How would I: Create an instrumental cover of a song?

Hi Everyone,

Scenario: I hear a song online / on the radio, I don't know the name of it, can't find anything about the song (no tabs, sheet music, no chords, nothing!). All I have is the audio recording that I can play over and over.

How would you go about creating your own cover instrumental of this song? What steps would you take and in what order?

My goal is to be able to do this and would like to know how to get started.

My own thoughts on this is:
1. Focus on the melody, playing it and recording either tab or writing sheet music for the melody.
2. I would think the next step is figure out the chords to this song. This is where I begin to stumble. Do i need to figure out the key of the song first?! So i can then find the chords in the key and see which ones fit?
3. Once i figure out the chords I would then try and play the melody and build chords around it (chord melody style).
4. From here I begin to add filler notes and ghost notes ect. to add some depth and interest to the piece.
5. add flare and style with slides, hammer ones and pull offs and other techniques.
6. fit in dynamics (loud and soft playing to emphasize parts of the song) and add tension

Does this sound like a decent start? what am I missing? how do you figure out the chords to a song or the key of which the song is in? which is first?

Any help would be incredible.

Thanks

I don't create instrumental arrangements but I do try to convert what I hear into payable songs. I use a program called "Amazing Slow Downer". With this program, you can slow down a song without affecting the pitch. You can also raise or lower the key if you want to transpose higher or lower.
Very handy application.

Great, thanks for the tip. I will have to check it out. Sounds like a handy tool.

I just transcribed a song the other day as a Christmas gift...which is what it sounds like you are doing. I determine key and time signature first, then embed a recording (.wav) into Notion (notation app). I then figure out the general rhythm of the piece and tap that rhythm following the recording) using Notion's feature N-Tempo.

Then it is just a matter of matching notes and rhythms to the recording (trial and error)...and don't forget to use Swing playback if the song is "swung."

After the melody is transcribed, I make sure the song is in a singable key. So many artists sing too low (female) or too high (male) for the average singer.

then I add chords. I start with common chords from websites, but often find that those chords can be too simplistic or even wrong.

My final step is editing the final score...making the notation look the way I would like it to look.

Oh...And Notion allows for fretboard entry and for tab.

You're pretty much right one. Melody, then chords. Then put them together. Make sure you know both really well individually before you try and smash them together.

If I intended the piece to be a stand-alone instrumental, I'd probably put the "figure out the chords and put some chords to it chord/melody style" bit last—by and large, you only infrequently need full chords in an instrumental, and you play across the fretboard (using melody notes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings) much more than with chord/melody. In the latter, you typically have the melody almost entirely on the 1st string (except when going for low notes in first position) in order to have full harmonic support below it. So you're looking at a conflict of arrangement styles rather than one leading naturally to the other. I ran into this conflict demonstrably only yesterday.

Consequently, I start by getting the melody down, then I just add supporting harmony lines and partial chords; most of the time I don't think much about what chords are formed, because I'm going for the interplay of the harmony and melody lines, and the harmony line diverges from the fundamental underlying chords almost as much as the melody does.

For solo instrumentals (where my voice doesn't limit the key choice), I find it also matters greatly to choose the "right" key for my tuning, rather than sticking with the same key as my source material. An extreme case of this occurred last week: I found that by switching the contradance tune "The Rose Tree" from D to C, I could play the entire melody campanella using just 8th position and open strings—and mostly one hand shape! By changing key (or tuning), you can improve the sound of crucial chord voicings, get crucial low notes, smooth chord transitions, make shifts easier through strategic use of open strings…

A capo can help me temporarily sync up my arrangement with my source key, so that while I'm working things out, I don't need to transpose, but when I remove the capo (and maybe switch tunings) I'm playing in the key I want.

I agree with Ubulele

But.. it's probably going to be easier to search for the song.
If it has lyrics, since.. it's a radio song, you can search by lyrics and get the name.
Another way is to use something like Shazam (free phone app) that will identify songs from the mic in your phone.

There's many styles of arranging a song on uke. To tell you how to do it... is a tricky thing to put into concrete words. And if you got very technical about it... and understood it... you'd probably already know how to do it.

Really.. I think it's one of those practice practice practice things.

Go for the chords first. At least that is what I was taught. The melody notes are in the chord shapes, more or less.
But do whatever works.

What you describe is correct and I guess your right that its more about harmonizing them building full chords. I guess with my lack of experience in this area my wording is a little inaccurate.

You bring up a very good point about changing the key in order to make things easier. I wouldn't know how to go about doing that though. Any advice you can offer would be great.

I have been working out instrumentals for years. Some simple some a little tougher.

The first advice, I gave in another thread is, if possible, do it in the key of G. There are so many easy chord options to use in that key. For me it is almost cheating and a lazy way to play an instrumental.

As for melody/chords, generally chords, but it is a catch-22 depending on the melody and whether you run out of scale on the low end or most of the song is being played up the fretboard. Depending on the interpretation/presentation, you may want to balance the melody between lower notes (frets) and higher frets.

The most important element for me is learning the various chord shapes up the neck. Playing a G chord at the 2nd or taking the shape and picking up the D on the 5th (1st string) or playing a C shape barred or semi-barred on the 7th fret. There are also a bunch of different C chords. C is pretty crazy chord. The basic one note at the 3rd fret is only 1/4 of the C chords at that point because the full C chord at the 3rd is a barred A and you can as or take away whatever notes to fit the melody. And the there are all the C options at the 7th fret. Once you know what notes make up the chord you can make up whatever you need to fit the melody.

If you don't know the open, closed, partial chord shapes available, it is really tough, maybe impossible to play a fingerstyle instrumental.

John

Hi, Choirguy!

Choirguy said:

I determine key and time signature first, then embed a recording (.wav) into Notion (notation app). I then figure out the general rhythm of the piece and tap that rhythm following the recording) using Notion's feature N-Tempo.

Click to expand...

I don't have Notion. I have Finale. How do you embed wav file into Notion? Thank you very much in advance.

sukie said:

Go for the chords first. At least that is what I was taught. The melody notes are in the chord shapes, more or less.
But do whatever works.

Click to expand...

More or less what I was going to say

To my mind, some songs "present" their chord sequence almost automatically, so I note down the words (can make it easier to remember), mark in where the chord changes are then figure out the melody from this structure, note by note, word by word if necessary.

For some other songs I find myself whistling the melody without other prompting, so this goes straight down onto paper ... whistle a few notes, figure them out on whichever instrument is to hand (or most convenient), write them down, then edit the note timing, fit in the bar lines etc., then go back and figure out a chord sequence if I want one.

Note at this point that the limited range of a re-entrant ukulele may make things difficult to figure out the exact notes used in an original recording, depending on the key, and it may be easier to work things out initially on an instrument with a wider range then transpose for the ukulele.

As the man said ... do whatever works

My two tips, agreeing with everything said above:

- most of the time you can guess the key of a song by looking at the last note of the melody. This doesn't work on the odd song (especially modulating ones), but it's usually a very big in-your-face clue. If you have the key, you have the right family of chords at your disposal.

- Finding the right chords (harmonisation) is not an exact science, but more something like cooking with fixed ingredients: you want to emphasize bits, simplify others, 'the minor fall, then the major lift', put some downward or upward movement in the chord sequence... it's all a matter of choice.

zztush said:

Hi, Choirguy!
I don't have Notion. I have Finale. How do you embed wav file into Notion? Thank you very much in advance.

Click to expand...

Finale doesn't play very nicely with ukulele chords. But if you want to brave it: https://usermanuals.finalemusic.com/Finale2012Win/Content/Finale/Audio_Files1.htm

70sSanO said:

If possible, do it in the key of G. There are so many easy chord options to use in that key. For me it is almost cheating and a lazy way to play an instrumental.

Click to expand...

One other thing that I worry about is range of a song...I generally try to keep the notes between B below Middle C and the E on top of the staff (B4 to E5). Much lower and you lose tenors and alto; much higher and you lose altos and basses. In this range, men would drop an octave.

And while you can play in "tougher" keys, it generally makes sense to make chord choices as easy as possible for the player/singer...avoid C#/Db, D#/Eb, E, G#/Ab, and B (and their relative minors) unless you have a reason to be in those keys. (Meaning that C, D, F, G, A, and Bb are all better choices).

We have a thread about easy keys.

Which key is easy to play

Easy Keys on Uke and Acoustic Guitar

Choirguy said:

One other thing that I worry about is range of a song...I generally try to keep the notes between B below Middle C and the E on top of the staff (B4 to E5). Much lower and you lose tenors and alto; much higher and you lose altos and basses. In this range, men would drop an octave.

And while you can play in "tougher" keys, it generally makes sense to make chord choices as easy as possible for the player/singer...avoid C#/Db, D#/Eb, E, G#/Ab, and B (and their relative minors) unless you have a reason to be in those keys. (Meaning that C, D, F, G, A, and Bb are all better choices).

Click to expand...

We are talking about instrumentals. I wouldn't think there would be a whole lot of singing involved. I was influenced a lot by Jake's early songs. When you play those you are playing up the neck with a lot of open and stretch chords. But there is a lot of open G playing.

I used the example of C as the easiest because 3 of the 4 open strings are the C chord. This makes for a lot of variations of the C chord while leaving open strings.

Part of the fun of playing fingerstyle/instrumentals is figuring out the uncommon chord shapes up the neck. Sometimes I just happen to throw notes together and sometimes I actually construct the chord from the notes. For me it is just fun to figure out stuff and play. If I had to work that hard at it, the ukulele would lose it's appeal to me.

I rarely write things down, occasionally I'll jot a few things, and just play from memory. I have never done tab, not even when I played guitar. If I forget, I learn it again or move on. I also cheat by going on youtube and watching someone play. Years ago when I was working on Viva La Vida I even found a Japanese ukulele group playing it and picked up bits from that. Truth is, you can find a lot of ukulele songs there. A lot of times I toss out a good portion of the arrangement, but it gives me a good idea how I want to put it together, or not.

John

This is a very good thread. When I understand more about theory, more of it will make sense. I don't wish to rely on any fancy computer software, I already have FORTE, and I haven't used it once. So far, I have been content to learn whatever instrumentals I stumble on YouTube that have a decent tutorial, and some of the songs I now play are very pretty, and not hard at all. Problem is, I only know them in one key, so I ask the more experienced people I play with to switch to that key. It's rarely a problem.
I can't make stuff up yet, but Tammy (spouse) is very good at it. She came up with an instrumental part for Foggy Dew on her 8 string, and a very cool break for a Scarborough Fare, just by noodling around, she doesn't read music.
I had a Filipino friend once who could pick up his guitar or uke and make up a break to a song, or a whole instrumental version in 30 minutes or less, and he couldn't read a note of music, nor could he tell you what key he was in. He didn't care, because he had a great ear for music. He taught me to play Tennessee Waltz in C, and it's just beautiful.