Repeat material

One thing I learned at Berklee while studying composition is about repeating material. One of my teachers said to never repeat the same material in the exact same way. Change something about it whenever it’s repeated so it’s slightly newer and more fresh.

While you might not always want to do that with every single piece of music you write it can be a great way to keep a piece of music sounding fresh even when you’re repeating lots of the same material.

It’ll also make the piece of music look a little more thought out because rather than repeat ideas in the exact same way you’re rephrasing them and saying them in a slightly different way.

One easy way to do this is to switch what instruments are playing the melody. Another thing you can do is re-voice the chords. Or you could change the arrangement slightly. Use slightly different rhythms that create a similar groove.

It can take some extra work to do but it’s definitely worth it so give this technique a try.