APRIL 2026 Patreon musical challenge: add chords to this lonely vocal! (Patreon)

Idea inspired by my Patron Hook: harmonize a song! Harmonizing means adding a bassline and optionally chords and other harmonic elements beneath and to support a melody. You provide the context for this melody to convey its musical meaning.

You decide what key your harmonization is in, what scale/notes/chords/arpeggios/riffs you use and instrumentation you want to add. You can do anything you want harmonically. Use your ear and trust your instincts and preferences. There is no right way to harmonize it. However, if give it a few goes and are feeling super stuck, please reach out to me and I'll give you some guidance.

What you are given

I've provided just the vocal track of a song at the top of this post for you to download! Click the 3 dots on the post and select "Download".

The BPM is 94 in 4/4, and I aligned the vocal file to start right on beat 1.

Scope of challenge

Your job is to flesh out the song harmonically.

Don't repitch, mangle, chop/splice, or effect the vocals.

So that we can keep things consistent across submissions, please align the vocal file provided with beat 1 of your session (i.e. don't offset the vocal rhythmically in the song). The first notes he sings are not on beat 1. There are several rests before he starts.

Try not to drastically change the song structure, because this isn't a remix challenge per se, but you can add an intro and an outro for the amount of time that feels right to you.

It's best if you're not influenced by what the original sounds like, so don't go sleuthing around to find the original track! Of course if you already know it, then nothing can be done about that and no worries there. At the end of the review video, I'll play the original.

Can you add drums?

I'm a little torn on this..try not to. Focus on the harmonization. If you want a pulse or rhythmic movement in place of drums, you could create that pulse with the harmonic elements. (We can do an "add the drums" challenge later!) But if you just gotta, I get it, as long as it doesn't prevent you from fully meeting the reharmonization challenge and it doesn't eclipse the other elements as we listen for your reharmonization of the song. Use a metronome when you're working on it so you know where the beats are!

Can I publish my submission on a streaming platform?

No, you'd need to get permission from the original artist first because this isn't a cover and it's closer to a remix because you're using their original recording. But as far as I know you can post it on YouTube and Soundcloud as an unofficial remix.

FORM TO SUBMIT

Deadline is your midnight on April 30th!