Hi I'm Scott Burton---relatively new teacher here with my official first ever forum post happening right...now!
I hear a lot from students that want to start writing their own songs and don't know how to get started. I created this simple dice game to help demystify composition and get students writing their own chord progressions quickly. All you need is a six sided die----d6 in gamespeak, and a pencil and paper and you're good to go. The rules of the game are attached below.
Let me know if you have any questions and if you found this game helpful. I'd love to hear some new songs!
Thanks,
Scott
Welcome to the forums, Scott! Great first post.
I love it - excellent game and great hack! No more for writer's block excuses - just grab some dice and get writing. :-) Something I will add for those familiar with the parallel minor chords (not to be confused with the RELATIVE minor) - the parallel minor chords add yet another 6 chords into the mix, so for added variety to your chord changes you can use two 6 sided die (or one 12-sided die if you're a real gamer).
In fact, there's all kinds of directions you can go with this - another 6 sided die for one of 6 chord qualities: 7 (Maj7, m7, or Dom7), 2 (aka 9), sus4 (aka11), 6 (aka 13), secondary dominant to the next chord change, diminished to the next chord change... Add in all the altered chords and jazz changes and you can have a pretty sophisticated "dice-writing" system!
Tyson Farmer
www.lessonface.com/TysonFarmer
Hey Scott, I've been using a similar game with my young songwriting students! (Though skipping the written notation to make it more lively and fun.) They love it!
Cool tip! I am gonna try it this week on my students. I´m curious because one of them is four and will have to adapt the game a bit, and the other one is 13, so the results will be quite different.
Inês, I'm curious to hear how your experiment with the dice game worked out with your 4-year-old student. How did you adapt it to suit their age and learning style? Nay special consderations you took into account for this particular student, or insights that might apply to others in general?
I've done variations of this with students as young as 7 and as old as 60, and they've all really enjoyed it. And I've found it makes learning fun, and opens up an enthusiasm for playful creativity.
Best,
Sean