It has been a while since I’ve done one of these but I had to get this out there because it just worked really well for me.

When I was writing music in high school my piano made a suggestion to me when I got stuck with what to write next. She told me to try taking some melody I already have and play the notes backwards to see if anything interesting comes of it.

For a decade I have tried this tip and nothing really came of it. However, last week I was trying to come up with an intro to a hymn and I played the last line of the song backwards and wah lah! It was perfect! I was so excited that after trying it many times it finally worked and it worked really well. I’m excited to finish the song!

So, try it and maybe you’ll get something from playing a melody backwards!