I’ve always been a big fan of music. I grew up with it, and even ended up going to college majoring in woodwind performance. I’ve always been fascinated by composition, and there are a few older “works” of mine that are floating around the internet if you look hard enough. I’ve always wanted to get really deep into DAW’s, but the amount of time required for me to invest in them makes it prohibitive for me. I know I could learn it if I spent x amount of time a day on it, but between managing my Youtube stuff, trying to play League at a professional level, working through e-mails, building computers, and dealing with all of my website stuff, I just don’t really have the time to invest anymore in learning something new like that.

And that’s where you come in!

I’ve always had these little melodic ideas but I never have time to do anything with them. I jokingly strung a few different riffs together and called it “Serenade of the Infestor” and played it for Axeltoss in a hotel lobby one day. I didn’t think much of it, but a few months later, someone came out with a remix of that really simple arrangement of chords and rhythm. The idea that someone can take a really simple melodic statement and superimpose their own ideas onto it is really fascinating to me. I have these little bits and pieces of melodies or progressions that float around in my head sometimes, and to know that someone else could take one and interpret it in a way that was previously completely unknown to me is really cool.

What does any of this have to do with anything? Well, now what I want to do is use my streaming platform for two different things: 1) selfishly indulge in my desire to hear other people interpret my little melodic bits of information, and 2) provide exposure to people who do. So every few weeks I’m going to dump a little melody and ask anyone who’s interested to take it and interpret it how they see fit. I’ll provide some loose guidelines for how I see things, but really I’m just curious what you can do with the piece of melody I give you. After an arbitrary amount of time (two weeks? four weeks?) I’ll go through all of the submissions, pick out my favorite (or maybe my top 2 or 3? depending on how many people submit them), and promote that particular remixers soundcloud/website at the end of my stream every week.

Challenge #1 – http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Hjjoo4tt5z (I had to play this using the line-in from my keyboard to the computer, and everything “sounds” like a half-second later in your headphones, so please forgive any weird bumps or something that occur because this messes with m y mind a lot, heh)

This little modal thing switches between C-G, with the entirety of it being in the key of G (so any melody played on C would be C Lydian, or C-D-E-F#-G-A-B). I have very little interest in the actual melody, that can be changed if you so desire. What I’m more interested is the contrast between the two sections. I like the idea of a slower, more minimalist section that moves into a larger, flowing, lush sections filled with more instrumentation, that moves back into that quieter, more stripped down section. The transition and contrast between those two sections can be huge, and it’s what I’m really interested to hear.

Your style can be anything, the instrumentation can be anything, and there’s no restrictions on interpretation. If you feel like you need more information, feel free to click the above “Discuss” button and post any questions you have!