011 to 6 cards
Pull your cards
Tap Draw. Pull 1 to 6 cards across chords, scales, instruments, tempo and more, plus a Malus if you dare. Lock the ones you love, redraw the rest.
◤ Challenge yourself · Inspire others
The creative constraint engine for musicians.
Draw a hand of musical challenges: a chord, a scale, a production trick, sometimes a Malus. Then make something with it before the timer runs out.
What are you making?
CHORD#050
Minor 9th
R&B
PRODUCTION#840
Lo-fi Aesthetics: Vinyl Crackle & Warm Saturation
Lo-fi
MALUS#430
Field Recording
General
Difficulty · Hard
The higher, the harder.
502100
Draw 3 cards
Free forever. No sign-up needed for your first draw.Also on the App Store
◤ How it works · 03 steps
From blank canvas to finished sketch in one sitting.
Three steps. Repeat at your own pace: daily if you're on fire, weekly like most of us. Your output and your craft compound either way.
0220:00 by default
Accept the brief
Hit Play and the timer starts: 20 minutes by default, or 10, 40 or your own length in Studio mode. Your DAW or notebook is the only other tool you need. The constraints are non-negotiable. That's the whole point.
03Audio or link
Submit your sketch
Upload your take on the draw, or paste a SoundCloud, YouTube or Spotify link. Other musicians hear how you handled the same brief.
CHALLENGE#791
Prepared Instrument
Experimental
◤ Anatomy · one card
Every card is one clear brief. Some are rarer than others.
Pull a card and you know what to do in two seconds: a type, a headline you can act on, and a short brief behind it. The harder the card, the rarer the draw. Add a Malus and the hand gets brutal. No music degree required.
- Type tag Color-coded category: chord, scale, instrument, production, malus.
- Headline A few words you can act on. The whole brief in one breath.
- Rarity Common, Rare, Legendary: the harder the card, the rarer it comes up.
- Lock and redraw Lock the cards you love, redraw the rest. Three free redraws per hand.
◤ The deck · 635 cards · 9 categoriesNine categories.
Browse the deck libraryNine categories.
Millions of combinations.
Every card is hand-written by working musicians. We don't generate, we curate. The deck keeps growing, and your draw is never the same twice.
Chords132 cards
Triads, 7ths, 9ths, slash, sus, polychords. Roman numerals included.
Modes & scales72 cards
Major, modal, jazz, exotic, micro-tonal, octatonic, whole-tone.
Tempo & meter99 cards
BPM ranges, odd meters, polyrhythms, polymeter, swing percentages.
Instruments47 cards
Acoustic, electronic, ethnic, found sounds, vocal techniques, prepared piano.
Production37 cards
Compression, sidechain, parallel routing, reverbs, mid-side, saturation.
Mood & texture62 cards
Density, register, dynamics, style emulation, atmospheric moods.
Form & structure102 cards
Verse-chorus, AABA, rondo, melodic contours, lyrical angles.
Malus rules40 cards
Hard constraints. The rules you don't want, but need.
Challenges44 cards
Multi-card briefs. Whole sessions in a single draw. Time-boxed.
Live from the communityHear what others
Open the feed →Hear what others
made of the cards.
Real tracks made from real draws: the latest takes from the community feed.
Why Mark keeps drawing.
“ComposerDeck gets me making things I would never have tried on my own. No more blank page: the cards really challenge me, and some of those sketches turned into real tracks.”
◤ Weekly challenge
Same cards for everyone, all week.
A fresh hand drops every Monday at 00:00 UTC. Make a sketch from the same brief as everyone else, then hear how they answered it.
Take this week's cardsExample hand · the live one loads here
CHORD#632
7♯9 (Hendrix Chord)
Rock
TIME SIGNATURE#724
7/8 or 7/4
World
MALUS#395
One Take
General
◤ The alternatives
What ComposerDeck isn't.
We're not an AI generator, a sample pack, or a music theory app. Here's where we sit.
| Feature | ComposerDeck | AI generators | Sample packs | Blank canvas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily creative habit | Yes | No | No | No |
| You compose, not the AI | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Constraint-driven briefs | Yes | No | No | No |
| Public submission slot | Yes | No | No | No |
| Streak / accountability | Yes | No | No | No |
| Free forever | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Works with any DAW | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
◤ Common questions
Quick answers.
01 Is ComposerDeck free?
Yes. Daily draws, profiles, the blog, one custom deck and up to 10 audio submissions a month are free forever. ComposerDeck Pro unlocks the depth: unlimited decks and submissions, your full draw history, PDF and PNG exports, advanced stats, named studio presets and custom deck cover art. The core practice will always stay free.
02 Do I need music theory?
No. Cards are the brief, not an exam: each one says what to do in plain words. Swap any card you don't understand.
03 Can I use it with my DAW?
Yes. We're tool-agnostic. Logic, Ableton, FL Studio, Bitwig, Reaper, paper: whatever you compose with.
04 Will you add AI generation?
No. We help you compose, we don't compose for you. That's a feature, not a missing one.
◤ From the journal
All articles →Guides for finishing more music.
◤ The deck is waitingPull your first
Pull your first
three cards.
Free forever. No credit card. Daily streak starts the moment you draw. Want the depth? See what Pro adds.
Start pulling (it's free)