'13 and On' - New Original Music/30 Minute Songwriting Challenge! Electronic/Synthpop/Instrumental + Walkthrough!
Here’s the result of another
timed challenge; this time I gave myself a half an hour, and wound up with something pretty sweet. I will admit I did a little bit of mixing/volume adjustment/EQing after the time ran out, but the song itself was finished within the allotted limit. I began at 120 BPM, in 13/8, and went from there. There are basically only 3 instruments, our main synth (chords), bass synth, and a guitar lead, along with two drum kits which work together to create the complete sound.
Listen to 13 and On here.
Track 1 provides our chords,
which harmonically aren’t too crazy. We’re in Abminor, sticking mostly to diatonic movements, aside from the 2nd bar of each set of 4, which has a little ascending line cliche which uses a b6, natural 6, to the b7. Rhythmically, things are much more interesting. The whole progression happens over 4 bars, with the 1st divided into 8 beats, then 5 beats, the 2nd begins with 4 beats, then 3 sets of 3 beats, the 3rd 8 and 5 like the 1st, and finally, the 4th bar, 4 beats, 4 beats, 3 beats, and 2, then we repeat. This sounds complicated, but in the screenshot below, you can see where the chords change, in a-chord-ance (lol) with the above rhythms.
Track 1, the main chords.
Listen to 13 and On here.
Track 9, guitar lead.
Track 2 is the bass synth,
which sticks to chord tones, nothing crazy. Tracks 3 and 4 are the drum kits, which again, outline the rhythmic patterns explained above. The next 3 tracks are all audio clips for accents and swells/crescendos. Track 8 is just a single cymbal hit, to accent certain sections, and finally, we have Track 9, pictured above, which uses an electric guitar from Native Instruments to play a little melody line.
Hope you dig the results of this timed challenge! Thanks for listening!
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Hello @grapthar, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!