As artists, we store sources of inspiration in our subconscious that shape how we create. Some songs leave a mark on us, inspiring us to venture into composing our own music. In this challenge, we will honor those songs!

The challenge

For this challenge, we invite you to choose a song that has significantly impacted you as a composer. It should be a well-known song so that everyone in the community can recognize it. Select a short melody from that song (4 to 6 measures maximum) and use it as a motif to build your own composition.

Remember, a motif is a short musical idea that carries some kind of significance or thematic value. The motif is repeated throughout the song.

Instructions

  • It must be an original composition, specifically created from scratch for this challenge in Flat. We will review the score's history to ensure compliance with this rule. Submissions that do not adhere to this requirement will not be considered.
  • In the description, you must tell us which song and composer you chose, and why.
  • We do not accept collaborations this time.
  • The song must be 1-3 minutes long. We know this is a very limited time, but we're receiving so many submissions lately, we want to ensure we can carefully review each of them.
  • You can only submit one score.
  • Deadline: September 1st. No late submissions will be accepted.
  • Remember, we cannot consider private scores.

Scoring system

✅ Accuracy (20 points)

How accurately the motif is incorporated and transformed in the composition.

✅ Engagement (20 points)

How well your song captures the listener's attention for its entire duration.

✅ Transitions (20 points)

How smooth and well-designed the song's transitions are (e.g., modulations).

✅Creativity (20 points)

The originality and inventiveness in using the motif within the composition.

✅ Emotional Impact (15 points)

The ability of the composition to evoke emotions and convey a story or message.

✅ Founders Enjoyment (5 points)

How much the founders of Tutteo, the company behind Flat, like your piece.


If you win more than once during the period of the yearly subscription you won, the prize will be applied as follows:

  • You can give away the yearly subscription to a person who does not have a premium subscription yet of your choice.
  • If you decide to keep the prize for yourself, we will add one extra month to the annual subscription you already won, and the second place will be awarded the annual subscription prize.

Bonus points

  • Use the same instrumentation as the song you used as a reference (2 points).
  • Skillfully integrating more than one motif from different songs (2 points). Be sure to mention all of them in your score's description. Otherwise, we won't count the bonus points. 
  • Layering the chosen motif with variations of itself to create an echo-like effect for the ending of your piece (2 points).

🥇 The score with the most points wins!

We'll announce the winner on September 13th.

Prize

🏆 One-year Premium subscription.

Additional incentives

  • Promotion in our blog and social media.
  • Special badge for a year showing you as the winner of this month's challenge!

Submissions

Please send your submission 👉🏽 here.

Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered.

⚠ Private scores cannot be reviewed! Please make your score public before submitting it.

After submitting, we will manually add your score to the Challenge tab on the Flat Community Page. This isn't an automatic process, so you'll need to have a bit of patience.

We can't wait to hear what you come up with!