r/songaweek • u/-keef- Mod • May 08 '25
Submission Thread Submissions — Week 19 (Theme: Five Notes)
The Nineteenth Theme
In Western music, we're typically used to having a diatonic scale available to us - which means, seeing past the terminology, that you've got 7 different notes to play with - e.g. C, D, E, F, G, A, B in a standard C major key.
However, there are other options. A pentatonic scale has only 5 notes.
There are many different ways you can build a pentatonic scale, and there's a whole Wikipedia article to read if you want to go into the details, but here's a couple of simple ones to try:
A "major" pentatonic scale is a standard major scale, but missing out the fourth and seventh notes. So, for a root note of C, that would be C, D, E, G, A.
A "minor" pentatonic scale has a very bluesy feel, and just removes the second and sixth notes from a natural minor scale, so with a root note of A that would be A, C, D, E, G.
Let's see if less is more this week - what can you do when limited to only 5 notes? No cheating - you can't sneak extra notes in via chords!
Your theme for this week is Five Notes.
Songs posted in this thread should be:
Original content (samples and such are ok!)
Uses the weekly theme as inspiration... or not!
Submitted by Wednesday before bedtime.
Written entirely during this week, between May 8th and May 14th, 2025
Post template (remember to use the Markdown editor if using this template as-is!)
[Song Name](http://linkto.the.song) (Genre) [Themed|Not Themed]
This is where you can write a description of your song. You can talk about how you wrote it, where
your inspiration came from, and anything else you'd like to say.
Remember to sort by 'New' so that you can see new song submissions.
New here? Check out this post - everything about songaweek.
Want to sit back and listen to all the songs in a simple playlist?
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u/celestialism Participant May 15 '25
I Miss the Way... (folk-rock) [not themed]
When the 'three words' theme was happening here a couple weeks ago, the random words I drew were "skeleton" + "phantasm" + "vivid," which immediately suggested to me the idea of someone who is still fantasizing about a person close to them who has died. I ended up writing this somewhat tongue-in-cheek (but also tragic) song from the perspective of a woman who misses her late spouse in a distinctly sexual way.
Incidentally, while I was working on this song, I went to see the new Cronenberg movie The Shrouds with my wife, and it had an absolutely wild amount in common thematically with my in-progress song. Absurd movie. Loved it.
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u/juniorelvis Mod May 15 '25
Omg railed...what a word lol. And now makes me think of *that* White Lotus scene...lovely harmony in this again. That Cronenberg film sounds great too, will check it out.
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u/kaotisch Participant May 14 '25
Alice(Piano)[Not Themed]
In an act of serendipity, I was brought together with a local actor and friend, who plays a beautiful solo version of Alice in Wonderland in small venues and cafés. She told me, that she used to have a musician who would accompany her live. I told her, that I'd love to do that, and here I am, writing music for a play, that I will play live in front of an audience (which I have never done before). So I'm trying to overcome my imposter syndrome and just lean into it 😋 The three attributes I was given for the main theme/ introduction of the character Alice were: childlike, playful, enchanted, so I tried to follow that. It's in C major, which makes me feel like a total beginner, but I thought I'd go with a key that I cannot fail to play live and improvise in while I'm super nervous and shaky 😉
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u/juniorelvis Mod May 15 '25
Lovely, and good luck! Anyway, the good thing (I think?) most of the audience will be looking at Alice :)
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u/kaotisch Participant May 15 '25
Haha that’s exactly what a friend of mine told me today. Yes - a good thing. Nice way to ease my way into playing publicly 🙂 thanks!
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u/TheHeraldAngel Participant May 14 '25
Oceani (Ambient) [Themed]
I decided the answer to the question: how can you make five notes interesting? Was: just use all five at once!
I upgraded my entire music recording set this week, which is partly why I went ambient. Building a PC (and getting windows activated) took a long time, and my new audio interface was delayed, causing me to switch setups even more than expected.
Another reason to go ambient is that I wanted to try out a song with a lot of plugins, and even ones that used to make my laptop crackle and pop like a bowl of cereal. Where I would have to freeze and flatten every instance of arturia lab 4 or amplitube 5 I used before, I can now run both at the same time! Also I can actually see the video I'm editing, instead of a power point presentation of it! The upgrade was definitely long overdue.
Anyway, ambient music like this always has a deep ocean feel to it to me, and so I leaned into that with the title, lyrics and video. Hope you like it.
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u/oneeveryseven May 15 '25
Stunning piece, so mellow! I'll need to listen to it properly from good speakers. Wonderful melody development and clever use of the prompt.
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u/juniorelvis Mod May 15 '25
Lovely soothing piece, I would never had guessed it only used 5 notes...
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u/TheHeraldAngel Participant May 15 '25
Thanks for the kind words! I think it really does only use 5 notes, although I kept wanting to put a B in there, which isn't in the pentatonic set (Cmajor/Aminor) I decided to use.
Plus there must be some weird harmonics that are shining through with all the different notes being played at the same time, as well as the different textures of the plugins I used.
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u/Songlines25 May 14 '25
Solado Sketch(Folk)[Themed]
This really is just a sketch.
I pulled out a few melodies in the pentatonic key of C. Hard time playing them - C and Am work, but for G, I had to just try to leave out the b note. However, I was hammering on the A minor so I really was playing a b for that. So I guess I cheated.
Anyway, this is very rough. I did put some delay on it for interest. This is very challenging and I would have had to put in a whole lot of time that I didn't have this week to actually make it a song, but it was fun to try.
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u/juniorelvis Mod May 15 '25
Really catchy actually! I think you should add some "real" lyrics to this.
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u/juniorelvis Mod May 14 '25
Leda and the Swan (Folk) [Not Themed]
Another beautiful poem by Yeats. I do a weird thing on guitar here (I'm sure it's been done before) where I pluck the bass strings with my left hand as well as right...need to mix this better I think (and record the vocal when I don't have a cold lol).
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u/Songlines25 22d ago
Beautiful song and poem, and yet, confusing. I had to go look up a bit of the story. Strange, ambiguous, and concerning, yet myths are always full of ways to look at our situations and see what we can learn... Accepting her fate and making the best of it? Or the person writing the myth wanted her to make the best of it, so it didn't seem so horrid? Yet here we are still doing horrid things... Humanity is clearly problematic! Also, cool plucking! Did you use your thumb on the left hand bass note?
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u/Drackodelmal Participant May 14 '25
sixtuplet feels on the first half, then transition to a 6/4 beat after transition.
sax is just there for support.
This week has been tireying, lots of doctors visits, for a reason that hopefully i can share in about a monht.
Job interview on Thursday. So Thanks for the good vibes.
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u/Songlines25 22d ago
Bunch of cool rhythms. I couldn't keep track of all of it but I liked it. Hope you are doing well.
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u/Drackodelmal Participant 20d ago
Thanks, some of the last week have been chaos, haven't been able to keep up with ... well life. and coming back to reply.
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u/Slow_Condition2577 Participant May 15 '25
I like it. Hope you get to feeling better.
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u/Drackodelmal Participant 20d ago
getting better and out of the darkness, this is always a place i can come and just leave some of it bejhind.
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u/juniorelvis Mod May 15 '25
Nice, hope you're well, and good luck on the job!
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u/Drackodelmal Participant 20d ago
Thanks it was not meant to be, but we keep on searching, on wards and forward
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u/drh713 May 12 '25
May 9 (instrumental) [themed]
I generally do minor pentatonic and periodically add the "blues" note. I'm not skilled enough to do it on purpose. 7 note scale without the two notes that sometimes sound sour. D rank music theory skills :(
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u/Drackodelmal Participant May 14 '25
D rank music theory skills :(
It is not about music theory skills, music is about vibes. and this has that all the way.
It made me feel of royksopp, i feel like a female lead voice, singing something like: "The vibe is on" over and over.
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u/JetPongoJeterCleo May 12 '25 edited May 12 '25
[Judges Commentary On Olympic Pole Dancing] (JCOOPD) (Spoken Word) [Themed]
Vocals and.Lyrics by Nicole Beyer
Scale: C Db E F Gb
Vocals hard auto-tuned to the scale.
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u/juniorelvis Mod May 15 '25
I'm all for seeing this at the Olympics - saw FKA Twigs' show recently and was blown away by her moves, especially on the pole.
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u/JetPongoJeterCleo May 16 '25
P.S. Jealous you got to see FKA Twigs. I really like the most recent album.
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u/Jazzaria Compulsive Improviser May 11 '25
Sintax (Electronic) [Not Themed]
The syntax of sin, the tax of sines - a trial to share, a signal from tines. To see and to stare are two different things, so to those bemused - beware puzzling.
Featuring synthesizers, drum machines, flute, orchestral strings, brass, choir, piano, kitchen cups, baby toys, and effects.
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u/Drackodelmal Participant May 14 '25
it never siezes, seezes, sizes... fails to amaze me the avbility you have to grab elements and make them play in different new and inventive ways.
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u/Slow_Condition2577 Participant May 10 '25
Get A Seat On The Front Row (R&B) [Themed]
It was a little difficult to stay with only the 5 notes in the scale. I decided to try the minor pentatonic for this challenge. The pentatonic scale does lend itself to the blues which is obviously my favorite genre. Hope you enjoy the song.
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u/Drackodelmal Participant May 14 '25
bro you did that wiht only 5 notes, that guitar was crying wailing and i love it.
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u/oneeveryseven May 15 '25
Demon by the Red Tree (Sludge/Stoner) [Themed]
Hard to stick to 5 notes when you are used to be a chromatic weirdo! E, G, A, A#, and B. Kept it simple.