The closer you are to finishing a song, the less likely you are to experiment with radical changes. At the start of your process, you might change chords, try different lyrics, and even change the melody. But as your song nears completion, the changes you might try are usually small ones. The song feels “set”, somehow, and you don’t feel very inclined to make substantial modifications.
That’s normal. But I might suggest that there are 3 changes you should try with every song you write. They are substantial changes in the sense that they will greatly affect the overall sound of your song. And sometimes that change will be the thing that brings the song alive. Many don’t know that Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” began as a song in 3/4 time. Switching it to 4/4 made all the difference.
So if you’ve finished, or are close to finishing a song, here are 3 ideas to try, just to see if something greater is lurking in the background.
1. Switch modes.
If you’ve written a song in A minor, you might see if switching it to major is a change you’d like. Let’s say your chords are something like the following: Am Dm Am Dm Bdim G Am. Switching the chords so that they belong to the “parallel major key” of A major would give you: A D A D Bm G A.
Don’t forget that changes to your chords will likely mean some small changes to your melody as well.
2. Switch time signatures.
Just as Bob Dylan created a hit when he changed “Like a Rolling Stone” to 4/4 time (it’s hard to imagine that song resonating with the public in 3/4 time), you should experiment with other time signatures.
Switching from 4/4 to 3/4, or vice versa, is the most likely choice, but there are other possibilities. You can change a 4/4 song to 5/4 by slightly elongating one of the existing 4/4 beats. Example: “Everything’s Alright” (1973)
Pink Floyd performs “Money” in 7/4, as is the verse of The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”. Keep in mind that 7/4 usually comes across to the audience as 4/4 + 3/4, or 3/4 + 4/4.
3. Radically change the tempo.
Every time you perform a song live, you’re likely doing it at a slightly different tempo, and that’s normal. But what I’m proposing here is to make a radical change to your tempo choice, the kind that Eric Clapton does in his solo unplugged version of “Layla”.
And as you’ll notice with “Layla“, a complete reworking of the tempo will usually mean a complete reworking of the instrumentation and feel of the song. In that regard, though a tempo change seems to be the least invasive change you can make (the chords, lyrics and melody stay the same), it can result in the most noticeable difference of all three potential modifications.
Have you ever changed a song you’ve written, and had that change make all the difference to its success? Feel free to comment below.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
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