Up till now, our song is a fairly plain rendition of Frere Jacques, played once through. If we were to 'loop' this same song, it would get old real fast. If you listen to most popular music, you will hear that there are usually variations to the music to keep it interesting. There are many ways of doing this, I can think of a few:

• Changing instruments: This is standard in bands: different instruments will alternate "taking a lead"
• Vary the melody: Take the tune and add slight variations. This could also be a verse/refrain pattern.
• Key change: Change key up or down after a few times through.
• Change tempo: Start out slow and speed up, stops, etc.
• Change style: How would Chuck Berry or Bob Marley play it?

There are some sample variations below. Open them up in Anvil Studio and see how the tracks have been altered to change the sound.

Minor Key

Do a quick review of the Scales section. How would you play this song in a minor key? The recipe for a minor key is to flat the third (E), fifth (G), and seventh (B) notes in the scale. So if you open the song up and make those changes to all E, G, and B notes, it completely changes the feel of the song. In this sound clip, the tempo is slowed down, and there is a church organ playing the chords. The drums alternate between bass and cowbell. I envision the rhythm of a grave being dug by hand. Kind of creepy......

Here is our song in C minor:

You can download the C minor clip here: fj/fj_minor.mid and open it in Anvil Studio to see how it is assembled. (Right-click "Save As")

Variations of Melody

In this variation, the lead instrument is "fuzz guitar." The 1/4 notes are broken into 1/16 note trills, but the melody is still recognizable.

Here is our song with fuzz guitar:

You can download the fuzz guitar clip here: fj/fj_leadvary.mid and open it in Anvil Studio to see how it is assembled. (Right-click "Save As")

Chord Changes

Here is another example. You will recognize the first 8 measures as the completed song. The second 8 measures are the same melody, but with chord changes: Measure 9 drops down to "G", and the melody, bass and chords are played in "G". Then measure 10 is back up to "C". Each time the chord changes, the original melody is simply raised or lowered to that key. The chord pattern is G-C-G-C-F-C-G-C.

There are several ways to compose the second section. One way is, of course, to do it from scratch........ but certainly some copy and paste in the Mixer will speed things along. Then in the Composer you can highlight all the notes in a measure, and from the menu bar select: Track > Transpose > Selected Notes (Transpose means to change key) To compute how many half-steps to transpose, count the keys up or down to the root note of the key you wish to change to. For instance, to transpose "C" to "G", would be 5 half-steps down, so enter -5. Remember to do this for each instrument. ( except drums) Also if you listen close, you may hear some variations in the bass as it "walks" or leads you into some of the chord changes.

Here is our song with chord changes:

You can download the chord change clip here: fj/fj_change_crd.mid and open it in Anvil Studio to see how it is assembled. (Right-Click "Save As")