100 Music Production Challenges (Pulled From a Real Deck)

A music production challenge is one rule you accept before you open the project. Record the snare on your phone. Use one synth. No undo for ten minutes. The rule settles a decision before you start, and the session gets a clear finish line: a rough sketch, not a release.

The 100 challenges below are real cards from the ComposerDeck deck, copied word for word: all 40 Malus cards, all 37 Production cards and 23 of the 42 Challenge cards. We left out the Challenge cards that are about composition technique rather than production, such as canons or graphic notation. Malus cards are the deck's deliberately difficult constraints, explained in Introducing Malus Mode. Twenty-five of these cards also appear in 25 Production Constraints to Finish a Track This Week, with a longer note on each.

How to run one:

1. One card. Pick one from this page or draw one at random. One is enough; a second card can wait for the next session.
2. A timer. We use twenty minutes (here is why). A few cards set their own clock, from thirty seconds per decision to thirty minutes for the whole idea.
3. A finished sketch. When the timer rings, bounce whatever exists, name the file after the card, and stop. Our rule: a rough bounce counts, an open project does not.

Under each card is one practical way to start. The sections follow what the cards train, so pick the one that matches the problem in front of you.

Sound sources: record it yourself

Start here if every sound in your project came from the same sample pack. These cards train you to find and capture your own material, mostly with a phone and whatever is in the room.

• 01 Challenge Phone Microphone Recording Element Record at least one audible element of your track using only your phone's microphone (e.g., a percussion sound, a vocal snippet, an ambient texture). Embrace lo-fi quality. Try: record a hand clap, a key jingle or a tapped mug on your phone, drop it into the project and use it as a layer on your snare.
• 02 Challenge Environmental Sound Recording Record and integrate at least three distinct environmental sounds (e.g., nature, city, household) as musical elements. Focus on their natural acoustic properties rather than heavy processing. Try: record one kitchen sound, one street sound and one outdoor sound, then give each a different job in the track: a rhythm, a texture, a transition.
• 03 Malus Field Recording Record a sound with your phone right now and use it as a key instrument. Try: stop reading, record thirty seconds of whatever you can hear in the room, and build the next part around the most interesting second of it.
• 04 Production Field Recording Integration (World/Soundscape) Incorporate field recordings (sounds from a specific natural or cultural environment) into your composition as a background texture or a prominent element. Connect musical and environmental sound worlds. Try: run a long field recording under the whole track at low volume, then bring it up to full level for a single bar in the middle.
• 05 Production Single Found Sound as Central Element Record a single distinctive sound from your environment and make it the central rhythmic, melodic, or textural foundation of your track. Build the composition around this unique source element. Try: pick one sound, such as a closing drawer, and make every element from it: pitched down for a kick, chopped for hats, stretched for a pad.
• 06 Production Found Sounds Composition Create a composition incorporating at least three non-traditional sound sources (recorded environmental sounds, household objects) as primary musical elements. Focus on transforming ordinary sounds into musical material. Try: record three household objects, each hit three ways (soft, hard, scraped), and build the main loop from those nine recordings only.
• 07 Challenge Found Object Percussion Track (Industrial) Create the entire percussion track for an Industrial piece using only samples of "found objects" (e.g., metal pipes, tools, machinery sounds) instead of traditional drum sounds. Try: keep the pattern of an existing drum loop but replace every hit with a recorded object: a pan, a jar lid, a bunch of keys.
• 08 Malus No Drums Create rhythm without using a drum kit. Use foley, synth plucks, or percussive playing. Try: mute your drum tracks and rebuild the groove with a palm-muted guitar, a short synth pluck and a tapped desk.
• 09 Challenge Voice as Non-Lyrical Instrument Use your voice to create instrumental-like lines, textures, or percussive sounds, without forming recognizable words or lyrics. Explore vocal timbre beyond language. Try: hum a bass line, beatbox a drum part and sing one held vowel as a pad, and make those three takes the whole sketch.
• 10 Challenge Prepared Instrument Modify a traditional instrument (e.g., piano, guitar) by placing objects on or between strings/keys to create unique timbres. Explore sounds beyond conventional technique. Try: slide a folded strip of paper between the strings of a guitar near the bridge and record a riff with whatever tone comes out.
• 11 Challenge Extended Techniques for Traditional Instruments Incorporate extended techniques on traditional instruments (e.g., multiphonics for woodwinds, prepared piano, col legno for strings). Expand the timbral possibilities beyond conventional playing. Try: record an instrument you own played only in ways you were taught to avoid (tapping the body, scraping, breath noise) and build one section from those takes.
• 12 Challenge Feedback and Noise as Musical Element (Grunge) Intentionally incorporate guitar feedback, amp hum, and other noise elements as a textural and expressive component of a Grunge track, not just as an unwanted byproduct. Try: record thirty seconds of amp hum or controlled feedback at a safe listening level and fade it in under the quietest part of the track.
• 13 Challenge Sound-Alike Instrument Emulation (Cartoon) Create a Cartoon Music cue where instruments are used to emulate non-musical sounds (e.g., a descending trombone for a fall, muted trumpet for tiptoeing) as a core comedic element. Try: list three on-screen actions (a fall, a tiptoe, a door slam) and give each one a short instrumental gesture, with no sound effects allowed.
• 14 Production Prominent Sound Effects Integration (Cartoon) Compose a short musical piece where specific non-musical sound effects (boings, crashes, honks - can be emulated with instruments) are integral to the rhythm and comedic timing. Try: place a boing, a crash or a honk on the downbeat of every fourth bar and write the melody so it leaves room for each one.

Sampling and sound design

Start here if you have a sampler or a DAW and want sounds nobody else has. Chop, pitch, reverse, stretch. For where to look for samples and the legal side of using them, see The Art of Sampling.

• 15 Malus Sample Flip You must use a random sample chosen by a friend or random generator as the core of your track. Try: ask a friend to send you one audio file without saying why, and build the whole beat around a chop of it.
• 16 Production MPC/Sampler Chopping Workflow Compose a significant part of your beat by chopping longer samples (melodic, vocal, or drum breaks) and resequencing them, emulating an MPC or similar sampler workflow. Focus on creative recontextualization. Try: slice an eight-bar sample into sixteen pieces across your pads or keys and play a new pattern from them by hand.
• 17 Production Sample-Based Melodic Hook (Chopped & Pitched) Create a catchy melodic hook by chopping, pitching, and resequencing a vocal or instrumental sample. Transform existing material into something new and distinctive. Try: cut a vocal phrase into single syllables, map them across a keyboard and play a four-note hook with them.
• 18 Production Sampled Pitched Stab/Sound Find a non-pitched or uniquely timbred sound, sample it, and use it as a pitched percussive note or short melodic stab in your beat. Focus on transforming sound through pitch manipulation. Try: sample a single knock or click, load it into a sampler and play it up and down the keyboard as a short melodic riff.
• 19 Production Abstract Vocal Chops as Rhythmic/Melodic Elements Use short, processed vocal samples (chops, stutters, pitched phrases) as rhythmic or melodic elements, not necessarily forming coherent words. Transform the human voice into musical material. Try: cut a recorded vocal into very short slices and sequence them like a hi-hat pattern.
• 20 Malus Reverse Theme The main theme/melody of the track must be reversed audio. Try: bounce your melody to audio and reverse it; if the reversed version does not work, rewrite the original until it does.
• 21 Challenge Transform a Single Sound Source (Sound Design) Take one short recorded sound (e.g., a door creak, a voice snippet) and create at least 5 distinctly different new sounds from it using various processing techniques (time-stretching, pitch-shifting, granulation, spectral processing). Try: record one door creak and turn it into five sounds (a kick, a pad, a riser, a texture, a lead) before you write a single note.
• 22 Production Granular Synthesis Sound Design Create and incorporate a significant sound or texture using granular synthesis techniques (deconstructing sounds into tiny "grains"). Explore the timbral possibilities of this approach. Try: load one short guitar or vocal note into a granular instrument and scan slowly through it until it becomes an evolving pad.
• 23 Production Extreme Audio Processing / Mangling Take a conventional sound (e.g., vocal, piano) and process it with effects until it becomes almost unrecognizable and uniquely textured. Push processing to creative extremes. Try: chain three effects on a piano part, push each further than feels reasonable, and keep the result only if you can no longer tell it was a piano.
• 24 Production Single Oscillating Pitch Drone (Electronic) Create a drone element using a single synth oscillator, focusing on its timbral evolution through LFO modulation, filter changes, or effects. Explore slow timbral development. Try: start from an init patch with one oscillator, hold a single note for two minutes, and shape it only with slow LFO moves on the filter.
• 25 Production Layered Textural Soundscape Create a rich soundscape using at least 3-4 distinct layered textural sounds (e.g., pads, drones, ambient noises, granular textures). Focus on depth, dimensionality, and timbral interaction. Try: stack a pad, a drone, a noise layer and a field recording, and draw a volume curve on each so they take turns in the foreground.
• 26 Production Layered Synth Pads for Rich Texture Create a rich harmonic texture using at least three layered synthesizer pads with different timbres, possibly covering different frequency ranges or having varied envelopes. Focus on complementary timbral interaction. Try: build three pads (low and dark, mid and slow, high and airy) and high-pass the two upper layers so each keeps its own range.
• 27 Production Prominent 808 Bassline with Glide/Pitch Bends Make the main bass element a tuned 808 sound, focusing on its sub-bass frequencies, decay, and incorporating pitch glides/bends. Create an expressive bass voice. Try: tune the 808 to the root of your key, then add one glide into the last note of every second bar.
• 28 Production Signature Distorted Guitar Tone (Rock) Focus on crafting a powerful and characterful distorted guitar tone (e.g., crunchy, fuzzy, high-gain) as a central element of your sound. Make the guitar tone itself an expressive element. Try: spend the first ten minutes on the guitar tone alone (gain, EQ, cabinet), then write a riff that only makes sense with that sound.

Arrangement and texture

Start here if you have a good loop and no song. These cards are about what enters, what leaves, and how many things play at once.

• 29 Challenge Backwards Composition Process Write the end of the piece first, then the section before that, working your way to the beginning. Let the conclusion determine what comes before. Try: write the final section first, then build the section before it by removing two elements, and repeat until you reach the intro.
• 30 Challenge Strategic Silent Breaks (Grand Pause) Incorporate at least two or three distinct moments of complete silence (at least 1-2 beats long) for dramatic or structural effect. Use silence as a compositional element. Try: cut every track for one full beat just before the chorus and again before the last section, then listen to how the return lands.
• 31 Challenge Build and Release with Filter Sweep (House) Create a classic House build-up section by gradually increasing layers and using a rising low-pass or high-pass filter sweep on a key element, leading to a "release" where the beat drops back in with full energy. Try: over eight bars, add one layer every two bars while opening a low-pass filter on the chords, then bring everything back at once.
• 32 Production Prominent Filter Sweep Incorporate a noticeable filter sweep (low-pass or high-pass) on at least one key instrument or the master bus for dynamic effect. Use filtering as an expressive tool. Try: automate a high-pass filter on the master bus across the four bars before a drop, and snap it fully open on the downbeat.
• 33 Production Layering for Dynamic Intensity (Video Game Music) Compose a Video Game Music piece where layers of instruments are added or removed to dynamically change the intensity for different game states (e.g., exploration vs. combat). Try: write one loop with five layers, then bounce three versions (two layers, four layers, all five) as if a game switched from calm to combat.
• 34 Challenge Call and Response: Wobble Bass vs. Lead Synth (Dubstep) Create a Dubstep section featuring a "call and response" dynamic between a rhythmic wobble bass pattern and a contrasting melodic lead synth phrase. Try: give the wobble bass two bars, then the lead two bars, and keep alternating so the two never play at the same time.
• 35 Challenge Minimalist Synth Arrangement (New Wave) Create a New Wave piece using a minimalist arrangement, focusing on a few key synthesizer parts (e.g., bass, lead, pad) and a drum machine beat, where each part is distinct and crucial to the overall sound. Try: limit the track to a bass, a lead, a pad and a drum machine, and mute any part you can remove without missing it.
• 36 Malus Monophonic You are only allowed to play one note at a time. No chords allowed for this section. Try: turn your chord progression into a single arpeggiated line, one note at a time, and let the bass carry the roots.
• 37 Challenge Three-Channel Polyphony Limit (Chiptune) Compose a Chiptune track strictly adhering to a three-channel polyphony limit (e.g., two pulse waves and one noise channel, three of the NES's five sound channels), forcing creative voice leading and texture. Try: give one channel to the bass, one to the melody and one to the drums, and imply chords by arpeggiating quickly on the melody channel when it rests.
• 38 Production Limited Polyphony Emulation (Chiptune) Compose a Chiptune piece keeping in mind the limited polyphony of old sound chips (e.g., 3-4 simultaneous voices/notes). Try: set every synth in the project to one voice and allow yourself four tracks in total.
• 39 Production Layered Vocal Production (Pop) Focus on creating a full, modern pop vocal sound with a clear lead, tight doubles, background harmonies, and possibly ad-libs (even if using instruments to emulate). Create depth through vocal arranging. Try: record or play one lead line, add two doubles panned left and right and one harmony above it, and keep the lead the loudest.
• 40 Production Layered Vocal Harmonies and Ad-libs (K-Pop) Focus on creating a dense and polished vocal arrangement (even if using instruments to emulate) with tight lead vocals, multiple harmony layers, and energetic ad-libs, characteristic of K-Pop. Try: write a chorus with a lead, three harmony layers and a short ad-lib answering each line, using a synth or a sampled voice if you do not sing.
• 41 Production Orchestral Layering for Depth & Clarity If using orchestral sounds, focus on creating a sense of depth and clarity by layering instruments from different sections (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion) effectively, considering their ranges and timbres. Try: double a string melody with a woodwind an octave higher and support it with a soft brass note on each downbeat, keeping each section in its own register.
• 42 Malus Copy Paste Ban You are not allowed to copy and paste anything. Every note must be played/drawn individually. Try: play the drum pattern through for every bar of the sketch instead of looping one bar, and keep the small differences.

Performance and timing

Start here if your tracks sound programmed and you want them to sound played. Most of these are Malus cards: they take away editing, sight or a hand, so the part has to come from the performance.

• 43 Challenge No Computer Editing of Performance Record all instrumental and vocal parts live with no digital editing of the performance (e.g., no quantization, pitch correction, copy-pasting of performed sections). Embrace human performance. Try: record a full pass of each part, choose the best complete take, and leave it exactly as it is.
• 44 Malus One Take Record your next part in a single take. No editing, no punching in. Keep the mistakes. Try: arm the track, press record once, and keep that take even if you miss a note.
• 45 Malus No Quantization Disable quantization. Play everything live and keep the human groove (and errors). Try: turn quantize off, play the hi-hats by hand for the whole loop, and fix nothing.
• 46 Challenge Incorporate "Ghost Notes" in Drum Groove (Neo-Soul) Program or perform a Neo-Soul drum groove that features prominent "ghost notes" on the snare drum, creating a complex, subtle rhythmic texture and a laid-back feel. Try: program the backbeat at full velocity, then add very quiet snare hits on a few of the sixteenth notes in between.
• 47 Malus Blind Start Close your eyes, place your hands on your instrument, and record the first thing you play. Try: close your eyes, press record, play for thirty seconds, and build the next part from the first phrase you like.
• 48 Malus Blindfolded Melody Creation Create a core melody by playing notes on an instrument while blindfolded or not looking. Use this spontaneous material as your foundation. Try: turn away from the keyboard, play eight notes, and use those exact eight notes as the opening of your melody.
• 49 Malus Sing It First You must sing/hum the melody or rhythm before playing it on any instrument. Try: hum the line into your phone before touching an instrument, then play it back and match it note for note.
• 50 Challenge Non-Dominant Hand Technique If you play an instrument, try playing a simple part or melody with your non-dominant hand. Explore the creative potential of technical limitation. Try: play the bass line with your weaker hand and keep the simpler line that comes out.
• 51 Malus Left Hand Only Compose or perform your main parts using only your left hand. Try: play the chords and the melody of one section with your left hand only, simplifying both until they fit under one hand.
• 52 Malus Right Hand Only Compose or perform using only your right hand. No left hand allowed. Try: keep your left hand in your lap and record the bass and the lead in two passes with your right hand.
• 53 Malus One Hand Only (Piano/Keyboard) If using a keyboard, compose a piece or section using only your left hand or only your right hand. Embrace the constraints to find creative solutions. Try: choose a hand before you start and write the whole section within the range that hand can reach without jumping.
• 54 Malus Two Finger Limit You can only use two fingers maximum on your keyboard/controller at any given time. Try: write the harmony as two-note intervals only and let the bass line suggest the rest of each chord.
• 55 Malus One Hand, One Instrument Your left hand can only play one instrument, your right hand can only play another. No switching. Try: split your keyboard (or use two controllers) with drums under one hand and bass under the other, and record both at once.
• 56 Malus Single String Composition (Guitar/Bass/Strings) If using a string instrument, compose a piece or significant melody using only one string. Explore the timbral and melodic possibilities of a single string. Try: write the riff on a single string, sliding between positions, and leave the slides audible.
• 57 Malus Standing Only You must compose this entire section while standing up. No sitting allowed. Try: raise your keyboard or laptop to standing height and record the next part on your feet.

Mixing and processing

Start here if the parts are written and the mix will not sit. Each card narrows the toolbox or points it at one job. If you want a procedure to go with them, mixing in mono is a good companion.

• 58 Production Minimalist Processing (Max 2 Effects per Track) Limit yourself to using no more than 2 effects plugins (e.g., EQ, reverb, delay) on any single track in your mix. Focus on careful selection rather than complex processing chains. Try: remove every plugin after the first two on each track and fix what remains with volume and panning.
• 59 Production Specific Reverb Type Focus Use only one specific type of reverb (e.g., plate, spring, hall, room) for all spatial effects in your mix. Explore the character of a single reverb type as a unifying element. Try: put one reverb on a send, choose a single type (plate, spring, hall or room), and route every track that needs space to that send.
• 60 Malus No FX Zero FX allowed on any track. Keep it super raw and dry! Try: bypass every effect in the project and fix the balance with faders and panning alone.
• 61 Malus Distortion on Master Add a distortion plugin to your master bus (mildly) and mix into it. Try: put a distortion or saturation plugin on the master at a low setting before you start, and make every mix decision through it.
• 62 Production Sidechain Compression for Rhythmic Pumping Use sidechain compression (e.g., kick triggering compressor on bass/pads) to create a rhythmic pumping or "breathing" effect. Make this technique an integral part of the groove. Try: sidechain a pad to the kick and adjust the release until the pumping moves in time with the groove.
• 63 Production Sidechain Compression from Kick (House) Apply sidechain compression to pads, basslines, or other sustained elements, triggered by the kick drum, to create the characteristic "pumping" effect of House music. Try: trigger a compressor on the bass and pads from the kick, and set the release so they swell back just before the next kick.
• 64 Production Creative Panning & Stereo Width Use panning automation and stereo placement creatively to give instruments distinct locations and create a sense of space or movement. Design the spatial field as a compositional element. Try: automate one percussion part to travel from left to right across each bar while everything else stays put.
• 65 Production Mix Depth & Spatial Design Focus on creating a mix with clear front-to-back depth using reverb, delay, EQ, and volume to place elements in 3D space. Design the spatial relationships between elements. Try: sort every track into front, middle or back, then use level, high-frequency EQ and reverb amount to place each one in its row.
• 66 Challenge Spatial/3D Audio Composition Compose with explicit consideration of spatial positioning of sounds. Create a piece that utilizes the placement of sounds in a three-dimensional audio field as a compositional element. Try: give each instrument a fixed position before you write, and let one element move through the space as part of the composition.
• 67 Production Heavy Sub Bass Focus (Dubstep) Ensure your Dubstep track has a powerful and clearly defined sub-bass layer (typically below 60-80Hz) that complements the mid-bass sounds. Try: put the sub on its own track, low-pass it, and check it on headphones and at low volume so it stays clear under the mid-bass.
• 68 Production Polished Low End: Kick and Bass Balance (R&B) Focus on achieving a polished and balanced low end in an R&B mix, ensuring the kick drum and bassline are distinct yet complementary, providing a solid foundation without muddiness. Try: decide whether the kick or the bass owns the lowest frequencies, then EQ the other one to make room for it.

Listening and reference sounds

Two kinds of ear training here. The first four cards take away a familiar way of listening (the solo button, your monitors, the sound itself, the screen). The rest ask you to aim for a recorded sound you can picture, a room, a band or an era. For those, keep one record you love in that style open and switch to it often.

• 69 Malus No Solo Button You cannot solo any track. Mix and compose everything while hearing all tracks at once. Try: make every level and EQ decision with the full mix playing, and when a sound gets buried, fix it in context.
• 70 Malus Headphones Forbidden Create this section using only your device/computer speakers. No headphones or studio monitors. Try: write and balance the next section on laptop or phone speakers, then compare it on your usual setup afterwards.
• 71 Malus No Sound Compose the next section without listening to it. Turn off your speakers/headphones. Try: mute the output, write eight bars by reading the piano roll, then unmute and keep at least half of what you wrote.
• 72 Malus Blind Screen Turn off your screen for 5 minutes and compose/tweak sound by ear only. Try: set a five-minute timer, switch the display off, and shape one sound by ear using a hardware controller or keyboard shortcuts.
• 73 Challenge Single Mic Recording Emulation (Bluegrass) Arrange and mix a Bluegrass piece as if it were recorded with a single microphone, focusing on instrumental balance achieved through player positioning and dynamics, rather than individual track mixing. Try: pan everything to the center, skip per-track EQ, and balance the band with level only, as if each player stepped toward or away from one mic.
• 74 Production Live Jazz Trio Recording Vibe Mix your piece to emulate the sound of a live jazz trio recording: clear instrument separation, natural room sound/ambience, and dynamic interplay. Focus on acoustic intimacy and space. Try: send piano, bass and drums to one shared room reverb and leave the levels unautomated, so the dynamics come from the playing.
• 75 Production Natural Acoustic Recording Space (Folk) Aim for a natural, acoustic sound, perhaps with minimal effects and capturing some room ambience, as if recorded in a live, resonant space. Focus on authentic acoustic character. Try: record an acoustic instrument with the mic a little further away than usual and keep the room sound instead of adding reverb.
• 76 Production Dry, Natural Acoustic Sound (Bluegrass) Mix your Bluegrass track with a focus on a dry, natural acoustic sound, emphasizing clarity and minimal use of reverb or effects, as if recorded in a small room. Try: remove every reverb, record close, and balance the instruments so each one is clear with no effects at all.
• 77 Production Big Band Section Blending (Swing) Mix a piece emulating a Swing big band, focusing on achieving a good blend and balance between the brass, saxophone, and rhythm sections, so they sound cohesive yet distinct. Try: group the brass, the saxophones and the rhythm section on three buses and balance the buses before touching any single instrument.
• 78 Production Spacious Reverb for Operatic Vocals (Emulated) When mixing an instrumental piece emulating an operatic vocal lead, use a spacious hall reverb to simulate the acoustic environment of an opera house, giving the "voice" grandeur and depth. Try: play the lead melody on a sustained instrument, send it to a long hall reverb, and keep the accompaniment drier.
• 79 Production Heavy Reverb and Delay on Synths (Retrowave) Apply generous amounts of reverb (hall, plate) and delay (ping-pong, stereo) to synth leads and pads to create the spacious sound of Retrowave. Try: put a ping-pong delay and a large reverb on the lead synth, then high-pass both returns so the bass stays clear.
• 80 Production Chorus Effect on Guitar/Synth (New Wave) Apply a prominent chorus effect to a clean electric guitar line or a synthesizer pad/lead, a hallmark of the New Wave sound, to create a shimmering, detuned texture. Try: add a chorus to a clean guitar or a synth pad and raise rate and depth until the shimmer is obvious but the pitch still feels steady.
• 81 Production Lo-fi Aesthetics: Vinyl Crackle & Warm Saturation Incorporate lo-fi production elements like vinyl crackle, tape hiss, wow/flutter, and aim for a warm, analog-like saturation in your mix. Create nostalgic imperfection as a stylistic choice. Try: add a vinyl noise layer, gentle tape saturation and a little wow on the main chords, then roll off some of the top end.

Limits on tools, notes and time

The most direct challenges in the deck: fewer tools, fewer notes, less time. They also stack easily with any card above.

Fewer tools

• 82 Malus One Synth Only Use only one synthesizer instance for all melodic and harmonic elements (drums excluded). Try: write every melodic and harmonic part on one track with one synth, and change the sound between sections with automation only.
• 83 Malus Preset Ban You cannot use any presets. Create all sounds from scratch with init patches only. Try: start every sound from an init patch and give yourself five minutes per sound.
• 84 Malus Random Plugin Roulette Use a random number generator to choose which plugin to use. No switching allowed. Try: number the effects in your plugin list, let a random number generator pick one, and build the next sound around it.
• 85 Challenge Aleatoric/Chance Music Elements Incorporate elements of chance or indeterminacy into your composition. This could involve performer choices, randomized processes, or variable structures. Try: write four two-bar variations, flip a coin before each section to choose which one plays, and keep the order the coin gives you.
• 86 Malus Mobile Composer Create a musical idea or beat using only a mobile phone or tablet app. Try: leave the computer off and make the whole idea in one phone or tablet app, then export it as it is.
• 87 Malus Mouse Free Complete this section using only keyboard shortcuts. Disconnect or don't touch your mouse. Try: look up the shortcuts for record, duplicate, split and zoom in your DAW manual, then put the mouse out of reach.
• 88 Malus No Undo You are not allowed to use the Undo function (Ctrl/Cmd+Z) for the next 10 minutes. Try: start a ten-minute timer, and when something goes wrong, fix it by playing or editing forward instead of going back.
• 89 Malus Backwards Workflow Start with mastering/mixing effects, THEN add the musical content to fit that sound. Try: put a bus compressor, a saturator and a reverb on the master first, then write the parts while listening through that chain.

Fixed tempo, notes and era

• 90 Malus 120 BPM Lock You must produce this track at exactly 120 BPM, regardless of the genre. Try: take a genre you would normally write at a very different tempo and make it work at 120 BPM, using half-time or double-time drums if needed.
• 91 Malus Slow Motion Set your DAW to 50% tempo and compose at that speed, then set it back before you export. MIDI parts follow the tempo; recorded audio only does if it is warped or time-stretched. Try: halve the project tempo, record a fast MIDI part at that comfortable speed, then return to the original tempo and listen to what it became.
• 92 Malus Minor Scale Only Strictly stick to the Natural Minor scale. No harmonic/melodic minor or borrowed chords. Try: write the notes of your chosen natural minor scale on a sticky note and use nothing else in any part, bass included.
• 93 Malus Alphabet Limit You can only use notes that correspond to letters A through G. No sharps or flats. Try: use only the white keys for every part and decide which white note is home for this track.
• 94 Malus Black Keys Only (Piano/Keyboard) If using a keyboard, restrict your composition to using only the black keys (G♭/F♯ pentatonic major). Find creative possibilities within constraints. Try: play the chords and the melody on the black keys only, and pick one of them as the root of the track.
• 95 Malus 80s Vibe Only Every element you add must sound like it came from the 1980s. Try: before adding each new part, ask whether it could sit on a 1980s record you know, and swap the sound if the answer is no.

Less time

• 96 Challenge Time Limit: 30 Minute Composition & Recording Attempt to compose and record the entire core idea of the piece within a strict 30-minute time limit. Embrace spontaneity and first instincts. Try: set a thirty-minute timer, record the core idea, and stop when it rings even if the idea is rough.
• 97 Malus Speed Run You have exactly 5 minutes to lay down the entire structure of the track. Try: lay out empty, named blocks for every section of the track in five minutes, and only then start filling them.
• 98 Malus Double Time Rush You have exactly 2 minutes to create a complete 8-bar loop. Try: start a two-minute timer, record a drum pattern and a bass line, and loop them out to eight bars before it rings.
• 99 Malus 30 Second Decisions You have max 30 seconds to make each creative decision. Use a timer and move on no matter what. Try: keep a timer in view and, whenever thirty seconds pass without a choice, take the first option in front of you.
• 100 Challenge Create a "Victory Fanfare" (VGM) Compose a short (5-15 seconds) and memorable "Victory Fanfare" suitable for signaling success or achievement in a video game, using uplifting melodies and strong harmonic resolution. Try: write a five-to-fifteen-second cue that ends on a held tonic chord, and bounce it before you allow yourself to start anything longer.

Make it a habit

One challenge gives you a sketch. A challenge a day for a month gives you a folder of sketches, and in our experience a few of those turn into tracks. You do not have to do it alone: several long-running public challenges work on the same idea.

• KVR One Synth Challenge. A monthly competition hosted on the KVR Audio forum where, in the organizers' words, tracks are made "using only one synth for absolutely all sounds, including percussion, then voted on." That is stricter than our One Synth Only card, which leaves the drums free. Challenge #212 opened on October 1, 2026.
• Jamuary. A January challenge run by the synth musician Cuckoo, who described it in an interview as encouraging people "to jam out a little musical piece, and post it to the world, mostly on Instagram, every day of January." In 2022, MusicRadar reported that Teenage Engineering was supporting it.
• FAWM (February Album Writing Month). "A global challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days," which began in February 2004 as a personal project of the songwriter Burr Settles. It is a songwriting challenge, so the cards in the songwriting set pair well with it.
• 50/90. A summer challenge that FAWM hosted from 2008 to 2024: 50 new songs in the 90 days from July 4 through October 1. FAWM paused it in 2025 and, for 2026, announced shorter Song Sprints instead (five songs in nine days).

Or keep it private. One card, twenty minutes, one bounce, and a new card tomorrow. The deck does the picking, so the only decision left is to start.