Award Sounds Music, Photography and Consultancy

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.

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