1 Songwriting

experiential learning: mash-up

Can you find two songs that would work in a mash-up? If you’re not sure where you start, listen to the song Four Chords by Axis of Awesome and look at this list of songs (from Wikipedia) with this classic chord progression (I-V-vi-IV). Listen to one of the songs you know (you might try listening to a karaoke or instrumental version so the words are not distracting) and try singing another song from the list along with it. Hint: If you do not have experiencing transposing songs, it will probably help to listen to two songs recorded in the same key.  Then, use the audio recording tool below to record a ~30 second mash-up of two songs, playing the instrumental backing for one song on a digital audio player (e.g., Smartphone) and singing the other song at the same time.

Here is an example of a 30-second mashup I created sampling the backing track from Adore You (by Harry Styles) and lyrics from Apologize (by Timbaland and One Republic).