The Challenge
At the start of March, I spontaneously invented a challenge for myself: make one piano song a day, for the entire month.
 
The idea was to compose a short music piece using only the piano instrument in FL Studio. It didn't matter how short each piece was, as long as it was something new and unique.
 
I had a secondary goal to make the entire set 30 minutes long.

The Results
Long story short, I accomplished both goals! I created 31 tracks during March 2021, totaling over 30 minutes of music.
 
Check out how it all turned out below! I hope you enjoy! :D
 

You can download it on Bandcamp.

The Stats
I was able to collect some cool stats at the end of the challenge! I think it adds a neat context to the experience:
 
I spent 65 hours, 54 minutes composing the music, according to FL Studio. This means I spent an average of 2 hours, 7 minutes creating each song, or 14 hours, 53 minutes per week - that's like a part-time job!
 
The total length of the music is 30 minutes, 1 second. This means the average length is 58 seconds per song. The shortest is 38 seconds, and the longest is 1 minute, 39 seconds.
 
I wrote a total of 12650 notes, making for around 408 notes per song. This also means there's an average of 421.4 notes played per minute (thus, 7.02 per second). To compare, Für Elise has 1068 notes total, which is somewhere around 300 notes per minute). But hey, I'm certainly no Beethoven!

All 31 tracks! They have different tempos, so sizes don't match durations.

The Reflection
At the start, I had basically no clue how the challenge would turn out or how difficult it would be. But by the end I definitely learned a lot!
 
I've never done anything like this challenge. I don't consider myself much of a composer in general, with a general lack of experience with music theory and writing for real instruments. Although I did take piano lessons as a kid, composing is largely a different set of skills.
 
In the end, I was really surprised and proud of the results - I didn't know I was capable of creating the quality I achieved. Is there room for improvement? Yes, tons. But I surpassed my expectations at least, and that feels great. And of course, I simply am relieved to be done with the challenge.

At the start I was very optimistic, with quotes such as:
After a few days though, it was dawning on me how much I had left to do:
Mid way through, the music was infiltrating my dreams. I was realizing that my daily energy was drained a lot quicker, but I was still feeling optimistic:
In week three there was a moment where I documented feeling overwhelmed.
I felt better about it later that day, but the general sentiment the final week was eagerness to be done:
And by the end, I was both relieved and ready to reclaim the freetime for other adventures:
While I probably wont be doing something like this again for a while, I do think it was a really powerful adventure. Whether it's through creating music, art, or poetry, an entire month seems long enough to explore and expand one's capabilities, and learn a thing or two about one's ability to manage self-discipline and burnout.
 
I felt that there were a lot of styles I wasn't able to experiment with due to the daily time constraint and my limited experience in certain styles and in theory. But this challenge did give me a new understanding of what I can currently accomplish, and a new respect for music and knowledge that's beyond my range of experience.

This post lacked images, so here's just one of the project folder, nothing crazy.

The Friend
My good friend Plygon really helped me get through the challenge.
 
The night before March started, I mentioned I was going to try making one song a day for the month, and to my surprise, Plygon immediately joined in! I didn't expect that at all! Having someone participate alongside me was really great; it meant I had someone to talk to and relate to during the challenge. Plus, I got to hear awesome music from a friend every day, which was motivating!
 
In the end, he also made it through the challenge with 31 awesome piano pieces. You can listen to his piano music here, on Bandcamp!

The Future
In general, I still feel like this project is complete in some ways. I want to come back to this when I have a bit more time and make something cool with it.
 
I had a few ideas, including a music video project. But it is even more ambitious than my last one, and I definitely have more important projects to work on first!
 
Also, some people have asked if I could learn to play the pieces on a real piano. With enough practice, all of the pieces are technically possible to play, but I'm currently not patient enough to put in that sort of time. I might record them being played on a real piano another way though!
 
I don't know, we'll see where it goes. For now, it's simply up on Bandcamp to listen to and to buy! :)

The End!
Alright, that's it for this post!
 
A quick status report: Right now I'm finishing up my 2021 Projects Video for YouTube, and continuing with the weekly Friday Mine Blocks Beta updates.

Have a great day!! 👏💦
- Zanz