Poetry/Singing/Music Mega Competion idea

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

I came up with an idea just now of a competition that combines song-writing, singing, and music production. Basically I am looking for an excuse to practice my singing and get out of my rut and back into making music. I seem to have all but lost my creativity and have never been a good song writer. However, I believe this type of competition would be a great outlet for many of the great talents on this site.

This will be a multi-category competition. The winner from each section will decide the theme for the next competition. The winners can be voted on through either a panel of judges or from anyone registered on the forums who wants to vote.

1) Poetry/Song Writing competition: pick a very basic theme or idea (like one or two words) and write a long poem or song based on that idea. Example: Jew, Shoe. This will probably be an entirely public vote, unless there so happen to be poetry experts on this site.

2) Vocal arrangement music competition: This contest will require someone to remix a videogame tune or use a theme-based competition. The winner should have a fully fleshed out, well produced piece of music. The only restriction is that the song should make room for singing. The winner of #1 will decide the length of the verses, chorus, bridge, etc. See #3 for more details. Example: Super Mario Brothers 1 Dungeon theme (the level with the lava, not the underground theme).

3) Singing competition: You get to sing the lyrics/poem from the winner of compo #1, with the winner from #2 as the background music. The winner of compo #3 will have their vocals fully produced by the winner of compo #2 in a fully produced vocal song. In addition if there are runner-up vocalists who sounded decent enough they can be included (at their request) in the final production as back-up vocalists. Please keep in mind recording quality is a huge factor of this competition, not just singing quality (especially when it comes to high noise levels).

3-a (optional) Instrumental solos: If you would like to participate but don't feel confident in your singing voice, you may record an instrumental solo and submit it. If appropriate the winner of #2 may choose to include it in their song.


Time restrictions: probably will vary depending on participation. One week to one month should be adequate. The first compo should be a bit shorter just to get things going, say, one week. For example:

week 1: poetry contest
week 2: voting on poetry contest
week 3: poetry contest #2, music/remix contest
week 4: voting on poetry contest and remix contest
week 5: poetry contest #3, music/remix contest #2, singing contest
week 6: voting on all 3 contests
week 7: poetry contest #4, music/remix contest #3, singing contest #2, complete music production of winner from singing contest #1
week 8: voting: poetry #4, music #3, singing #2
week 9: poetry #5, music #4, singing #3 production of round 2,
week 10: voting
week 11: new round, production of round 3 winner
... and so on

So each contest will lag behind the last contest, but songwriters, singers, and remixers can combine their efforts in a mega collab competition.

Furthermore, competition #2 may not be restricted to just singing, but maybe also for instrumental performers. Anyone with talent and a means to express it (and record it) should have a chance to shine here.

If this competition gets going then each section of the competition will have its own thread to avoid confusion.

To organize this thing better it will probably have the title of Mega Music Collab or MMC. For example for round 1 you will have MMC-Poetry 1, MMC-music 1, MMC-Vocal 1. That will keep every piece of work consistent as to what round it fits into. The final production for MMC 1 will include all three winners and give proper credit to each. Hopefully I would like to host all the complete productions of the winning songs and maybe compile some sort of archive out of them.

Special voting rules, because this is a collab competition effort, the winner of each section will have a special weighted vote on the other sections. They are not required to vote, but it is highly recommended that they do so. For example, the winner of the poetry contest may get a vote of 20% on the music contest and 20% on the singing contest. The winner of the music contest may get a 25% to 50% vote on the singing contest. This will ensure that people will not be forced to work with a person who's style they highly disagree with, unless they are a clear winner (based on the other votes). It is possible to win in all three categories, although it is probably unlikely. In the case that a person wins one category and is an entrant in another category for the same round their vote will carry less weight if they vote for themself.


Please post your comments here. I will probably be willing to host this competition, but if someone else wants to get this thing going, feel free.

[Zephyr]

Sounds interesting, although a little bit complicated, wouldn't it be easier to write lyrics for a song after the song is done though?

[Imagist]

I'd just like to go on the record as saying that good poetry =/= good lyrics, the number one reason being that poetry is very open in nature while good lyrics are typically written with some idea of the rhythm and sound of them already in mind, which doesn't necessarily limit the lyrics so much as affect the way they are written. Otherwise, I would be very much interested in a competition like this, as I have been doing some (original, not remix) songwriting of my own lately.

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

Ok, so switching #1 and #2 and this thing could maybe work? We could splice this in with another compo to use songs that have already been remixed, but maybe it would be easier just to have a separate compo.

If anyone else has any other ideas then I can get this thing finalized and submit it to The Orichalcon.

I know it sounds complicated but once every compo gets their own thread it will make a lot more sense.

Alternatively I can just get some remixers together to make music for a song-writing + singing compo and forget about having another remixing contest (aren't those over-done already anyway?).

Thanks for the feedback.

I know that there was a vocal compo a while back on these forums, but it only lasted for one round. I would love to get things started again, but I want singers to not have to write their own lyrics, since it'll force people into singing a certain style of music.

Furthermore I'm thinking about a singing compo that specifies the style of singing, so we can distinguish the really versatille singing talents (sort of like karaoke, lol).

By the way, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post on this board, since we are only discussing the possibility of a new compo. If this thread must be removed, please send me a PM and move it to General Discussion or wherever else is appropriate.

[Zephyr]

If you're going through with this, then I'd strongly recommend getting it set up on ThaSauce, it makes things a lot easier for entrants and the person running the compo, plus it allows for easy catalogueing(?) of previous rounds which would be important for a compo like this.

[thesim]

I like the idea of allowing solo instruments to enter as well. I play a few instruments that are uncommon in remixes and I can't do a remix by myself, but I would still like to be part of something. If it goes through, you have my approval. 8)

[Salluz]

Sounds interesting, although a little bit complicated, wouldn't it be easier to write lyrics for a song after the song is done though?
I don't know; I am good to the point where I can do it both ways.

I like the idea of allowing solo instruments to enter as well. I play a few instruments that are uncommon in remixes and I can't do a remix by myself, but I would still like to be part of something. If it goes through, you have my approval. 8)
Wanna' collab? Hit me up if you want to.