How To Make A “Cover Song” Your Own

radioactive cover song

A great cover song has something different that sets it apart from the original. There are a lot of ways to create a unique cover song that people will love to listen to.

Here are a few-

1.) Find a song that you love. If you’re looking to get a lot of youtube views, choose a new, popular song to get the ball rolling. For me, I just choose songs that I love and I think other people will enjoy- some are well known, others not so much.

2.)Learn it well- the melody and the chords. If you can’t play an instrument, it’s never too late to learn. I highly recommend learning the piano or guitar- the ukulele is a great, simple string instrument to start with. Check out this great website for learning the piano- www.pianolessonsonline.com. Want to take private guitar lessons from a great teacher? Check out- https://jeffrey-thomas.com

I also teach piano! If you’d like to start learning piano today, contact me here- http://www.howtosingsmarter.com/contact/

You don’t have to be an awesome piano/guitar player to accompany yourself. You just have to know some simple chords and let your voice be the star of the show.

Check out my new cover song video to see what I mean (simple chords- it’s mostly about the voice)-

“Radioactive” Cover Song

 

3.) Reimagine it- Let your musical influences guide you. Play around with the melody, tempo, time feel and instrumentation. Karaoke tracks generally sound just like the original song, so you are limited to changing just the melody and phrasing. To create a truly unique cover song, you’ll want to do it with live instruments or a track you create.

In my “Radioactive” cover song video, here’s how I changed it up from the original-

  • I changed the instrumentation- just voice and simple piano chords. It’s a big difference from the original hard rocking version.
  • I chose a song originally sung by a man. Imagine Dragons has a male vocalist.
  • I slowed the song down and changed the time feel- I put a little R&B in my Rock. This choice was really just guided by my musical influences. I love rock music/singers that have some funk, soul & blues influences. Prince!
  • I altered the chords slightly in the bridge and at the end of the song. I added an extra color tone to the chords in the bridge (I added the 2 for those of you who play). A subtle difference, but something unique to my version.

I hope this article helps you create an awesome cover song video of your own! Please share a link in the comments section so everyone can enjoy your hard work!

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