Taegan's Mystery Riff

[TaeganAdventures]

And yes, we can never get enough challenges

Yooooooooo it's Taegan back again with another challenge!
This time, it'll be all about one thing -- composition!

So as you can see, I have provided you with a lead sheet (in the attachment), which I'll be referring to as 'The Mystery Riff'. Your challenge is this: write an EPIC instrumental composition based on The Mystery Riff!

Da rules include the following:

• The Mystery Riff must be used exactly, in its original key, time signature and rhythm. You are, however, allowed to develop The Mystery Riff after you have used it once in its entirety.
• Your composition can be at any tempo (since no tempo mark is specified).
• Your composition can be in any genre/style.
• You can use as many (or few) instruments as you like!
• Your composition must be between 2 and 4 minutes in length. If your composition is loopable, each loop should be no longer than 90 seconds in length.
• Be as creative or technical as you like! However, your compositions need to be playable.

Everyone will be given around 2 months to work on this. To submit your wonderful pieces, simply DM me the pdf and mp3 of your composition.

The deadline is temporarily set at 21 Aug 2020, 23:59 hrs GMT (do the time zone math to convert that to your local time zone!)

Have fun! uwu

[TaeganAdventures]

Ohoho you thought you'd be goin unscathed didn't you (hehe)

Just like my "One Melody, Five Three Styles" challenge, there would be a judging round for this too!
All your compositions will be judged by yours truly

And the judging criteria are...

Structure (10 points)
I need to see a well-defined structure in your compositions -- introduction, climax, resolution and all. If you can, make your piece tell a story! And if you must, explain to me what that story is (main characters & events that said characters experience) uwu

Flow/Musicality (10 points)
Of course, your composition has to make musical sense (which kinda links to my point on structure). Remember, it's a composition, not a conglomeration! xD

Motivic Development (10 points)
Use The Mystery Riff in a musical way! Of course, feel free to add your own spin on it. This criterion is basically all about how you develop specific motifs in The Mystery Riff, and how tasteful you make it!

Stylistic Appropriateness (10 points)
And speaking of tastefulness, any developments to the riff need to be stylistically appropriate. Of course that means you have to tell me the style/genre of your composition if I can't guess from first listen.

And last but not least... Community Vote (10 points)
Yep that's right, we're letting you play a part in the judging as well! Even if you did not participate in my challenge, you can still decide who you think the winner would be! A poll will be set up for you do vote on who you think did the best. Only non-participants will be allowed to vote though.
The voting period will last for up to 1 week after the challenge window ends. That means from 22 Aug to 29 Aug GMT!

All the best folks!

[TaeganAdventures]

Going... going... GONE!

Entry for this challenge is now closed! We will now move into our highly anticipated community voting!

But first, who are our lovely contestants?
I have received 3 entries for this challenge, and they belong to...


Ho ho! You thought I was gonna tell you right?!?! WRONG! So listen to all 3 pieces by clicking the link below, and let's get voting!

Voting will close on 24 Oct 2020! And FYI, you can't vote if you have participated in this challenge

Listen to the arrangements here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nJEzyjphj3F-CKCEKiiKdal5qv7ih6hN?usp=sharing
Vote here: https://forms.gle/JM2QzzvgsWUCxMNp8

[TaeganAdventures]

'Tis the season to be jolly
Falalalalaaaaaaaa... oh wait m y s t e r y  r i f f !

So after a looooong while of waiting, the Mystery Riff contest be ovvveeeeerrrrr!

... ...
... ...

So here's how everyone did...

Piece A: THC
Structure: 7/10
Flow/Musicality: 9/10
Motivic Development: 10/10
Stylistic Appropriateness: 7/10
Community Vote: 6/10

Overall, I'm very pleased to hear THC getting close (ish?) to what I envisioned here. I was picturing more of an EDM-type thing, kinda like if Avicii and Van Halen had a love child 
THC made good use of the riff here, establishing the riff immediately and putting his own spin on it right after. It's a little repetitive but ah well, repetition legitimises!
Ragtime is honestly a cool genre, but certain musical elements don't fit well with the style. For example, beginning the piece with dense block chords... instead of the 1-5 oom-pah bass on beats 1 & 3 and chords on 2 & 4 like typical ragtime. Although yes, it develops into the typical ragtime left hand pattern, but it doesn't stay that way throughout the piece.


Piece B: bor
Structure: 7/10
Flow/Musicality: 5/10
Motivic Development: 7/10
Stylistic Appropriateness: 8/10
Community Vote: 8/10

Well... I think you could have worked on this a little more here. The piece seems pretty static, like it's not moving anywhere. I'm not really sure if this is what you actually intended but that's what I felt listening to this piece. But anyways, this piece was generally well-written apart from the lack of a climax.


Piece C: Magnet
Structure: 10/10
Flow/Musicality: 7/10
Motivic Development: 10/10
Stylistic Appropriateness: 5/10
Community Vote: 9/10

Wow, I love how you made the Mystery Riff tell a story. And not starting with the full riff did the trick here. By truncating the riff... I believe that made it the perfect intro for well, itself! There's clearly development from start to finish, though what narrative is this piece telling us? (I guess that'll be a mystery... until Magnet tells us)
But just to nitpick a little, putting the main melody of the riff on a wind instrument isn't a good idea, especially if people are gonna play the piece live. The riff has quite a few repeat notes (eg measures 22-23 for the C.A. part); that's not ideal for a wind instrument. The repeat notes tend to bleed into each other and produce what seems like one sustained note instead of several shorter notes. I'm not a wind player but I think there might(?) be a way to pull this off on the cor anglais (or a similar wind instrument). If someone could demonstrate this I'm all ears.



And now... the final scores are...
THC: 39/50
bor: 35/50
Magnet: 41/50

Congrats Magnet for barely clutching that victory!!!

You can listen to the arrangements again here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nJEzyjphj3F-CKCEKiiKdal5qv7ih6hN?usp=sharing