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[mrbearsdespair]

Songwriting Tasks/Challenges

Note: A lot of these relate to creating the structure/skeleton/foundation of the song, once laid down/recorded the full band/electronic arrangement/elaboration/embellishment can deviate, this is more about creating the foundation on which ideas can be comfortably built.

Choosing a scale/s and making a note of notes/possibilities beforehand may be good

1. Constructing a song from far apart intervals on Guitar (ala John Frusciante Scar Tissue, Radiohead’s Reckoner/Present Tense)

2. Constructing a song from short intervals on Guitar (ala Elliott Smith St Ides Heaven/Self Titled era)

3. Constructing a song from power chords on Guitar (ala Kurt Cobain demo recordings)

4. Constructing a song from power chords on Guitar, then increasing the harmonic complexity through a second (and/or third) guitar playing relevant intervals/expanding the power chords harmony once the movement of the progression has been established

5. Constructing a song from just melodic (monophonic) lines on Guitar, layering harmonisation

6. Constructing a song from Piano/Synth Pad Setting playing basic chords and vocal melodies

7. Constructing a song from simple chords on guitar and then building up complexity (May utilise capo for open chord voicings in different strings)

8. Constructing a song from a chord progression inside a CAGED shape

9. Constructing a song from vocal melody first, experimenting with drones and harmonisation through recording layers

10. Constructing a song from a more riff centric approach (taking cues from the riff styles of different genres)

11. Attempting to construct a song from a Wes Borland Sketching and developing approach (using recording a tool to reference back) *CONTEXTUALISE THIS WITH A LINK*

12. Constructing a song with the bassline/s as the starting point (with a metronome/basic drum beat to keep time)

13. Constructing a song from an alternate tuning on guitar

14. Constructing a song from setting chords to drum/sampler pads/Ableton drum rack

15. Constructing a song from piano melody first and then harmonising

16. Constructing a song from piano chords in C major and then altering pitch to change key

17. Constructing a song from technique centric patterns on guitar (Tapping, arpeggios etc, Tobin Abasi chord capo tapping)

18. Constructing a song from an amalgamation of weirder guitar techniques (Strumming chords then bending behind the nut, vibrato arming whole chords to slide between them, detuning and returning pitches whilst playing, using harmonics)

19. Constructing a song’s main parts on guitar with a shoegaze idiosyncratic use of effects (Weirder effects like glissando slides and pitch shifts, harmonisers, delays and the like)

20. Constructing a songs foundations utilising voice led triads (12 voicings, 4 pairings of 3 strings) Steve Banks style

21. Constructing a song creating the chord progressions on Suggester and then working them out on guitar

22. Constructing a song creating the chord progressions on Suggester and then working them out on Piano

23. Try writing a song using Hookpad to create the Foundation

24. Constructing a song from recording a jam session, analysing and deconstructing it, taking pieces from it and writing/developing it into a more structured form

25. Constructing a song from recording a jam session, editing/chopping/sampling it to construct a song, similar to the above but the end result result is derived from the original recording, like a mash up of the Miles Davis Fusion period post-production editing and electronic/hip hop sampling

26. The above approaches, but the jam/band is replaced with a ground bass and looped drum beat and improvised over and settled into motifs, approximating the style of Ataxia but followed by deconstruction and reconstruction, potentially including altering, varying, and changing the bassline under/over the ideas established, altering drums post recording is also possible

27. The above three approaches, but combining the repeating bass motif idea with a small chord framework, like a mixture of Kind Of Blue’s Modal Jazz and Ataxia