Recreating songs

1. Is recreating songs a good way to learn?
2. How do you reverse engineer a song?

Is recreating songs a good way to learn?

You gain intuitive knowledge

When you remake tracks, you repeat a lot of techniques. It might be drum programming, sound design, writing melodies in a certain way—whatever. After months of doing this, though, you'll start to find that you get stuck less when working on your own music.

How do you reverse engineer a song?

In that regard, here are some ideas for how to reverse engineer a song, to learn from it:

1. Choose a song that you love, and that seems to be generally regarded by other musicians as a great song. ...
2. Sing the melody unaccompanied. ...
3. Write down and play the chord progression. ...
4. Write down and recite the lyric.