Change (TA Variation) (Instrumental Master) Explained

When creating a Variation I tend to begin the writing process by building a percussion layer. And this was exactly how I began Change (TA Variation). I heard several ideas, in my head, that I began to play with. This process was the most timely as I couldn’t seem to find a pattern that I felt truly fit. So I left it several times, putting it aside for a month or so.

Below is the final percussion layer for the first for bars of the chorus.

While putting the percussion layer to the side, I began arranging the instruments by extracting the bridge’s synth solo in Change (Original). But instead, I dropped the top or melody line line below the bottom or bass line. I then used this motif as the structure for the entire song. This motif begins after the intro and plays through the remainder of the song, also excluding the outro, in one form or another. Meaning the motif is originally heard as a mellow guitar amp which then progresses into a more distorted amp towards the bridge of the song.

Below is the guitar motif.

I then began to build around this motif, deciding which layers from Change (Original) that I was going to keep or remove. I decided to keep both of the bass layer’s notes identical for the most part, however I did alternate the deeper bass’s guitar amp and rhythmic pattern. I also kept the guitar and pad layer, only changing the pad layer's sound. And interestingly enough, I decided to remove the piano layer, which was the entire foundation of Change (Original).

After I made these adjustments I began to add new layers, three guitar layers. After adding these layers, the percussion layer then began to become more solidified.

As far as the structure goes, I added an additional chorus, before the bridge, and an outro. The rest of the structure remains untouched from Change (Original). The final structure looks something like this: Into A B A B A B C B Outro.