Revamp - Musical Creativity 40

Take an old track and change the style of it.

I'm amazed how many tracks can be given more life by changing the style of music. I pick tracks that I've never fully finished to my satisfaction and apply a different musical style to them.

Identify the original style

What's wrong with the original track?

• Did it just plod along?
• Lack of melody?
• Lack of interest?
• Too much repetition?
• Didn't fit the video?

I usually pick a style that will help fill the gaps. For instance, if it's just plodding, I'll add something with a groove (e.g. motown). A few ideas:

• Add some distortion to the drums (better still route them through a send with a guitar amp simulator) and blend the clean and processed signals. This may only be needed for a bar or two rather than the whole song.
• Speed the whole thing up a few bpm will give it more energy.
• Slow it down a few bpm and you may find that you can play with the groove more.
• Change the starting key
• For guitarists, look at playing with open versus fretted chords. I find that changing the key on a guitar can make a large difference to the tone. Consider the standard Am chord played at the nut compared to the tone of the same shape chord with a barre played at the 5th fret forming a Dm. Every decent guitar I've played provides a drastically different tone for these two chords. Same again if you move up another 5 frets.
• Modulate
• Change the dynamics
• Change to double time - The change is about 2 minutes into The Stand-Off
• Pause/Break - The change to double time is provided by a break, complete with drums keeping time
• Play it on another instrument and focus on the rhythm or melody - does it highlight any issues or any ideas?

A good way to approach this is as a remixer or as a band about to cover your music. Ask the following question:

What could another band do if they had to cover your music?

 

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.