I’ve been listening to Composer Quest for years, spurred on by this tweet from a Mr. Whitaker Trebella, who is a friend of the podcast host, Charlie McCarron.

Besides interviews with people in the creative field, and helpful audio workshops where Charlie goes over music production on tracks he’s recently created, they also do quests, which are compositional challenges. I try to do them when I can (or am even able!), but I definitely tried my hardest to stick it through the latest one: Composer Quest Olympics. A series of events, like Weightlifting and Hurdles, each proposed a different constraint for that section’s composition, and 10 days later it was due. I dig constraints, as it gives the otherwise unlimited potential for a single piece of music some guidance.

Well, six challenges, two-ish months, and an awards ceremony later, the CQ Olympics are complete: and I won 3 medals! Two were for challenges I did with one or more people, and one was for a solo effort.

It’s exciting to win anything at anytime, even though I was surprised on the ones I won for, and the one I thought was a shoo-in got 0 votes. I guess I don’t know what the people (read: this specific audience) was really looking for. Alas!