Music • Target: 45 mins

Rebuild by ear

Learning something real by ear and then changing it gives you material to push against.

Steps to follow:

Pick eight bars of a song you know well.
Work them out by ear on an instrument or in a music app. Don't look up the notation.
Change one element: the tempo, the key, the rhythm or the instrument.
Write a four-bar answer section that fits the changed version.
Record both parts together.
Listen back with your eyes closed and mark the one moment you'd want to keep.