I usually play the game where I stare at a blank Sibelius file until 5 in the morning the day of a 9am rehearsal for the show where I'm supposed to play the new music I still haven't written.
Composition game: Choose any song. Select a bar. Determine what bar that is. Roll a dice. That’s the number of semitones you transpose. Flip a coin. Heads, go up, Tails, go down. Reverse the order of the notes. Choose a number from 1 to 10 1 - Major 2 - Mixoydian 3 - Minor 4 - Dorian 5 - Lydian 6 - Locrian 7 - Harmonic Minor 8 - Phrygian 9 - Mixolydian b6 10 - Major Blues Transpose it to a different mode based on the number chosen. Build upon that.
This reminds me a lot of some free improv stuff my friends and I recorded back in college. Makes me wish we were doing that NOW instead of 25 years ago.
@@KillerSkullX Well… it was actually something I did with a friend from high school, when we were in college, with another guy he met at his college. This kind of thing was definitely NOT happening at my college.
Every few months some friends and I who all produce electronic music will do what we call the "20 Song Game" Rules are simple, write as many tracks as you can in 12 hours, then meet up and listen to what everyone makes. Usually we'll spend 10am-10pm producing, grab some snacks and beer, make a playlist of everyone's music in the order it was made and give feedback and critique each other's work. It's spawned some very interesting production techniques, one time someone used a bunch of sample pack clips, threw a track together and exported it without listening to it. Once around 9pm I was out of ideas so I sampled a bagpipe, put it in a sampler, threw a midi scale effect on it and just bashed my head against my midi controller for 45 seconds and called that good. All in all, it's a ridiculous game that really pushes you to your limits and I highly recommend you try it sometime
Courtney's game (#4 at 03:56) results in something reminding 65daysofstatic, probably because of that first sample at 04:36 & 04:40, and definnitely in part due to bit crushing (y'all are of insane musicanship)
"Play the LAMEST groove you can think of." "I'll try to learn a bunch of TOOL songs." Disliked, unsubbed, reported for illegal content, created a hashtag, threw phone in the toilet.
I mean you could. I know for a world music class, I did a comparison of Soviet Bootleg music to Western music and finished it all up with Iron Maiden and Aria as a "Well... that didn't work" sort of demonstration. That said the Tool line reeaaaaly doesn't help Jazz's image of a bunch of wine sniffing rich white snobs who are "deep".
I wouldn't get too butthurt about it. All these "games" sounded like shit and how they're helpful for anything Musical other than team building exercises is beyond me
I love these sorts of challenges. One of my favorite to do alone is randomly pick out 3 synth presets and a pack of samples then write a song in 90 minutes only with that.
hanging out that way in such a cozy studio creating music reminds of the "sociedad gastronómica"in north Spain where a bunch of friends rent a rural-house kitchen to experiment and make food
My favourite composition game is a very nerdy one (DM things): > Roll 1d12 to choose a random note > Roll 1d10 to choose a random mode (1-7 = Greek modes; 8 = pentatonic; 9 = Blues; 10 = roll again, but flatten the 6th) > Roll 1d%+60 (or whatever number you want) to choose the tempo > _I M P R O V I S E_ More steps can be made to add more randomness and some steps can be taken if you already know what to do in that field If you don't have dice, just use an app or website to roll those for you. On the internet you can even "roll" odd numbers like 1d7 or 1d63. If you rolled pentatonic or Blues, you can use other rolls to define the root note. If you just think Major/Minor, you can always use a d2 (coin).
I used to do something similar to structure compositions, but with vague descriptions of what sort of thing to write there. So you might roll "major shreddy ska grind in 23/16" for one section which then leads into "minimalist phrygian synth jazz drone in 7/8" for example, then you try to write something interesting that kinda sorta covers all the bases of whatever you rolled. It's a good way to get outside of your comfort zone since it's pretty hard to stick to your usual methods when you have to figure out how to cram together a bunch of genres and styles you wouldn't normally write in and that don't mix well.
@@TheSquareOnes Ohwell I've been a musician for exactly 2 years now. That's way beyond my level, but I'll keep those in mind for the future. Also, the "game" I suggested is meant to be simple and get you started on the fly. Your level of the thing could be superimposed over it as further steps to get a full song idea.
I love this. Literally don’t know what else to say other than that. This has given me so many ideas to try out with the bands I work with. Thank you. This has to be one of the best videos I’ve come across this year.
I like the musical composing game of pass the parcel. Pick what you want to put down on one instrument then hand it to the next player to add their thing. Not being precious about the result (a game) can lead to a freeing up conscious control and allowing new and unexpected things to flow without editor brain getting in the way. I wrote a song with a friend that way last week and I'm so looking forward to the final mix down. Thanks for exploring some games that I had never even dreamt of.
I love your stuff, and appreciate all the stuff you put together for us, all the hardwork and time/ talent/ etc. With that said, that string ensemble story is one of the best things on your channel all time. Thanks for including it.
I absolutely love these videos. The complete lack of fear and openness to just "create" no matter what the outcome is very inspiring. I know way too often I feel too much pressure about the result of what I try to create.
This is the most creative thing I have seen in a while. Thanks for inspiring us with your awesome music related content... By far the most unique of its kind.
That last one ended way better than I was hoping. I was honestly hoping for a total trainwreck, and that was something, tense, uneasy, but not awful. Speaks to the skill level of the people involved
Bent Knee may well be my favorites. Been drowning in the new album all day, and while I've known your channel for a while, I've only recently started to be able to watch much. The two rando videos I click include a QA of yours where you have a Bent Knee shirt... And then this one. ..... 10/10
4:36 I love this part lol I sample a lot myself and the idea of creating your like own sound to sample but doing that by having a big group read a random line from a book is awesome lol
I usually play the game where I stare at a blank Sibelius file until 5 in the morning the day of a 9am rehearsal for the show where I'm supposed to play the new music I still haven't written.
Your videos are very funny and I'm impressed you can catch all those patterns so musically!
wow this is not my favourite game but i play it a lot
Charles cornell's comment only has 150 likes? That's less than it should
Your first error was using Sibelius
I felt this comment on a spiritual level. The only thing that's missing is Sibelius crashing when you're halfway through.
The first step is to have musical friends
Justin R True
The first step is to have friends
😢
:/
The first step is to have
"Think of a Number between one and 10"
Ben: 11!
11 factorial?
the cartoon's called Ben Ten u idiot
THIS GOES TO ELEVEN
5.5?
Ben Elevin?
Yessss, yesss, leave your hate comments about that Tool diss in the comment section. Feed UA-cam’s engagement algorithm. Yesss yessssssssssssssssss
I can't believe that the drum guy in that band is stupid doesn't like it!
No! I refuse!
*realizes he's left 2 comments already and this is technically a third*
Damn!
*laughs in fibonacci/4*
I love it
How could you
That studio, damn.
It’s a big nice studio
@@AdamNeely It sure looks like it!
Come thru!
@@Bignicestudio Wish I had the budget and the geographical proximity! The gear list had me drooling.
Adam Neely A-grade pun right there.
Watching without headphones
Adam: “yeah let’s make magic happen”
*complete silence*
Same
Ben: "It's another day!"
*eternally pained screeching*
i thought that was the joke! lol
Ben’s whole sequence at 9:07 is so relatable and has me in shambles
“It’s another day!”
*painful screaming*
Rest of Bent Knee: cool musical ideas. Ben: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
He went the beefheart route.
10 seconds before he was chosen I knew he was gonna scream - and I still got a great kick out of it when he actually did it! 😂
The story about the violin gig really tied this video together
Nah man bens screech
That first idea actually ended up sounding really freaking cool!
luuk341 thought the same!
What a pleasure to have ol' Adam Kneely and the crew over!!
Every time I hear Ben talk, I just want to give him a hug
I'm still dying at his Bernie Spears mashup.
Same he’s so lovable
He sounds like he has a cold.
this but also Jessica
Good for you. He irritates me.
"Luckily, and you can put that on your channel, rich people are dumb, and they ate it up" lmao gotta love the salt
I read your comment right as he said this in the video that was neat
@@gunnarsamuels5782 me too
I' m serious
Not that salty, really,
Composition game:
Choose any song.
Select a bar. Determine what bar that is.
Roll a dice. That’s the number of semitones you transpose.
Flip a coin. Heads, go up, Tails, go down.
Reverse the order of the notes.
Choose a number from 1 to 10
1 - Major
2 - Mixoydian
3 - Minor
4 - Dorian
5 - Lydian
6 - Locrian
7 - Harmonic Minor
8 - Phrygian
9 - Mixolydian b6
10 - Major Blues
Transpose it to a different mode based on the number chosen.
Build upon that.
Dude, that sounds like the DnD of composition games.
Bold of you to assume I have friends
my synths are my friends :.)
This reminds me a lot of some free improv stuff my friends and I recorded back in college. Makes me wish we were doing that NOW instead of 25 years ago.
haha old
no but really, glad you got to experience that
Room 34 Creative Services I can’t even find musical friends in college.
@@KillerSkullX Well… it was actually something I did with a friend from high school, when we were in college, with another guy he met at his college. This kind of thing was definitely NOT happening at my college.
Room 34 Creative Services the music department is snobby and cliquey at my uni. I’d rather play with old heads that seem cool and homeless people.
"I play drums in the band you know as Bent Knee". I wonder what he calls the band.
Ben T. Leg
"Gavin and The Other Guys"
@@pulpogaraje Gavin's immaculate drumming accompanied by some other instruments the band
He wanted to call it "Tool" but that name was already taken. Enter resentment.
@@RCAvhstape you need more likes for that one
9:06 I image this is bens exact morning procedure
It surely is mine
underrated comment
I lol'd at the video, and lol'd again with this
this is the best comment I've seen on an Adam Neely video lol
Someone please edit it out of context for the love of god
Including the screaming.
9:06-9:10, the most hilarious cut you've ever made. Utterly buckled, thank you! :')
There couldn't be a more Ben Levin thing than being told to pick a number between 1 and 10 and choosing 11. What a visionary.
"5 Composition Games"
oh this sounds like fun!
"to play with your musical friends"
...well frick
:thinking:
crescentia *irl friends
What are these "friends" of which you speak?
@@d3crescentia Still wondering whether you mean that your friends aren't musical or you don't have any friends
@@unclepodger yes
This was all very nice.
But honestly? The true treasure I got from this?
I got to hear about Bent Knee.
INSTANT FAN. Wow. Thanks.
IKR?! They're SO good!!
Been my favorite band for a few years now! I also have Adam Neely to thank for the introduction.
Every few months some friends and I who all produce electronic music will do what we call the "20 Song Game"
Rules are simple, write as many tracks as you can in 12 hours, then meet up and listen to what everyone makes. Usually we'll spend 10am-10pm producing, grab some snacks and beer, make a playlist of everyone's music in the order it was made and give feedback and critique each other's work.
It's spawned some very interesting production techniques, one time someone used a bunch of sample pack clips, threw a track together and exported it without listening to it. Once around 9pm I was out of ideas so I sampled a bagpipe, put it in a sampler, threw a midi scale effect on it and just bashed my head against my midi controller for 45 seconds and called that good.
All in all, it's a ridiculous game that really pushes you to your limits and I highly recommend you try it sometime
The last one was really cool, never expected such a nice and kinda structured result, respect
I woke up my kid for laughing at Ben's 30 seconds @ 9:07
"I think that will definitely tie the room together". The Dude abides.
"Pick a number between 1 and 10"
Ben: it goes to 11
~5:14 when you added the bit crush, and then the drums come in, that was killer!
that midi vocal chop recording sample thing came out psychedelic asf, so cool
Ben: Ayyyyyyyyyyyy itsss anotha dayy!
*screams in horrified terror while guitaring*
The decrescendo game sounded like every king crimson improv
You get 100 internet points for mentioning the greatest band of all time
@@cbj4sc1 Prepare to be sued by Robert Fripp.
You know something good happened when adam neely and ben levin upload at the same time with each others name in the title
Alternative title: HOW TO MAKE REVOLUTION 9
Michael Herscheid More or less!
You are seriously insulting Revolution 9. Have you even listened to it?
Dude I was just listening to that
Miss him
Miss him
When he said: A bunch of people dry, I immediately thought:
OH YEAH! getting drunk is the key to success!
then I was disappointed.
There is a place within me, between my heart and voice, that rejoices every time I see that you have a new video. Thank you for being.
Courtney's game (#4 at 03:56) results in something reminding 65daysofstatic,
probably because of that first sample at 04:36 & 04:40, and definnitely in part due to bit crushing
(y'all are of insane musicanship)
I hereby would like to nominate Adam Neely for the smoothest stank bass face award.
Michael Williams 9:28
Bruh, I still come back to this video for that one song in the beginning! Post that shit on spotify!
Dude... that opening game was amazingly beautiful
The ambience/reverb in Game 5 really tied it all together.
first composition game is by far the best one i've heard
I’ve come back to this again..... I loved that first music so much that I wanted it to never end.
Your channel is so entertaining 🤘
These bent knee guys are great
Amazing 'tent. The last game turned out wonderful, it sounded to me like something Zappa would have written for a Lynch movie.
That last comp was incredible. Somehow you all found a compatible vibe? Such eerie, so ambience.
okay, but literally the coolest studio ive ever seen
Bent Knee is legitimately my favorite band
"Play the LAMEST groove you can think of."
"I'll try to learn a bunch of TOOL songs."
Disliked, unsubbed, reported for illegal content, created a hashtag, threw phone in the toilet.
#CancelAdamNeely (jk)
i think he doesnt refer to tool to be lame but often use unusual beats
I mean you could. I know for a world music class, I did a comparison of Soviet Bootleg music to Western music and finished it all up with Iron Maiden and Aria as a "Well... that didn't work" sort of demonstration.
That said the Tool line reeaaaaly doesn't help Jazz's image of a bunch of wine sniffing rich white snobs who are "deep".
*Call 911*
I wouldn't get too butthurt about it. All these "games" sounded like shit and how they're helpful for anything Musical other than team building exercises is beyond me
okay that first bit was awesome and i love it and please turn that into a full track
You forgot the part where you explain how to get friends.
Shadow Giratina's Evil Clone seems everyone is commenting on the friends 😂
You go to music school.
Duh.
Good vibes... loved it.
I love these sorts of challenges. One of my favorite to do alone is randomly pick out 3 synth presets and a pack of samples then write a song in 90 minutes only with that.
Appreciate the change in colour palette and subtle lighting changes.
Can't wait to watch the rest of the video! xD
That boat story was sort of a metaphor for how my whole life seems to go.
that first meloy was awesome, it sounds like sky
5:00 made my day! What a sick groove! The bass, the chopped up audio, and then the drums with the ride! So sick!
I know right?! Nobody is talking about it in the comment section.
@@jlw3_vb Yeah!
This is very cool 😎 I’m gonna play these with... myself for now
I LOVE the Peavey Bass. T-40 was such a monster ripper.
hanging out that way in such a cozy studio creating music reminds of the "sociedad gastronómica"in north Spain where a bunch of friends rent a rural-house kitchen to experiment and make food
The last game sounded kinda what I think when people say "I love music" in a generic way.
Dear Adam, by giving Bent Knee the spotlight time after time you are doing this world justice. Thank you.
5:25 talking about tool
"This is necessary"
Peavey T-40... very cool adam
"Play the LAMEST groove you can think of."
"I'll try to learn a bunch of TOOL songs."
SAVAGE. Insta like
Looks like he eats McDonald’s for a living, look at Daney Vs. This guy and how humble daney is compared to this… thing
Fuck I love Bent Knee so much, they’re so fucking talented.
I wanna know what is going on in Ben's head sometimes lmao that guy is on a different wavelength
It is my extreme honour to make this the 69th like *diabolical laughter*, unless some idiot come and fucks it up.
@Lucas impossible, it's at 95 now
Its back at 96
I was hoping to see John Zorn's Cobra mentioned!
It'd be very cool to watch you guys play that
Yo Bent Knee is playing with Thank You Scientist in my town soon. I didn’t know Ben Levin was part of that, now I definitely gotta go.
JackBluebee TYS is a killer act as well.
RegressionMusic yes, I’m a big fan.
"It's another day! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHHAHHHHHHHH!"
(Light riffing in background)
-Ben
My favourite composition game is a very nerdy one (DM things):
> Roll 1d12 to choose a random note
> Roll 1d10 to choose a random mode (1-7 = Greek modes; 8 = pentatonic; 9 = Blues; 10 = roll again, but flatten the 6th)
> Roll 1d%+60 (or whatever number you want) to choose the tempo
> _I M P R O V I S E_
More steps can be made to add more randomness and some steps can be taken if you already know what to do in that field
If you don't have dice, just use an app or website to roll those for you. On the internet you can even "roll" odd numbers like 1d7 or 1d63.
If you rolled pentatonic or Blues, you can use other rolls to define the root note. If you just think Major/Minor, you can always use a d2 (coin).
"Aleatoric Music". Reminiscent of Terry Riley
I used to do something similar to structure compositions, but with vague descriptions of what sort of thing to write there. So you might roll "major shreddy ska grind in 23/16" for one section which then leads into "minimalist phrygian synth jazz drone in 7/8" for example, then you try to write something interesting that kinda sorta covers all the bases of whatever you rolled. It's a good way to get outside of your comfort zone since it's pretty hard to stick to your usual methods when you have to figure out how to cram together a bunch of genres and styles you wouldn't normally write in and that don't mix well.
@@TheSquareOnes Ohwell
I've been a musician for exactly 2 years now. That's way beyond my level, but I'll keep those in mind for the future.
Also, the "game" I suggested is meant to be simple and get you started on the fly. Your level of the thing could be superimposed over it as further steps to get a full song idea.
I love this. Literally don’t know what else to say other than that. This has given me so many ideas to try out with the bands I work with.
Thank you. This has to be one of the best videos I’ve come across this year.
"Play the lamest groove you can think of."
"I'll try and learn a bunch of TOOL songs. Hah!"
*Danny Carey has entered the chat*
3:40 one of the best king crimson covers ive ever heard
Lol immediately made me think of Providence or another one of those styles of KC songs
Wow, that engineer did a great job with the blind (deaf) improv.
YES, BENT KNEE and ADAM NEELY! I want to live in that studio.
Besides all the goofing around, the quality of the recordings are actually pretty nice as well!
My love for Bent Knee is eternally overflowing.
Niceee Adam rocking the legendary T-40
I like the musical composing game of pass the parcel. Pick what you want to put down on one instrument then hand it to the next player to add their thing. Not being precious about the result (a game) can lead to a freeing up conscious control and allowing new and unexpected things to flow without editor brain getting in the way. I wrote a song with a friend that way last week and I'm so looking forward to the final mix down. Thanks for exploring some games that I had never even dreamt of.
The fifth exercise is a visual representation of how "Drunk" by Sungazer was born
I love your stuff, and appreciate all the stuff you put together for us, all the hardwork and time/ talent/ etc. With that said, that string ensemble story is one of the best things on your channel all time. Thanks for including it.
3:07: I liked the first game. This one sounds really nice🔥
I absolutely love these videos. The complete lack of fear and openness to just "create" no matter what the outcome is very inspiring. I know way too often I feel too much pressure about the result of what I try to create.
As a drummer, one thing I have heard of is numbers.
i saw bent knee last night at the thunderbird in pittsburgh. great show.
03:25 Ok so that's how Swans writes their music?
This is the most creative thing I have seen in a while.
Thanks for inspiring us with your awesome music related content... By far the most unique of its kind.
The layered meters game sounded a lot like one of the tracks from Death Note.
Same
My exact thought
I love the carpets in the studio, very oriental
When Adam said "oh shi..."
I felt that
You should do some more of the last one, I could listen to that all day.
Me: This looks fun
First game happens: Oh no, I'm already confused by this game. It's Settlers of Catan all over again!
That last one ended way better than I was hoping. I was honestly hoping for a total trainwreck, and that was something, tense, uneasy, but not awful. Speaks to the skill level of the people involved
[insert meme]
"I don't know what's happening, and at this point I'm too eager to learn."
Enjoyed that. Silly fun that could open the door to cool ideas.
9:23 love the new radiohead song
Bent Knee may well be my favorites. Been drowning in the new album all day, and while I've known your channel for a while, I've only recently started to be able to watch much. The two rando videos I click include a QA of yours where you have a Bent Knee shirt... And then this one. ..... 10/10
I was thinking what to call you guys
but Bent Neely just sounds so wrong
What a Great idea,! Also I haven't seen one of those Peavey basses in ages!
"Did we just figure out how to Flying Lotus"...
your profile pic and your comment go together perfectly
@@of_the_valley dog bless x
4:36 I love this part lol I sample a lot myself and the idea of creating your like own sound to sample but doing that by having a big group read a random line from a book is awesome lol