The 21-Day Composition Challenge
Game Music Doodles by Christopher "Mazedude" Getman
For the month of April 2019, I was invited to take part in the 21-Day Composition Challenge, hosted by Video Game Music Academy. The goal was to compose something brand new, every day, for 21 days straight, no excuses. I'd seen them do this in years past, and it sounded fun, but I'd never jumped in and tried it... until now.
That's right, even though my current role in the world of video game music in more in the remixing, dabbling, and indie side of things, this seemed like a great exercise. Craft a doodle, every day. Nothing overly produced or polished, not a few seconds added to a current composition-in-progress, but rather, something fresh and unique every single day. I signed up.
I have to say, it was fun... but it was hard. With the full time job at EarQ, beautiful wife and daughter at home, church involvement, and teaching a capoeira class already on my plate, squeezing in time to compose something fresh daily was indeed a challenge (which was the point). To top it off, I pushed myself to an even more difficult degree by aiming, with each track, to use a completely different sound palette. (Aside from using NES sounds more than once, I succeeded in that regard.)
That said, I wanted to take a minute to showcase my doodles, here, for the fans. Some are better than others, each was typically crafted in 30-60 minutes (although a couple got a little extra love if I had the time), and they all sound pretty different.
Click below to listen; enjoy! If there's anything you hear that you think deserves full-on exploration and development into a finished track, please either e-mail me or let me know on Facebook, thanks!
