Composition Challenge #41

stratman3142

INTRO

Time for round #41 of the Fretboard Composition Challenge.

Every few months there'll be a composition challenge. It revolves around individuals or groups of forum members composing and recording music.

No prizes for this challenge. It's just for fun, a spur to creating, sharing, discussing music/recording and learning. Plus a way of testing the water with your creations and getting some feedback.

GUIDELINES - THEME

In an attempt to encourage more entries, there's no theme for this one - so it's freestyle

You can specify your own theme or the genre you're aimimg for.

Compose a tune, or recycle something you've composed previously. So you can treat it as a creative exercise or just vehicle to get you music heard and commented on.

Picture: In addition to the music, try to create your own picture that relates to your selected theme/title. This isn't mandatory.

DATES AND VOTING

The submission deadline is midnight 4th August 2024

Voting will start soon after the submission deadline and run for about two weeks, with each voter selecting their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice.

First choice gets 5 points - Second choice gets 3 points - Third choice gets 1 point

The entry with the most points wins.

The order and scores of the three people with the most votes will be announced soon after the voting ends.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

All recordings and pictures need to be sent via email to Compositions@theFB.co.uk

Songs to be submitted in mp3 format.

Pictures to be in jpg or png format.

ENTRY PLAYLIST

Entries will be posted in a playlist below as they arrive.

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/composition-challenge-41?si=1859d9d667f74e32aea201ea95ed44e8&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Habanero

Sent one in. It was completed during the last round, but I kept it back to be sure of having something for this time.

It's an autobiographical ballad, which I can explain more if anyone's interested at all.

TTony

Habanero said:

It's an autobiographical ballad, which I can explain more if anyone's interested at all.

I'd be interested in the background @Habanero ;

I'm certainly going to subject everyone to an explanation of mine, which is nearing completion!

stratman3142

Habanero said:

Sent one in...

It's in the playlist.

Habanero

@TTony here goes then…

The title/chorus premise dates back to The Cold War, when we had the 4 minute warning which would be our last.

Verse 1 - I met my missus on a package tour of Egypt. None of other tourists know we’ve now been married 23 years.

Verse 2 - the missus since became a psychotherapist, but has had a conflict with her family and hasn’t seen them for 19 years. She’s had cancer recently for the second time in her life, but was saved by her doctor.

Verse 3 - 6 years ago I had a perforated colon, and had sepsis but was saved by my surgeon. I had a freak accident 7 years ago which permanently damaged my left hand. The pandemic saw me start dabbling in song writing and recording.

TTony

^^ That's a song with some meaning!

Mine is somewhat less personal.

It's another of the "Sally songs".  Sally was a girl I knew (though not that well) back in our teenage years.  She wrote a number of lyrics and gave them to me, only one of which I'd ever put to music (played in school//Uni bands) until I re-found her original manuscripted pages a couple of years ago. 

The first two sets of lyrics - see previous challenges - were pretty much as she gave them to me.  This one took a little more re-working to fit the words to some sort of structure and tune, so this is more of a joint effort, albeit 40-odd years apart.

We lost contact not long after we met, so if Sally, from Sandbach, sometime in the late 70s/early80s ever stumbles across this post - hello again.

Sporky

I've submitted mine. It started off as an attempt at a cover of No More Heroes, and rapidly turned into something quite different, and is now the main theme for Castle Despair.

FL Studio with Kontakt 7, NS Kit 7, Helix Native, Boo Bass, and some of the synths built into FLS. I'm quite pleased with the shreddy keyboard solo with the death-metal-inspired triple kick-drum bit.

I'm not sure how to make my next submission more frantic, but I'll give it a good go.

stratman3142

Entries from @TTony and @Sporky have been added to the playlist.

Great to have three entries already.

Sporky

I've started one for the next round. It'll probably take me a while. 

Habanero

TTony said:

^^ That's a song with some meaning!

Mine is somewhat less personal.

It's another of the "Sally songs".  Sally was a girl I knew (though not that well) back in our teenage years.  She wrote a number of lyrics and gave them to me, only one of which I'd ever put to music (played in school//Uni bands) until I re-found her original manuscripted pages a couple of years ago. 

The first two sets of lyrics - see previous challenges - were pretty much as she gave them to me.  This one took a little more re-working to fit the words to some sort of structure and tune, so this is more of a joint effort, albeit 40-odd years apart.

We lost contact not long after we met, so if Sally, from Sandbach, sometime in the late 70s/early80s ever stumbles across this post - hello again.

If only Friends Reunited still existed!

IMC1980

Sent one, it is the latest track I have put under the Sound Of A Gun name.

stratman3142

IMC1980 said:

Sent one...

It's in the playlist.

Petepassion

Couple of things,
I have some instrumentals, just guitar, I’m useless with computers, adding drums, bass etc. but if I put them up here maybe others could take them and work a little magic? A few members adding their own tracks, be it drums, bass, keys, strings, etc. just a thought.
   I also said previously I’d upload some riffs/chord progressions for others to use, sorry, been so busy, maybe I’ll provide a link to a separate thread so as to not detail this one.
   Lastly, as stated, I’m useless at doing this myself, hence why my last couple of entries were just me singing and a strumming, but I’ve written quite a few songs lately and hopefully my band will be recording before the competition deadline so I can enter something a little less lazy

TTony

Might lead to some interesting evolutions of the base guitar track if a few of us each do their thing with it?

Petepassion

I’ll have to set up a soundcloud(is that what it’s called?) account or maybe just upload to YouTube as I have a channel with them. I’ll try and do it tonight 

stratman3142

TTony said:

Might lead to some interesting evolutions of the base guitar track if a few of us each do their thing with it?

@Petepassion ;;

Well I'm up for an attempt at an entry that's a collaboration. Maybe we could share files using Google Drive or something similar. I'll see what I can do to facilitate this happening.

Although, it creates an interesting situation if we all contribute and then can't vote for ourselves
 

TTony

stratman3142 said:

Although, it creates an interesting situation if we all contribute and then can't vote for ourselves
 

In which case, whoever doesn't enter, wins ...

Petepassion

First time I've uploaded to soundcloud, so hopefully this works, couple of tunes, just the bare bones, not fully formed or arranged......
https://soundcloud.com/user-693836761/sayonara?si=0bd4399325144f9092d2533b118f8fd7&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

https://soundcloud.com/user-693836761/schrodingers-cat?si=59c331a445634a2ab72d32b69bd91552&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

So it's just an idea, sloppy timing and playing, bit late and JD was involved in the process.
Most will probably think it's a bit naff, but if anyone would like to to use and develop this then please feel free. Obviously the rhythm would need to go down first, then re-do the guitar and whatever else may follow.
   But to be fair I'm expecting tumbleweeds in the gentle breeze 

And here's a link to a few bits for anyone to use. I will add some more later, I've used some for my own songs but that doesn't matter, it can be quite interesting to see what different people can do with the  same riff. If you like anything here, by all means chop it up and just use what you want...
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/266249/riffs-and-chords?new=1

IMC1980

Petepassion said:

First time I've uploaded to soundcloud, so hopefully this works, couple of tunes, just the bare bones, not fully formed or arranged......
https://soundcloud.com/user-693836761/sayonara?si=0bd4399325144f9092d2533b118f8fd7&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

https://soundcloud.com/user-693836761/schrodingers-cat?si=59c331a445634a2ab72d32b69bd91552&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

So it's just an idea, sloppy timing and playing, bit late and JD was involved in the process.
Most will probably think it's a bit naff, but if anyone would like to to use and develop this then please feel free. Obviously the rhythm would need to go down first, then re-do the guitar and whatever else may follow.
   But to be fair I'm expecting tumbleweeds in the gentle breeze 

And here's a link to a few bits for anyone to use. I will add some more later, I've used some for my own songs but that doesn't matter, it can be quite interesting to see what different people can do with the  same riff. If you like anything here, by all means chop it up and just use what you want...
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/266249/riffs-and-chords?new=1

They are both cool, are they recorded to a click/BPM?

Petepassion

No click, but my thought was if anyone wanted to put rhythm/drums/percussion down then we could use that first then re-do the guitar afterwards…as my timing isn’t the best  .
   Plus, there are far better guitarists on here who could do a better job anyway…my playing is a bit sloppy.

stratman3142

Petepassion said:

No click, but my thought was if anyone wanted to put rhythm/drums/percussion down then we could use that first then re-do the guitar afterwards…as my timing isn’t the best  .
   Plus, there are far better guitarists on here who could do a better job anyway…my playing is a bit sloppy.

 I'm not exactly sure how we make this work. Are we going to exchange tracks and add parts etc? Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.