If you can’t seem to come up with anything original, yet, feel free to even use an old tune and do a different, silly lyric, take an favorite riff and work it into that genre or rewrite a classic into the new style. There is a great band out there called Dread Zeppelin that does reggae versions of Led Zeppelin material, for example. For places that want a few cover tunes, I’ve come up with a Celtic-sounding redo of Elton John’s “I Need You to Turn To” and a Christian metal version of the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” If nothing else, this can be another small step to getting you into the mood for creating music in this new classification, and can also add to your resume if you supplement your songwriting with performance and need some more varied styles and cover numbers to help you get more work. As a performer, there is never such a thing as knowing too much.
After you have at least some silliness on tape, it is only a short step more from here to taking your rough idea, applying the songwriting rules you’ve learned to make your intro effective and reaching the chorus in time, a few quick lyric touch ups and you have a good rough draft started. At this point, you might bring in some fellow musicians who are better versed in this style to point out areas that need reworking—they may notice some things that will help you refine your composition into something that is pitchable. At this point, some writers will actually turn the piece over to some studio experts and let them finish the arrangements and add some proper genre vocals to complete the effect. You have, at least, at this junction, done the copyrightable part of the tune, and can leave the details to expert producers if this is not your forte. At least now, though, you’ve accomplished what you started out to do and have a song in a new genre under your belt.
THE LOW BUDGET VERSION
If you are like me, though, and just can’t afford the studio expert route, there are a few easy ways to finish out your production and keep it true to form. I love toys like my Yamaha QY10 and the sequencing programs on my computer—there are so many different arrangement loops available in just about every genre imaginable. Most are easily customized, too, so you don’t have to run into any problems with contests or websites that don’t allow sampling of existing work. Once you have the basic loop, just have fun with changing bass lines, percussion instruments on drum tracks (just make sure they are true to the style) and the actual notes played. A few passes and saves later, and the new piece is now indistinguishable from the original and is now your own. This also will keep your piece from sounding “dated,” since most of those loops are based on old popular material, and you want to sound fresh, not something from last year that’s no longer in vogue.
