The Writing Challenge

Here is my challenge for you EKTers:

Write an entire song from start to finish without opening your DAW or turning on your hardware.

• You must plot out the whole song from beginning to end.
  
• The prewritten form can take whatever form you like.
  
• You don't have to actually write each part if you don't want to. You can use descriptive words for instruments, parts, sections, and/or transitions and just go from there if you want.
  
• No, you don't have to stick strictly to what you've written out once you start producing it, but it should be close.
  
• Do whatever, just stick to the idea of preconception. Have a feel for what the song will be like and how it will develop and where it will go.
  
• Post it here when you're done, including the outline if possible.
  

oki thats a nice idea, but how do I try out the chords n stuff, if I can't turn on hardware or daw ? Or is that not a part of the preconcept?

  On 4/18/2011 at 10:25 AM, schlucharski said:

oki thats a nice idea, but how do I try out the chords n stuff, if I can't turn on hardware or daw ? Or is that not a part of the preconcept?

The way I'm thinking of it is like a skeleton of gists and ideas. The way I do it is just with words or approximate melodies in my head. Don't feel like you have to write out "D Fm Bm Em A" or whatever. Try to think of it as the simplest way you could describe a song. Just the general stuff. Particulars come later.

ok I m on it (unfortunatly I m at work :(() as soon as I get home... :)

Sometimes I'll try writing stuff out as sheet music before I actually make it. Like this one from last year...

http://soundcloud.com/cryptowen/12-getting-away

I'll try to make a new one so I can do this thread more proper.

awesome idea I will try later

It would be weird if we exchange these concepts and see how the songs turn out in the end. reminds me a bit of the concept of this guy: http://songstowearpantsto.com/

  On 4/18/2011 at 12:40 PM, o00o said:

It would be weird if we exchange these concepts and see how the songs turn out in the end.

That sounds awesome!

quiet bit, loud bit.

  On 4/18/2011 at 7:30 PM, BCM said:

quiet bit, loud bit.

Writing a Pixies song?

damn straight

  On 4/18/2011 at 10:14 AM, wahrk said:

Here is my challenge for you EKTers:

 

Write an entire song from start to finish without opening your DAW or turning on your hardware.

 

• You must plot out the whole song from beginning to end.
  
• The prewritten form can take whatever form you like.
  
• You don't have to actually write each part if you don't want to. You can use descriptive words for instruments, parts, sections, and/or transitions and just go from there if you want.
  
• No, you don't have to stick strictly to what you've written out once you start producing it, but it should be close.
  
• Do whatever, just stick to the idea of preconception. Have a feel for what the song will be like and how it will develop and where it will go.
  
• Post it here when you're done, including the outline if possible.
  

pen and paper wtf?

I actually tried this the other day. Didn't turn out as bad as I expected

I used to do something kind of like this with Reason when bored at work years ago. I didn't have any speakers or headphones I could use at the time, so I'd make a track without any audio just picking random patches and samples as I went, then I'd listen to them in the car on the way home.

  On 4/19/2011 at 4:36 PM, soundwave said:

  On 4/18/2011 at 10:14 AM, wahrk said:

Here is my challenge for you EKTers:

 

Write an entire song from start to finish without opening your DAW or turning on your hardware.

 

• You must plot out the whole song from beginning to end.
  
• The prewritten form can take whatever form you like.
  
• You don't have to actually write each part if you don't want to. You can use descriptive words for instruments, parts, sections, and/or transitions and just go from there if you want.
  
• No, you don't have to stick strictly to what you've written out once you start producing it, but it should be close.
  
• Do whatever, just stick to the idea of preconception. Have a feel for what the song will be like and how it will develop and where it will go.
  
• Post it here when you're done, including the outline if possible.
  

 

pen and paper wtf?

Nowhere were pen and paper mentioned.

  On 4/19/2011 at 9:04 PM, wahrk said:

  On 4/19/2011 at 4:36 PM, soundwave said:

  On 4/18/2011 at 10:14 AM, wahrk said:

Here is my challenge for you EKTers:

 

Write an entire song from start to finish without opening your DAW or turning on your hardware.

 

• You must plot out the whole song from beginning to end.
  
• The prewritten form can take whatever form you like.
  
• You don't have to actually write each part if you don't want to. You can use descriptive words for instruments, parts, sections, and/or transitions and just go from there if you want.
  
• No, you don't have to stick strictly to what you've written out once you start producing it, but it should be close.
  
• Do whatever, just stick to the idea of preconception. Have a feel for what the song will be like and how it will develop and where it will go.
  
• Post it here when you're done, including the outline if possible.
  

 

pen and paper wtf?

Nowhere were pen and paper mentioned.

chalkboard?

  On 4/20/2011 at 1:31 AM, soundwave said:

  On 4/19/2011 at 9:04 PM, wahrk said:

  On 4/19/2011 at 4:36 PM, soundwave said:

  On 4/18/2011 at 10:14 AM, wahrk said:

Here is my challenge for you EKTers:

 

Write an entire song from start to finish without opening your DAW or turning on your hardware.

 

• You must plot out the whole song from beginning to end.
  
• The prewritten form can take whatever form you like.
  
• You don't have to actually write each part if you don't want to. You can use descriptive words for instruments, parts, sections, and/or transitions and just go from there if you want.
  
• No, you don't have to stick strictly to what you've written out once you start producing it, but it should be close.
  
• Do whatever, just stick to the idea of preconception. Have a feel for what the song will be like and how it will develop and where it will go.
  
• Post it here when you're done, including the outline if possible.
  

 

pen and paper wtf?

Nowhere were pen and paper mentioned.

 

chalkboard?

Whatever you want, however you want to do it.

am i aloud to hum rough tune ideas into a portable tape recorder? That's how i usually come up with stuff in the first place, but in my mind.

  On 4/20/2011 at 1:51 AM, Bubba69 said:

am i aloud to hum rough tune ideas into a portable tape recorder? That's how i usually come up with stuff in the first place, but in my mind.

Sure.

I had a very simple musical concept:

1. detuned sine pad, something like that, stringy, voicey, whatever

2. tr808

3. disturbance

4. ?????

5. concrete string thing (composed like fucking Bach)

6. profit

The visual concept for that was much more crucial, but talking about that would be gay, as the result is...

http://soundcloud.com/conformism/afternoon

  On 4/21/2011 at 12:53 AM, schlucharski said:

I had a very simple musical concept:

 

http://soundcloud.com/conformism/afternoon

I actually quite liked it.

Here's my attempt. The intro synthline was written on a piece of paper at work, the rest of it was composed in my head, with some minor tweaks. Not as shite as I expected, actually.

http://soundcloud.com/metaphysical-endeavour/garbage

  On 4/21/2011 at 7:52 AM, Sprigg said:

 

 

Here's my attempt. The intro synthline was written on a piece of paper at work, the rest of it was composed in my head, with some minor tweaks. Not as shite as I expected, actually.

http://soundcloud.com/metaphysical-endeavour/garbage

I dig it, nice pad

So, uh, I'm probably going to be working an overnight shift soon with a fair bit of downtime. I plan on writing a bunch of sheet music during those times (not in traditional form, but on graph paper, because that's more techno). I can hear notes pretty well in my head so I hope the results are satisfactory, maybe even a bit more tuneful with thought focused on chord progressions instead of weird beepy boops.

Also http://soundcloud.com/cryptowen/guitar-song is a track I wrote a while back with just my head.

So you're suggesting starting with the arrangement, away from the computer? That's not actually a bad idea. Another thing I sometimes do on holiday is listen to music and sketch out the rough arrangement or stepsheet or whatever it's called. I find it useful to deconstruct music and work out what it's made up of. If only albums came with the original multitracks as standard...

that's fantastic Zoe!

I used to draw piano roll when I was bored in class in high school. Not too hard really. This is a great idea! i'll be contributing. :)

I forgot about this thread!

I have been wanting to do this lately, as I think it's a really inspiring way to come up with ideas. Maybe I'll use it for my Mutant Breaks track.

Keep 'em comin' guys! <3