Songwriting Challenge #19

Guideline:
Key of A

Optional Bonuses:
Lyrics
Alternate Tuning
TV Show Theme Song

Super Bonus:
Write a Theme Song for the TLL Podcast

Suggested Chord Progression:
A Bm D E7 (I ii IV V)

UU Team Due Date:
July 9th
UU Members Due Date:
July 16th

Here is the blackbird part cut out with chord diagrams

Hey Robb,

great job! Just like with Aldrine’s song, your song made me start craving some Kona beer.

Hey Eralp,

you can post videos to the Student Review Section:

Student Review

or directly to the Live Lesson Questions Section of the UU+ Forum:

Live Lesson Questions

We usually watch these videos, and give feedback on the Thursday Live Lesson Podcast. Here is the last one where we gave some feedback:

TLL Podcast #107 – Do Straps Make the Player?

You can watch the podcast live on Thursdays at 1 pm Hawaii Standard Time, but we also post the replays on Fridays if you miss it live.

We also have 1-on-1 Coaching Sessions on Thursday at 2:20 pm Hawaii Time (right after the podcast). These are zoom rooms where UU+ members take turns asking Aldrine questions. If you have a webcam, you can always join, and ask Aldrine for feedback. If you want to join a session, just be logged in to your account, at that time, and you should see an orange banner at the top of the screen asking you to join. You can also join a session just to hang out, and check out what other people are working on. Here are some recordings of past sessions if you want to get a feel for it:

Weekly Live 1-on-1 Coaching

You can also book a Private Lesson with Aldrine where I’m sure he would be more than happy to give you some feedback:

Schedule a Private Lesson

I hope that helps. If you need anything else, you can always post questions to the forum, or send it to us directly by pressing the green chat button in the lower right hand corner:
https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/98107148/f93de7485e957b1485aed47c/intercom.png

Aloha,
-Kahai (UU Staff)

On yesterday’s podcast we announced that we’re having Kalei Gamiao on as a special Guest on next week’s podcast. Because we want to ask Kalei a lot of questions, we’re going to postpone the Songwritting Challenge Due Dates. The New Dates are

UU Team Due Date:
June 11th

UU Members Due Date:
June 18th

If you heard the podcast, you should be excited for what Aaron has planned. Me and Aldrine (like the poor students that we are) will probably wait to the last minute.
If you write a song, we may invite you to be on a future podcast to hang out and talk about your song. Only if you’re comfortable. I hope to see you guys come up with something. We’re always excited to see your songs.

Aloha,
-Kahai

• This reply was modified 1 month ago by kahai.
• This reply was modified 1 month ago by kahai.

Live Lesson Challenge #18 – (5/21/2020)

Guideline:
Key of D

Optional Bonuses:
Country
Paniolo
Jingle

UU Team Due Date:
June 4th
UU Members Due Date:
June 11th

Hey jharrismed,

Major 7th chords, and 7th chords are two different chords. A Major 7th chords is made up of the 1st note, 3rd note, 5th note and seventh note of a scale, so the Fmaj7 is made up of F, A, C, and E. A 7th chord is actually what’s know as a dominant seventh, and made up of the same notes except a flat 7th note, F7 would be F, A, C, Eb. Inversions are chords that use the same notes, but the order you play them in is different. The Fmaj7 in Raindrops keep falling on my head is played like this:
A-0
E-0
C-5
G-5

but Fmaj7 can also be played like this:
A-3
E-1
C-4
G-2

or this:
A-7
E-5
C-5
G-5

They all use the same notes, so they should all sound the same, but the order the notes are played and what note is the lowest in the chord are different. Aldrine covers inversions and extensions (7th, maj7 and more) in week 6.

Aloha,
-Kahai (UU Staff)

Hey Paul,

great idea, and great job on your video! Looking forward to more from you and other people.

Aloha,
-Kahai

Live Lesson Challenge #17 – (4/2/2020)

Guideline:
Key of Bb

Optional Bonuses:
Lyrics
Waltz (3/4)
Happy/Positive

Super Bonus:
Bb minor (C#/Db) key change

Due Date: April 23rd

Hey jharrismed,

that is a pull off from the C sharp to the A.

Live Lesson Challenge #16 – (2/27/2020)

Guideline:
ii V I Chord Progression
Any Key
Examples:
Dm G C
Am D G
Gm C F
Em A D

Optional Bonuses:
Lyrics
Chord not in key
Odd Time Signatures (3/4, 6/8, 5/4)
Birds and the Bess ?
Grunge

Due Date:
March 19th

Hey tm,

people usually upload the videos to youtube or their google drive, and post a link to the video. Most video hosting sites should work.

Aloha,
-Kahai (UU Staff)

Hey Renee,

we talked about your student review on the last podcast. By the way, Great Job!

TLL Podcast #96 – BFFs & Lechon Kawali

We’re delaying the deadline of the songwriting challenge to February 13th. Also, in the last live lesson, I mentioned a website I used to generate some chord progressions:
https://autochords.com/

These chord progressions are pretty generic, but it helped me get out of my writers block. Hopefully it can help you guys too. You guys can use the auto generated progressions, or you can make it an even simpler two chord song. For this challenge, as long as you write in the key of F and use F or Dm, you’re all good. It’s usually helps too if you start off simple and add on more complex ideas. I already had a song ready, but because we delayed the deadline, I’m going to try and polish it.

Hey Ritesh,

earlier in the Live Lesson Renee asked how to slide chords up and down a fret to make a “bounce” sound, so that’s what we called it.