my iPhone and didn't see the PDF link...

It's cool. Hope you can participate with some of your insane skills.

 

lol sarcasm? yeah, i'm up for this!

Not at all. I remember your acid track for the ribstep radio set. It was great.

nice one :)

  On 8/16/2010 at 6:27 PM, messiaen said:

without hopefully just sounding like a complete asshole, your chord progression is terrible.

lol I would have said the same but I was trying to go for the 2 3rds asshole 1 3rd constructive critic

Not to wash an Indonesian Tsunami over your parade, but I think it'd be a much easier and better idea to just let everybody do a whole track using your midi file and see what all the results sound like.

  On 8/17/2010 at 3:06 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

  On 8/16/2010 at 6:27 PM, messiaen said:

without hopefully just sounding like a complete asshole, your chord progression is terrible.

 

lol I would have said the same but I was trying to go for the 2 3rds asshole 1 3rd constructive critic

What's it like to look at a chord progression and think to yourself "no, I can't make something good out of this"? C'mon, rise to the challenge.

  On 8/17/2010 at 1:46 PM, Rbrmyofr said:

Not to wash an Indonesian Tsunami over your parade, but I think it'd be a much easier and better idea to just let everybody do a whole track using your midi file and see what all the results sound like.

Naw, I want this to be a collaborative project.

your chord progression isn't fun.

  On 8/17/2010 at 7:01 PM, chimera slot mom said:

your chord progression isn't fun.

Do you think I'd get more participation if I came up with something different?

  On 8/17/2010 at 7:21 PM, Root5 said:

  On 8/17/2010 at 7:01 PM, chimera slot mom said:

your chord progression isn't fun.

 

Do you think I'd get more participation if I came up with something different?

couldn't hurt dewd... lol I cant imagine it being much worse without being completely out of sync and without any sort of key signature melodic law.

  On 8/17/2010 at 11:02 PM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

  On 8/17/2010 at 7:21 PM, Root5 said:

  On 8/17/2010 at 7:01 PM, chimera slot mom said:

your chord progression isn't fun.

 

Do you think I'd get more participation if I came up with something different?

 

couldn't hurt dewd... lol I cant imagine it being much worse without being completely out of sync and without any sort of key signature melodic law.

If that's what you're after maybe we should do a watmm version of pachelbel's canon.

  On 8/17/2010 at 11:28 PM, Root5 said:

 

If that's what you're after maybe we should do a watmm version of pachelbel's canon.

dotted half = 3 quarters

dotted quarter = 3 eighths

Thus, those measures are 17 eighth notes long. Just sayin'.

I think it could be better if you make it real simple. Like a classic 12 bar blues progression and let people do some crazy improv melodies and noise to that.

  On 8/24/2010 at 12:31 AM, chimera slot mom said:

I think it could be better if you make it real simple. Like a classic 12 bar blues progression and let people do some crazy improv melodies and noise to that.

Just what I was thinking. I'll be back with a chord progression that has been used in a piece of music before.