 Hi everyone, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music in this lesson I'm going to teach you in very simple words of a want of a better word how to destroy a song in five simple ways So when would you need to do this destruction or how to transform a song? I guess transform may be a better word, but I like the word destroy. It's fun. You can use this primarily in songs which Have thousands of versions or millions of versions maybe you know So if you're learning a song from Whatever Spotify or the source or the original artist do you really want to make it sound like the original artist? Is that gonna help you in a market or in a in a playing field which is which has so many players You know where everyone is trying to cover the song So I would not want to discourage you from learning the song to the tea the way it's composed But at the same time I also want you to to stand out from the crowd There may be so many players who can play well who are playing the song, you know Everyone's heard that there are so many versions of this song itself, right? So that's what I'm planning to do in this lesson and stick around There'll be five very very interesting techniques and a lot of them will include music theory using your brain and your ear to bring out maximum creativity and Always exploring. Okay, and we are here to learn it by no means Any disrespect or I'm not dissing the song which I'm choosing I've just had to take a song which you probably know so that we can destroy it It could be twinkle twinkle. It could be an Adele song It could be anything but I've ended up taking this song home on the range Which at least I used to hear as a kid then I'm sure a lot of you have been playing it and continue to listen to it It's a great song That's all in that's pretty much all the lyrics I remember so it's not about the lyrics It's about the tune and figuring things out and how you can modify it So yeah, let's get into some transformation or as I like to call it destruction techniques of a song And I do this primarily so that students who I teach can create versions of songs Which which which you know it the way I look at a cover if you're doing a cover of a song And you're at a certain level on an instrument or if you have a band and you guys are trying to make a Statement and get gigs my advice to you is either do something which people like or which people hate Right, so you don't want to be in that in-between region where people are like yeah It's a nice performance I enjoyed it and then they forget it the next day because the same performance is played by so many people So I like to be either you know you hate you hate me or you really like me So if they don't hate you the odds that they will love you are going to be really really high really really strong Because it starts becoming very binary Okay, so let's get cracking the first technique. I have for you is Transposition wherein you take the same song which is on well. This is where theory is important So this song I'm going to pick it on the F major key F major scale One flat namely B flat As some of you know who are on the channel for a while. I don't really like C major for just we are not friends So I'm just taking F major. So the melody. Why don't we just get cracking with the original melody? Just get a feel of it and play along get your keyboards out and then we'll transform it Original songs on the on a three by four waltz meter, right? play along Okay, I'll play till there. There's a little there's a remaining part also Let's not bother. This should do for this chapter. Okay. So first job is now you've written down F major scale How can we transform a song by transposing a song? What is transposition? You transpose a song either by scale or by key now if you transpose it by key It's not gonna sound very drastically unique It's still the same song. I now did it on C major F sharp It's still the same tune. So what I like to do is transpose by scale rather than key. So you take F major scale And now superimpose it with the F minor scale or what we call as the parallel minor scale so you superimpose the minor and What's gonna happen? What's the difference between major and minor now the third the sixth and the seventh? So wherever you encounter a third you need to now play it with a minor third. So instead of playing a You're gonna play a flat Instead of playing the D Which is the six you're gonna play D flat instead of playing the E You're gonna play the E flat There we go. So the whole F minor would now be a Lot more pensive melancholic and so on which may not be what this song ever wants you to feel But that's the point of this lesson to change the song. So Now most of that is the same but Now that a Is part of the major scale. So why can't I play the A flat which is gonna make it minor You've converted it into minor now and minor has many forms. You have the natural you also have the harmonic minor which is What I meant by scales you're transposing to scale not to key you're still in the key of F But in the key or rather in the scale of F Minor or F harmonic minor or F natural minor That's your harmonic minor Okay There we go. I've ruined your favorite song. I hope I have not anyway So moving forward so I've talked about a melodic trick where you change the scale And then the harmony also has to change. I also now have a rhythmic trick Which you may actually like because it won't change the melody. It won't change the tune This is where I want you to understand time feel So a time feel is just how you divide time if I'm moving my head like this one two three Two three I can divide this by two One and two and three and one and two that's dividing by two also known as eighth notes or quavers two and three And two remember. It's a three by four home on the range One and two and three and one and two you can swing this one and two and three and one and two and three You get your whole body now Seems to swing like this or sway two and three Versus straight one two three one straight Swing boom boom one and two still three four the same speed but Swinging swing two and three and one and two There's a nice video which I've done which I'll leave in the description About how I contrast straight and swing time feels do check that out in the description We'll keep that there and there's also the idea of dividing by three where you go one and two and three And one and two and three and one and two One and two and three beats are getting divided by Three two and three and back to straight dividing by two one two and three and one and like people marching now one and two And now swing Swinging One and two You can even do dividing by four which may be a bit too much for this song but still So if you bring that time feel into your system into this ecosystem, you're going to get very very interesting results So if you just start with eighth note straight Sounds like the original One and two and three and one and two But swing Right you're getting that swing bluesy impact. You can even do triplets So it creates a version which I think is very different from the original The original artists may not have considered triplets, which is what we don't remember it by But now when you do add the triplet You're not changing the song now unlike the earlier version where you change the key You're just making it different. You're just making it bringing in your own stamp, you know on the song. So triplets One two three triplet triplet triplet triplet swing Okay, so that was a second way to kind of transform or destroy a song You're doing swing triplet versions moving on to point number three now This is what may be an acquired taste for listeners But basically change the meter or change the time signature of the existing song Now you may be wondering this is a song composed in three by four how on earth Can you possibly even consider that? You know, but Stick with me. So if you take Forget the melody for now. I want to create a four by four vibe So I want to make it three by I want to make a three by four song four by four somehow So let's develop a nice four by four groove, which you may know Like an arpeggio I like that Take some time to adjust So start with the groove, you know and then try to build from there, right? So One two three And then try to bring the melody over that, right? So another thing we can do So we've looked at four by four. Why don't we now move to five? What if home on the range was five? So if you take the tune and try to realign it, it'll take you some time to prepare But eventually you could play the tune on five or any other signature. For example, oh, give me a That's three One two now if I make it five then I have to think one two three four five one two three four five One two three four five one two three four five one two three four five one two three four five one so a good way to start Is say the one two three four five and see if you can sing the tune Superimposed with the numbers. So oh 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Dramas would quite enjoy this version, I think. Okay, so you can do that, you can do maybe 7. 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, 2. The most the same song, isn't it? But same note, same melody, same scale. But it's now revisited rhythmically on a different time signature. So, we've done two rhythmic things so far. We've made it swing, straight and given it a triplet feel, but retain the time signature. then we are now changing the time signature as well, which kind of really gets into destroying the song. Anyway, moving forward, I'd like to look at a harmonic concept. We've looked at a melodic concept in the beginning to transpose the scale. Now, harmonic concept would be various reharmonization techniques or chord substitution techniques, where you take pretty much the same song, same scale, blah, blah, blah, same rhythm, same pattern, but just think about the reharmonization tools, which you may know. And in a nutshell, what you could do is in between chords, you could sneak in another chord, which kind of works, or you could use borrowed chords, where you're stealing a chord from some other scale, you know, which comes into this scale, or you're trying to pass, you're trying to use a bass line, you're trying to glide from chord to chord through various concepts. And instead of me spending a lot of time on reharmonization in this lesson, we've done an entire three-part series, a long list of videos, which can help you. It's all in the description. We also have something on our site, which can help you learn it well. So do consider being a member of NathanielSchool.com to receive a lot of tutorials and written help. And also check out the playlist on YouTube and subscribe. Anyway, moving on. So let me just fool around with this and see how we can add a reharmonization or embellishments to Home on the Range. Can add a seven. Okay. Can add a B flat minor, which came from F minor. That's an F over E and the Antelope. That's a secondary dominant. You can climb there. Another thing you could do is add like a passing two, five, one cadence, maybe at the word home. Oh, give me a home where the buffalo. Oh, give me a home where the buffalo's room. Plagal cadence is to pass. So there are a lot of techniques which you can do to kind of reharmonize the song and it just dresses it up differently. Just wears a different costume for the party, so to speak. The original chords are great, but if you want to create your own avatar for the music and you like this song and you want to cover it, these are tools which can help you and also grow as a musician and player. So I have one more strategy for you, which I think I enjoy the most to restructure or transform a song. That would basically be bring back groove and think of genres. So what is a groove? A groove is just a pattern created with low and high frequencies, generally played on drums or percussion instruments like the tabla or the congas and so on. So keep either a groove or a genre into focus. So maybe I have this groove in mind. Something maybe Indian in nature. This group cut. Now you're somehow trying to align the song home on the range, which is by no means an Indian song to align with this ecosystem. Let's try something salsa. We move from an Indian group. Let's look at something salsa. Definitely something Latin. You might have to shift this song to a four by four song though because the salsa grooves on four. So quite liking all these grooves. Let's think of one more genre before we are done with this. Reggae. What about some make this very Bob Mali. So start with the groove always and then bring and remember you don't have to necessarily play it all on the piano. You can always sing it. You don't have to play the melody with the chords and the rhythm. You can sing the melody and let the chords and the rhythm pattern remain. Okay guys. So yeah, that's how you. Well, you could even just think of a drum groove. You know, let's say a traditional rock drum groove. Something like the rock and maybe bluesy or go back to the normal versions. There we go. That's five ways to destroy or transform a song. We've looked at initially transposing to a different scale not key. So F major could become F minor or F something else. Then we looked at swing straight versus triplets bringing the time field vibe into the equation. Then we looked at messing with the time signature starting with simple four by four and then we somehow figure out a way to possibly make the melody five work with five work with seven by adjusting the notes. Then we look at a rather advanced harmonic concept called reharmonization using chord substitution borrowed chords secondary dominance and so on. And last but not least the fun of it all by picking a genre picking a drum groove and just trying to play with that drum groove. If the drummer just played that groove like an Indian groove or a Latin groove or a blues groove, you just have to play home on the range with everything. So I hope that was insightful for you. Hope you can use it in your own music and make some awesome music or rearrangements if you will. There are people like Jacob Collier who have won Grammys for rearranging songs. So I think rearrangement by respecting the same song structurally is a very important thing which I think we'll be encountering in this decade. It's a very important tool because there are so many songs out there and there are so many great songs of the past which are being absolutely forgotten and sometimes unfortunately stolen, ditto stolen. So it's something we can do to also bring back great music from the past and by past it's sometimes just a couple of decades where songs are just being stolen or regurgitated poorly if you will. So this is where you can kind of help the cause if you think about it by bringing in let's say a Beatles song or an old song and an old you know tune or classical tune also but present it in a way which can work for a 2022 audience or maybe your audience maybe your band has a certain vibe you don't want to change that vibe. So you can say we'll play this song which everyone seems to know in our way. So you could take like a modern dance song and if you're a blues band do that in a blues way and people may actually go crazy you know they'll really love that version and they'll never listen to the original again which may be a good thing to do if you're destroying modern pop songs make them forget all about the modern pop song and make it your own. Okay guys this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel hope you found the lesson useful do consider giving the video a like leave us a comment with something you'd like to learn in the future and if you'd like something more structured if you want to join a course you can fill up the form in the description or go to Nathanielschool.com support us on Patreon where the notes for this lesson and all of our other lessons are available and stay safe. Cheers catch you in the next one.