Week 4: Complete // Apr 12th
Welcome to Week 4 of the Composition Challenge! 
Today's show will be the final didactic livestream of the series! Next week, we will reconvene to enjoy each other's music in the final watch party.
Click here to access the show!
In this livestream, I will not only walk you through all the steps of writing a short piece from beginning to end - I will also be composing in front of you, in real time!
Use this thread to submit the pieces you've been working on and any updates about your process.
See you in the stream!
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I too want to start with a huge thank you to you Ashley for this challenge and for helping me achieve something I always wanted to do but never knew how or even where to start!
Thank you too to everyone in the forum for your inspiring compositions, insights and comments.
Although I haven't had much time this week I wanted to share my latest version of Dancing Firecrests - it's by no means finished - I need to make some mods to make it playable, add some dynamics and tidy up the score, but here's what I've done so far. I've totally re-written the A section and made a few tweaks to the B section.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise. Yes it certainly does!
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Ron Really nice singable melody lines and a dancing feel to it. Going to give it a play myself in morning. well done
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Jaime Zaldua Thanks Jamie I know some bits need tweaking to make it fully playable but have fun!
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Ron congrats on the beautiful music you've written these past few weeks! It is such an honor to have been able to teach everyone what I know, although I have a lot to learn myself too. Beautiful work!
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Ashley (Ash) Lucero Thanks so much Ashley, you've really unlocked a new world for me - see you at the watch party later!
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BTW, Just bought a mic to use with my iPhone (for making a video for this challenge) but so far there is no sound when I plug in the mic. Anyone have any experience with this?
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Jack Stewart If you want to unlock more camera features I suggest you to try FiLMiC Pro, it also has the ability to select your sound source.
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Blaise Laflamme Thanks Blaise I'll look into it. I probably won't use it for this recording, though. New software always bogs me down (not very Tech savvy). I am trying determinedly to work my piece up to some sort of coherency - especially the middle section. The A and A' are passable.
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Hello, this is my first composition EVER!!!! So so happy and thankful. Thank you so much Ashley for this, it has a been wonderful course and a wonderful experience witnessing and trying to follow you on your composition process.
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Emma Congratulations for your 1st composition, beautiful lullaby, and for taking time to record it! I don't know for you but there is some satisfaction of something's done when you wrap it up at the end of the process!
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Emma That was beautiful. There are some wonderful subtle aspects such as the gently shifting intro patterns. A very lovely lullaby. I promise never to sing it : )
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Emma Great! I like the mood and swinging rhythm! Thans for recording
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Emma How beautiful, Emma! So gentle and lovely. May I ask who Martina is?
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Emma Great job, Emma. It´s very difficult to start writing music and make such a beautiful, coherent thing. Thank you for sharing.
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Emma Beautiful - 1st composition that's spectacular! I almost heard your guitar sing Goodnight goodnight goodnight at end of each phrase. May i try using it to get my kids to sleep?
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Emma what a wonderful moment for all of us to be able to be part of...hearing your first composition :) it's very thoughtful and beautiful, keep it up and who knows what amazing things you'll come up with next. great job!
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Emma really peaceful music, Emma!
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Emma Great job Emma! Quite lovely and congratulations on your first composition
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Check Wikipedia. The version I grew up with on top of a pizza, credited to Dick Biondi of WLS radio in Chicago, the station locked in on my transistor radio when I was a young teen.
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Hi everyone. This week has been quite challenging for me. I had lots of ideas that somehow didn´t want to work together. Yesterday morning, just before loosing my faith, I watched (and listened to) all your pieces, looking for inspiration. And it was like getting a shower. I felt refreshed and got to work again. I saw then that I had been trying to "reinvent the wheel" in the last week. I took a simple idea and squeezed it hard. This idea appeared in Jacob Wagner´s livestream, when he mentioned the typical 2nd interval in the music of Weiss (idiomatic to the baroque lute, and used also by De Visée, the Gaultiers, etc). So I decided to write a simple-diatonic-predictable piece, exploring the possibilities of that 2nd interval. This is the bacground fo my "Hommage to Weiss"( I was tempted to call it "Hommage to Blaise" for his amazing work). So I´m icredibly thankful to you all for sharing your music, and your comments.
P.S. Some of you commented on my piece last week , and for some reason Imwasn´t able to answer you, so I apologize. Ashley asked if I was inspired by Rodrigo´s "Tiento Antiguo". The fact is that I don´t even know the piece (shame on me), so surely I had some Happy Helpers whispering in my ears. Don´t we all?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1amMLyoQpyhTsj-ORWb3GoIUvrTlSW0L4/view?usp=sharing
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Igor congrats for completing your piece, after a read through it sounds super cool! That's quite a challenge to turn out ideas into something organized, not as easy as it looks, and you did it well
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Igor That was great, Igor! It’s amazing how something as simple as an interval can be developed into an entire piece. Music is so cool!
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Igor The chords of minor and major seconds are beautiful and versatile. They can be flickering like a reflection of light on water, they can also be razor-sharp - I love them! And you use them great here!
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Igor Nice sounds in your piece Igor! I very much relate to the battle of forcing ideas to work together. Well done for not losing your faith!! Will try that 2nd interval thing out.
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Igor I am so glad to hear that you were able to "refresh" your mind. That is the exact reason why we are doing this together: to be inspired by each other through sharing our music and thoughts. Truly, this is great :)
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
