Composing Smooth Jazz: Evolution of a New Song – Transcendance, Part 2

(Part 1 can be found here.)

Now that I’ve got a good working groove going, I can start to actually design the song with chord changes and melody that way I originally heard it and described it on that envelope.

It’s time now to compose bass and keyboard parts that incorporate the chord changes that I’m hearing. Also, I’ll add a little guitar chop part that adds some spice to the groove. What I end up with is the basic backbone of the song:

Basic Backbone

To add even more spice to this tune what I’ll do is, after repeating the basic backbone of the song twice, I’ll insert a transitional section that incorporates more aggressive drum sounds that increase the tension and excitement of the song:

Transition

At this point I have the basic song composed to my liking. It’s time to add some saxophone.

I never know quite what I’m going to do when I start adding saxophone. That’s part of the fun of it, of course. Hearing things as you go along and getting them recorded is the part of the creative process that is so addictive.

Anyway, the basic melody goes like this:

Basic Melody

Now this song is really starting to sound like something! And, amazingly, it sounds just like I was originally hearing it.

Yesterday, I got really lucky. My buddy and long-time musical collaborator, bassist Chris Sidwell, was in town from Florida where he lives, and agreed to come over and lay down some real bass on this tune. I say lucky because, while my synth bass part was certainly adequate, Chris’ bass part adds a vibrant element of real life that is very exciting.

So here we have the song, Gotta Wannit, with a fairly full sax treatment, live bass, and a form that is pretty solid. This is sounding more and more like a real tune:

Basic Song

I’m lovin’ it!

Continue to Part 3 —>