Instant Songs

Sometimes you need new tunes in a hurry. Sure, you can always just pull out the drum machine and use canned patches and toss something together, but many song contests and publishing houses don't allow sampling, unless you write your own samples or get permission from the original artist. Sometimes, too, you just can't get a group of musicians together to jam out a new song. Here's a quick way to come up with a completely original composition in record time. You might find yourself writing like this on a regular basis if you discover that you like making music in this manner.

PICK A SONG, ANY SONG

Find a song you like that is in the same genre or could be used in the genre you desire. Take your staff paper or a blank page and jot down an equivalent number of bars-just count them out, and mark them on your paper with your vertical lines. Note where the intro, verses, prechoruses if there are some, choruses, bridges and outros are and demarcate these. Now take a blank sheet to use for the lyrics and count out where the syllables are and mark these down on your bar sheet. Note where the drum fills, guitar riffs and other solos begin and end. You now have the bare framework finished.

START SOMEWHERE-ANYWHERE

If you'd always liked to hear some part of this song done differently, start there. Change the part and make it your own and rewrite it as differently from the original as possible. Just the act of significantly changing one part often makes the rest of the song a breeze to rewrite. Change instruments, keys, modes, chords and rhythms. Rewrite lyric and melody lines or whatever else you have the first urge to do. You can always rewrite later if you decide you could do it in yet an even different way. Just get it down on paper or tape or whatever and use this as your foundation for the new song you are about to compose.

FILL IN THE BLANKS

Now go back and have some real fun. Plop down drum bits, bass lines, riffs and words here and there until you fill in all the main gaps on the bars page (and hopefully the lyric sheet as well). You may even find, if you stop periodically, that the original tune was just "too busy" and a simpler form may do just fine. Sit back and just tweak the production one line or bar at a time if you need to until you're happy with the result. Do a final copy, fill out the copyright form and ship it off. You're done!

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