I Challenge You To A Duel

I write stupid little pieces all the time, with no intention of showing them to anyone or anything, but with the sole purpose of keeping the act of writing as finely tuned as possible. They're all pretty bad, but think of it as a composition exercise. Too many times I hear people babble of being stuck with an idea, not knowing what to do next. Writing a piece knowing I'll only spend a few days working on, but COMPLETING nonetheless, in my opinion helps with writers block. Sometimes I rewrite someone else's work (the g minor sicilienne from Faure comes to mind), because I hate what he did with it. I'll change the ending, or the order, or the transitions, or whatever. 

Sorry, guess I'm rambling. 

The point is, this site kind of sucks now. There's nothing keeping people from leaving, only reasons to leave. 

Well, so what can we do about this. The competitions are too drawn out for everyone's attention span / time they can invest / [enter random reason], so maybe a shorter one will kick start this site to the poopy-brownness (the background this site used to have, gawl) I remember. How about much shorter. How about, a 3 day competition. 

How about, You vs. Me. 

I challenge any one of you, let's see here, skum-guzzling socially inept nose picking donkey (no Nazi editing here, I mean the animal) loving music nerds to a 3 day competition for any solo instrument to be judged by the mob that is the entire network of the YC community.

Details will come later for dates and what not if there is any interest. 

Man up, kids. 

Quake in fear! I throw down my gauntlet and accept your challenge. All your base are belong to me! 

So when's it due again? Lol

*smells powder, chews tobacco and spits it down*

I'm no Wyatt Earp, but I can surely take down a few of you with me into the grave *winks*.

Now, what's the deal?

nice to give a shot^^ waiting for more details

I'll wait for more details. If it sounds good , I'm in. i dont like competitions and competing tho, but if it is a nice challange thats new for me i'd like to give it a shot.

I say make it a piano piece; my 2 cents 

Hey let's get this thing started! Otherwise I win by default, Haha!   :D

How you will know I didn't start the work before the 3 days ?

Well let's not make this a failed topic only to give members yet another "reason to leave". Let's revitalize what was started. 

I suspect that three days is too short for most people. I'll simply throw out there that I'll compose a work for piano and post it here as my "entry" before the end of the year, for whatever it's worth Lol. Perhaps others will post something too. I'm simply going to compose a few bizarre variations on happy birthday that go outside my typical compositional voice. Other's can write birthday variations if they so desire. Cheers. 

Edited December 17, 201312 yr by Sonataform

Patience...

The competitions here are for "sport" mostly, and as such, any participant should abide by the guidelines given to encourage self-growth. Sure, go ahead and cheat. Post something that took you longer than 3 days, or post a completed piece, but it's your loss. You gain nothing. 

I didn't realize there'd be more than one poster (including myself) for this topic, so congrats for the lucky few to be chosen from. 

I accept Sonataform's challenge for this first duel. I will choose others afterwards, or if you'd like, I encourage others to compete among themselves. Competition is healthy, embrace it. 

Sonataform: PM me a set of 3 days that would work for you. You mentioned piano, that's fine. I also think it'd be kind of fun for you to pick the key/mode/style/theme/whatever too

Anytime after Christmas! 

Anytime after Christmas! 

Then it shall be. 

The winner will be decided by a poll for anyone and everyone to vote. Scores, live recordings, etc. are not required. However, anything you can do to bolster your chances of winning are encouraged. More details will be posted for the public when I create the voting thread. 

Okay I'm down for January 1st to 3rd. Bring it on!! - Any guidelines you want to add? I'd like to compose the piece for piano. 

Okay I'm down for January 1st to 3rd. Bring it on!! - Any guidelines you want to add? I'd like to compose the piece for piano. 

Piano it is. No particular requirements for your entry. These things usually come out like a minute or two in length for me, just to give you an idea. 

I would give a description of your compositional process, form, etc. when you post your piece. The reason is selfish, as I'm really curious what (but mostly how) you'll come up with in 3 days. But since there are a lot of younger members here, I think they'd be interested too. 

So it is settled, then. Starting January 1st, you have 72 hours to complete a piano piece of any length, genre, language, stuff. The deadline is January 3rd, 11:59 p.m. MST 

Here's my entry, had a lot of fun. My compositional process was simple; I had the sheet music of the theme in front of me at the piano and I simply thought "what might Brahms do?" and improvised on ideas. I also had a book of Brahms piano works that I'd refer to. I always thought the harmony and the simple triplet within the theme gave it a Brahms feel and would lend itself to variations. Any comments would be welcomed, Enjoy! 

http://www.youngcomposers.com/music/5879/variations-on-michelle-in-the-style-of-brahms/