Usually in the conversation of lay people & musicians, lay people always ask "What songs could you play?" or "How many songs can you play?".
But as musicians, we know that we could put some deeper creativity into the songs in our repertoire. We can be playful with even the usual songs. The question now won't be about "what" anymore...but it's "how" are you going to do with that songs. The same excitement we feel when we play some games.
But as musicians, we know that we could put some deeper creativity into the songs in our repertoire. We can be playful with even the usual songs. The question now won't be about "what" anymore...but it's "how" are you going to do with that songs. The same excitement we feel when we play some games.
It's not merely about the song, but more about the music itself...it's all about creativity.
As I have an engineering background, I liken musical process development as an industrial process. The desired final products come out from the process, but the process will do no good without the inputs that go into the process.
In music there are 3 categories of input that I (subjectively) observed so far :
1. Motoric skill :
It's about the muscle movement and the nerves that control it, whether it's for pianist, guitarist, vocalist (with vocal cords), etc. It's a very vital training for all music players. Without this, how to make sound, right?
2. Knowledge :
With deeper music theory, we can analyze the music as system, break it down & re-assemble again in different way in the "process". We can break down what we hear into more logical things (more visual).
3. Hearing :
Hearing's our censor to recognize & label the musical components we listen to. This would help the musician to "feel" the music theory. Music theory could be quite logical, but it's got sound that we need to perceive.
These 3 interlink each other. Imagine if someone has theoritical knowledge but never practice his/her skill, no live performance here. But if someone has skill without knowing how music works (music concept), then he/she can't really create some ideas in his/her works.
The more inputs someone has, the more he/she can use it in the "process". It's basically a freedom based on his/her subjective taste/wisdom to arrange all the inputs he/she has into creative art-work of music (the output). It could be a live performance, arrangement, written composition, etc.
Wisdom would enable the musician to mix & match whatever he/she has to present the music as what he/she's intending to. Sometimes he wants it to be playful, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, something contemplative, or many things.
Personal taste will give color as "fingerprint" in the music one creates. Taste might come from birth, but it also could be developed/cultivated from inspirationally by listening others.
Learning music is about strengthening the inputs as well as developing wisdom & taste in the process. Explore more, sometimes we get the nice one, sometimes we fail...it's ok. They're all important aspects in our growth.
I personally love to use familiar songs & tweak them around into something different. Here I'd like to share some ideas that I often to use for re-arrangement :
1. It's all about the groove. For example:
- Take a rock-song...twist it to swing. This one would sound like Swing Child O' Mine. It really change the feel of the song.
- Take a slow song & make it into groovy stuff (you can do vice-versa, depends on the mood you want to create at the moment)
2. Get some striking idea from some tunes, modify it and apply it for other tune. We all learn from each other, influence each other, that's how we first learn music, we all play major scale, minor scale, Swing, Bossa Nova, guitar strumming, etc. This is the journey we're going through to eventually shape our personal uniqueness.
I've got the bass riff from "There's nothing like this", an acid jazz tune by Omar (just in case you wonder).
3. Re-harmonize the chords and make some alternative progression in it. Some dissonance could be quite colourful if we know how to handle it.
I've got the idea from Tuck Andres's version for "Over the Rainbow".
4. Change the tonality, could be from major to minor, or major to relative minor..and the combination. You might need to alter the melody according to the scale.
5. Modulation would be quite an affective idea for arrangement. Here's some modulation in the intro :
6. Mixing up some songs together. Ywenna (our keyboardist-singer in the video) mixed this first sample. In Singapore we've got food called "Rojak", it also means "everything mix together". The second one was when Julian & I spontaneously segued from "Englishman in NY" to "Happy birthday" as we had a birthday person in the house :
7. Instrumentation's arrangement. Explore some alternative possibilities. The first sample was taken at the Concourse Esplanade, it's where I wanted to feature bass as melody instrument, Matthew Siew was playing the piano beautifully. The second one was Joanna Dong on trumpet vocal, this is certainly very unique special ability, I was on bass at that time.
8. Sometimes just use simple structure, just play more improvisation :
9. And many other things that we can explore to mix & match.
The more we have the materials, we know more grooves, deeper theory (scales, harmony, progression, etc), the more we have things to mix & match.
So the question will still be, "HOW do you present the songs?" Let's explore our musical journey.
It's not merely about the song, but more about the music itself...it's all about creativity.
As I have an engineering background, I liken musical process development as an industrial process. The desired final products come out from the process, but the process will do no good without the inputs that go into the process.
In music there are 3 categories of input that I (subjectively) observed so far :
1. Motoric skill :
It's about the muscle movement and the nerves that control it, whether it's for pianist, guitarist, vocalist (with vocal cords), etc. It's a very vital training for all music players. Without this, how to make sound, right?
2. Knowledge :
With deeper music theory, we can analyze the music as system, break it down & re-assemble again in different way in the "process". We can break down what we hear into more logical things (more visual).
3. Hearing :
Hearing's our censor to recognize & label the musical components we listen to. This would help the musician to "feel" the music theory. Music theory could be quite logical, but it's got sound that we need to perceive.
These 3 interlink each other. Imagine if someone has theoritical knowledge but never practice his/her skill, no live performance here. But if someone has skill without knowing how music works (music concept), then he/she can't really create some ideas in his/her works.
The more inputs someone has, the more he/she can use it in the "process". It's basically a freedom based on his/her subjective taste/wisdom to arrange all the inputs he/she has into creative art-work of music (the output). It could be a live performance, arrangement, written composition, etc.
Wisdom would enable the musician to mix & match whatever he/she has to present the music as what he/she's intending to. Sometimes he wants it to be playful, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, something contemplative, or many things.
Personal taste will give color as "fingerprint" in the music one creates. Taste might come from birth, but it also could be developed/cultivated from inspirationally by listening others.
Learning music is about strengthening the inputs as well as developing wisdom & taste in the process. Explore more, sometimes we get the nice one, sometimes we fail...it's ok. They're all important aspects in our growth.
I personally love to use familiar songs & tweak them around into something different. Here I'd like to share some ideas that I often to use for re-arrangement :
I personally love to use familiar songs & tweak them around into something different. Here I'd like to share some ideas that I often to use for re-arrangement :
2. Get some striking idea from some tunes, modify it and apply it for other tune. We all learn from each other, influence each other, that's how we first learn music, we all play major scale, minor scale, Swing, Bossa Nova, guitar strumming, etc. This is the journey we're going through to eventually shape our personal uniqueness.
4. Change the tonality, could be from major to minor, or major to relative minor..and the combination. You might need to alter the melody according to the scale.
5. Modulation would be quite an affective idea for arrangement. Here's some modulation in the intro :
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