Songwriting Tip:
Bastardize a popular song to create your own
Here is a little exercise that I have some of my private students do. I have them pick a song. Then analyze the form, and general compositional ideas from the song. Then they are to write a song that sounds nothing like the original, but uses the same form and ideas. So if a song starts with the guitar alone playing a riff 4 times, their song has to do the same thing. If there is a bass playing a single note while a guitar is playing different high end chords over top, and the drums are playing accents on the high-hat, their song will also do that. But again the biggest part is not to have the same feel as the original song. The end product should not be able to be traced back to it's origin.
This not only helps you look at the structure and arrangement of a song a little more closely that you might normally,but it helps you work creatively within the confines of that structure. And restrictions help you become more creative.
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