Participate in the September 2020 Member Challenge – Original Music!

[lisadmh]

*Disclaimer: I am a beginner songwriter and I have no idea what I’m doing.*

So, here’s the song I’ve been working on for a little while. I started with Wonderful Tonight. I used the chord progressions from that, and “borrowed” some bars here and there, but it manages to have a very different sound. It was an interesting exercise to start with something I like.

I have a handful of songs I’ve written, but this is the first time I’ve followed a form, a simple one, AABA. I started with the high melody of Wonderful Tonight and messed with the rhythms to write the first bit of A, then expanded on it to get to 8 bars using chords from Wonderful Tonight. Then I used the low melody of Wonderful Tonight to create the B melody the same way. Then I messed around until I had variations each version of the A melody. Then I tweaked, tweaked, tweaked, and tried to learn how to play the darned thing.

It has hammer ons, pull offs, slides, a couple staccato, a rasgueado strum, a tag, and plucked harmonics.

I welcome criticism, as I really have no clue what I’m doing other than having a blast. 🙂

Without further ado, here is the world premiere of Inspired Tonight.

[nthibode]

Thanks @Andrew, will do!

[gmflin8]

wow! everyone! I am impressed…..it is so neat that people can write their own songs…and sing too. Impressive.

As a beginner, this month’s challenge is a bit overwhelming. There is not a song choice for the beginner, so I have decided to practice Classical Etude this month. Oh man! my fingers don’t want to cooperate! 🙂 

A question. @Andrew, on bar #8, there is a repeat symbol but I cannot find its pair… or is it a repeat symbol? 

Thanks.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by gmflin8.

[Andrew]

Thanks for pointing that out, Grace. It was a mistake, I fixed it 🙂

[deadbuggy]

Great job, Lisa! I love the title, too!

[effortless]

A while back I started playing a picking pattern that I adapted from a folk guitar song I really like. I turned that into a progression with another picking pattern I came up with and some strumming and I had a lot of fun playing that! When I saw this challenge I thought it might a good chance to share it with everyone so I added some picking at the beginning and end to try to make it more song-like. I hope you guys enjoy it!

[ukandrea]

HiAndrew,

here his my first draft of my first original 😉

I am not happy with the melody of the middle part yet. But perhaps you have already feedback for my chord progression or any other hints, so that I can continue working on it?
My scheme is 2x A B 2x A 8 beats each
I have not written out the notes yet, the chords are:
A Melody:
C E7 F G7
C E7 F G

C E7 F G7
C E7 F G

B Melody:
Dm G Em A7
Dm D7 G G

A Melody:
C E7 F G7
C E7 F G

C E7 F G7
C E7 F G->C

Like suggest by you I started with stealing a chord progression from another song – can anybody guess which one?
Andrea

[lisa-k]

Hi. I’ve attempted to write my own song for this challenge. As a beginner player, I’ve had to keep it simple and as usual, I can play it better when the camera isn’t watching. Here it is!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by lisa-k.

[Andrew]

@lisadmh – That was awesome! I have a suggestion on song structure: So 10-17 is the first little melody and it varies again at 26-34. So that section in-between, I would cut b/c you want this melody to repeat – that’s the trick in making songs catchy, they just repeat. Although, it’s super cool you through in variations the 2nd time around – I really dig that 🙂

@effortless – That was very cool! The intro – the hammer-on part – that’s where I’m hearing the most melody. The middle section is heavy on harmony, so I’d suggest trying out some more ideas on how you can add more melody to it. But overall really cool, kinda gives me John Mayer acoustic-folk vibes 🙂

@ukandrea – Sounds awesome so far! Here’s an idea using movement for the B melody and I subbed in a diff chord ending.

@lisa-k – I really like the A Melody! It’s got some classical inspiration, I dig that! I think you can expand on the B Melody, it’s a little sparse atm, so I’d work on embellishing it. Overall, bravo for your first tune! Well done!

[lisa-k]

@Andrew thank you for the feedback. I’ll try to expand the B melody as you’ve suggested. I thought it was a bit short, but got stuck, so I’ll have another play around. Thanks!

[ukandrea]

Hi Andrew,
thank you so much for your video feedback!
See here my second attempt of my first Original in my first attempt of a YouTube Video 😉
The B Melody is now neither my first draft nor your suggestion, it somehow found its own third way in a slightly different direction combining both ideas.

I like my A Melody now, and the B Melody as well. I tried different ways for coming back from B Melody to A Melody. For my ear it sounds somewhere to simple/boring that the B Melody ends now on a C and A Melody starts on a C again. But I did not find another more interesting solution to link it together.

And I have a question how my cord in the B Melody is called, where I play a G shape on thread 4 and 5. I just tried it out and liked it.

Thank you so much for your feedback,
Andrea

[brettboy]

Hi Uke Stars!

I’m having a great time working on Wouldn’t it be Nice and 3 levels of Walking Bass Line this month 🙂

For me Sept. 2020 challenge entry I will share my original tune “Laundry Day”
I really hope you dig it!

[Andrew]

@ukandrea – I like what you did w/ the B Melody! I think it compliments the A Melody perfectly 🙂 Good job!

The chord your are playing is A Major. Check out our lesson on the CAGED Method to learn how to move chord shapes up the neck in which they become different chords.

@brettboy – Awesome tune, Brett – but to me it sounds like how I’d feel if I someone stole my laundry LOL

[robinboyd]

Here is my original. My wife named it Neptune’s Lullaby. Neptune is our cat (in my profile pic). I’ve never attempted to write anything before, so please go easy on me. I’ve included tabs for easy reference.

I noticed that “Out in the North” and the “Interstellar Theme,” both of which I’ve been playing a lot lately, both revolve around some combination of Am, Em7, and F, so I just started noodling around with those chords and this is what I came up with.

[smokealot]

@robinboyd I think it sounds wonderful and the harmonics very pleasently placed. Kind of was expecting one at the very end. I enjoyed listening to your lullaby.

[Author]

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