Hear ye! Hear ye!

I’d like to announce the official start of the first Art of Composing Challenge. For this challenge, you will be required to write a piece, based solely on a title and a key signature. There are no restrictions as to instrumentation, style, or time… but keep in mind, if you write a piece that is an hour long, chances are no one will listen to it…

Official Rules

1. One submission per person.
2. The composition must be based on the specified title and key signature.
3. No restrictions as far as length, instrumentation, style… pretty much anything.
4. All compositions must be submitted no later than September 27th, 2013.
5. Share a composition by posting it as a comment below this article.
6. Posting will be by soundcloud, youtube, or any other service that has a direct embed capability. (if you don’t have a soundcloud account, go to soundcloud.com and register. It’s free).
7. After all pieces are received, I will open up official voting. Voting will take place at the facebook group, so if you haven’t joined, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/artofcomposingacademy/.
8. The winner will be featured on this site.

The Title – The Back Story

I have been wanting to have a challenge posed to the readers of Art of Composing for a while, but it wasn’t until starting the facebook group, that I decided the time was right.

I put out to the group the idea of a challenge and it was well received. I then asked for ideas. We had some interesting ones, but by far, the best was compose a piece based on a title and a key signature. I liked it. It leaves a lot of room for individual styles and creativity.

But I had one problem. I had to come up with a title. I bounced around ideas in my head…

Maybe I should use a famous poem title or book title.

Or maybe a strange title that doesn’t really make that much sense.

But then it happened. I was waiting to fly standby on a flight, and I was bumped. This is not normally a big deal, but I work on an island off the coast of California, and it is really disappointing when I have to stay another night away from my family.

The Key Signature

I have posted in the past about the Signature Series on soundcloud. I am a huge fan of it. If you haven’t listened to it, I recommend you do. Whether it’s true or not, in the philosophical truth sense… well that doesn’t matter. Recently, a second season of the signature series has been released and it is just as good as the first. While listening to it, I found the key signature that fits the title perfectly.

So without further ado…

The Title and Key Signature

The title is Mr. Brantingham… I Am Sorry, You Did Not Make the Flight in Bb Minor

I know, I know. I am in the title… but I think I deserve to have a few tunes written about me… right?

First listen to the signature series on Bb Minor.

Next go off and compose. And remember… September 27th awaits.

PS. If you don’t know how to share from soundcloud, watch this video.