Seeing the big picture(the overall effect)

I've gone over most of the technical aspects of arranging in my previous posts, but now I thought I'd get into why arranging is important. I'm sure you've all heard remixes of songs or covers of songs. Some of them are better than the original, some are worse and others are simply different. There are a lot of things that can make one arrangement more enjoyable than another and of course everyone has different tastes, but I'll go over some basic ideas on creating interest and different effects.

Use pauses and breaks- This may seem cliche and it is, but it works. Try dropping a beat or a whole measure. Once the music comes back in people will go crazy. Make sure this comes at an important point in the song, for maximum impacts. Good places for it are the measure before the verse goes into the chorus or in the middle of the 2nd or 3rd verse. Anyplace where you think people are getting bored and you need them to get excited again is a good place.

(Listen for the breaks at 0:48, 2:53, 3:23)

Change instruments or parts - Adding or deleting instruments can add some interest to your songs and can creating an sense of building to an otherwise boring and static arrangement. Try adding some strings during the 2nd verse, or add some percussion during the chorus. You can also have some instruments play different parts. For example during the 2nd verse have the guitar double the keyboard line or have a 2nd guitar double the main riff an octave higher or lower. All of these things can add a small change that is just enough to keep things interesting without changing the feel of the song. Sometimes something as small as having the drummer switch from the hi hat to the ride cymbal can add something to a song.

(The intro is only the orchestra, followed by the melody played by the oboe, then the woodwinds and finally the guitar enters. This is a beautiful arrangement)

After chorus break down- This is another old trick that works almost every time. After the 2nd chorus of a song or any high point, drop the energy, by adding a quiet section with sparse instrumentation. Then after a period of 4 to 16 bars ramp the energy up and your listeners will go nuts.

(The break down comes in at 3:16)

Style and instruments- Before you start to record or perform your song, think about the style of your song and also the instruments you are using. In some cases you might be limited by things like money, human resources, etc, but most of the time you will have some flexibility with this. Think to yourself, what type of emotion should this song convey and are the instruments/styles I'm using evoking that. For example a song that is angry and aggressive might not come off too well with 2 acoustic guitars and vocals. That's not to say that it can't be done, but it puts all of the responsibility on the performers. If that same song is done by a rock band, the drums, driving rock bass and crunchy guitars will bring you half way there even without great performances. Sometimes it's nice to have the lyrics/singer/lead instrument be the polar opposite of the arrangement, but often people just do this out of laziness or a lack or knowledge. There is no reason to be locked into a genre in 2014. Nobody is going to go berserk because you have a blues song and a bossa nova song on the same album. Explore your options.

 (The orginal version)

(The arrangement that is generally acknowledged to be better. Notice how the rock feel and the guitar tone adds an aggressiveness to the song and propels it forward.)

Opposites are attractive- Often times during songs you'll have different instruments doing different things. The question is, what should you have them do? The answer is often times, the opposite of something else. For example if you have a lead guitar and a singer, while the singer is singing the guitar should either be playing chords, a light riff or not at all. However when the singer pauses, the guitarist should play a fill. Singer on, guitarist off. Singer off, guitarist on. If you listen to reggae you'll notice this happens often with the bass and the guitar. The bass on the down beats and the guitar on the off beats. The same happens between a piano and a guitar. If the guitar is playing a riff on the low strings the piano plays high. If the guitar part is busy the piano part is sparse. This is a good way to arrange a song with lots of different instruments.

(Listen to how the vocals and guitar trade off)

(Bach is a master at trading melodies back and forth between instruments) 

Melody switch- Have a new instrument carry the melody and it works even better if you can do this while a new melody is playing. Remember you can change things around slightly and people will still be able to recognize the melody as long as it's similar to the originally melody. For example have your guitar play the chorus melody during the 2nd verse, but change a few of the notes so the match the current chords.

(Listen to the melody repeated using different insturments at 0:00, 0:25, 1:50, 3:09, 3:28, etc. Click here to read about more crazy stuff in Gentle Giant songs)

Keep things dynamic- For a short song there isn't much time for your listeners to get bored, but for anything over about a minute you're going to need some variation. Of course you'll be varying the chords and the melody, but there are money other things you can change too. Try changing volume between sections, or the drum, bass, guitar part. Sometimes even switching the guitar part and the piano part can create some interest. Also keep in mind the instruments like electric guitars and keyboards can drastically change the way they sound. If your verse is using a clean, chorused guitar sound, try a slightly distorted sound for the chorus or bridge. Doing things like this helps create interest or increase/decrease energy.

(Listen to how everything comes in quiet at 1.36)

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this series. If you have any questions leave a comment below and check out some of my music at productiontrax.com

Part 1 - Thoughts on Arranging
Part 2 - Timbre
Part 3 - Rhythmic clarity
Part 4 - Harmonic clarity

Timbre

Timbre is defined as the color or tone quality of something. A guitar, flute and trumpet can all play the same note, but the timbre will sound very different. How does this relate to arranging? Well, not only is arranging about not making things sound disjointed and horrible, it is also about making things sound good and evoking moods. Different instruments can help you do that.

 Now I'm sure you're wondering how can I use this. One effective way this is used is by having melodies(or harmonies) doubled by different instruments. These instruments should have different qualities, so that the overall sound is enhanced.

As an example think of a kick drum and a guitar. The kick drum has a loud, percussive, powerful attack, but not tone to speak of and no sustain. A guitar has sustain and tone, but it's hard to get a lot of power out of a guitar. However when they are playing in unison they create a powerful attack that can rip your head off.

Another common example is doubling a tuba with a bass trombone. The tuba has a kind of "farting" sound that, although it is low doesn't contain a lot of power. The bass trombone has power, but it doesn't have the same low fullness. Combined together however the amount of brown notes will have audiences rushing the toilets. A good example of this recently was "The battle at the wall" during season 4 of game of thrones.

(Great low horn blast at 0:35)

Another common thing to do is to double a sustaining instrument without much attack with something percussive. The percussive insturment helps give the line punch and definition while the other insturment give it tone.

 (Check out the middle section where the guitar, synth, drums and xylophone double the same line)



One final example is the use of talk boxes. The earliest example I know of is Frampton cones alive . However don't be fooled into thinking that this is an old technique that nobody uses anymore. Grammy winners Daft Punk used it all over their last album.

One of the great things abound living in the year 2014 is the fact that you have cheap software synths everywhere and you can experiment endlessly with different timbres. Try combining different types of oscillators and even shifting their octaves until you find a sound that suits you. You can also mix acoustic with electronic elements to come up with all new sounds.

Don't be afraid to experiment with different combinations of instruments. They often lead to new and interesting textures and other times they can be great problem solvers. Often times of you want you melody to be more powerful, doubling it with something more percussive will work. The opposite also holds true. Doubling something with a flute(or another woodwind) will lighten it up. There is a whole world of sound out there for you to experiment with, so play around with different combinations and have fun.

Check out some of my songs and arrangements on the side of this page or at productiontrax and leave a comment below.

Part 1 - Thoughts on Arranging
Part 3 - Rhythmic clarity
Part 4 - Harmonic clarity
Part 5 - Seeing the big picture

Review of Kirk Hunter Diamond Symphony Orchestra

Recently there was/is a sale on most of Kirk Hunter's products. I already own a few, but the sale was so good I couldn't resist. I picked up Diamond which is a complete orchestra including woodwinds, brass, strings and percussion.

   First I'll talk about the sound. The sound of the strings are better than I expected, although as I said before I already have some string samples. The woodwinds are also good although there seems to be a problem with the flute. Everything else sounds good and responds well. One of the reasons I bought this library is because of the piccolo and it doesn't disappoint. The horns sound pretty good, but they are a little aggressive for my taste. Also the library includes reverb. but it isn't baked into the samples, so you can adjust it as needed or take it off completely. This can be good or bad depending on your perspective, but personally I prefer things this way.

  Second, the features. Most of the patches have TEVC programming which gives them the ability to use keyswitches for articulations and adjust certain parameters giving the patches much more flexibility. Unfortunately not all of the patches have updated programming(the bass trombone), but most do which makes them easy to work with.

Overall it's a great value and the fact that it was recorded dry let's you blend it with other libraries without too much trouble. Anyway, check out the short song I wrote with it below. Leave comments and questions below.

 

My music featured on Tunefruit blog

As I mentioned before recently I've been writing stock music for music libraries. One of the sites I've been using is Tunefruit. It's a great site and recently one of my songs was mentioned on their blog. Check it out at http://blog.tunefruit.com/loving-it-weekly-june-16th-playlist-with-guava-tunefruits-stock-music-specialist/ . It's the 1st track under the name Muteki music. I don't know if it was really the number 1 track, but I'm going to assume it is to help keep my self-esteem up. Anyway check it out and tell me what you think.

Common progressions in popular music

I thought I'd go over various chord progressions used in popular music with this post. Chord progressions are one of the fundamental aspects of western music and being familiar with chords and how move in progressions is very important. I know some people are thinking, why learn this or isn't better to just sit down with a keyboard/guitar and mess around until something interesting comes. Of course you can do that, but most of the time when people do that they end up reinventing the wheel needlessly. There is a reason why some chord progressions are popular. They sound good and bring about an emotion in people. A good reason to learn about chord progressions is that they allow you to invoke an emotion in people while still allowing you enough room to express yourself and be creative. For example Bob Marley's "No woman, no cry" and Journey's "Don't stop believing" use the same chord progression, but I doubt anyone would say they sound the same. Anyway, on to the good stuff.

I'm going to use Roman numerals for chords. For example I, ii, iii,IV, V, vi, viidim. In C this would be C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major A minor and B diminished. Uppercase numerals are major chords, lower case are minor and diminished chords are indicated by dim and augmented chords by aug. They might also have 7, 7(#9),sus, ect added to indicate any additions to the basic chord.

The Emotional Girl Chord progression(I-V-vi-IV)

I heard this progression called this once and although I don't agree completely it's as good a name as any. This chord progression is used in hundreds of pop, rock, and folk songs. In the key of C the chords would be C-G-A minor-F. For me the appeal of this progression is that it's a bit emotionally neutral. It can be happy without being too sweet and syrupy or cool without being sad and depressing. It's not as overpowering as some other progressions and can work in a variety of styles without sounding out of place.

The Blues chord progression(I7-IV7-I7-V7-IV7-I7-V7)

There are a million variations of this, but I'm sure everyone reading this is familiar with the sound. The great thing about the blues is that it can be used is so many ways. It can be slow and sad or fast and raunchy. There is a whole genre of music based on this chord progression, enough said. This progression is also common in classic rock music. Every musician should know this by heart.

 

The Minor blues chord progression (i-iv-i-VI7-V7-i-V7)

As with the above, there are tons of variations on this progression. This is a sadder darker version of the normal blues progression. If you want something really sad and emotional, try this progression. For extra emotion try this with a  slow 12/8 time signature.

 

The Andalusian chord progression(i-bVII-bVI-V) or (i-bVII-bVI-bVII)
This is used in tons of hard rock songs. This is another minor chord progression, but it's not really that sad IMO, it's more aggressive and sometimes angry. This progression makes me want to walk down the street wearing a jean jacket and sunglasses. Lots of 80s hard rock and metal bands used this and often times instead of full chords they'll just use power chords. Many older songs use this also. It's extremely popular.

 

The Square chord progression (I-IV-V)

I'm calling this the square chord progression because it's old and not very hip. In fact it's a few hundred years old and is the basis for a lot of classical music. Despite it's age you still hear it quite often. It's a classic in a sense, so you'd be wise not to over look it. This is a very upbeat and happy progression that can work in a few different types of music.

 

The Reverse Square progression (V-IV-I)

 This is a little higher on the cool factor. This isn't too popular now, but it's quite common in classic rock. This progression sounds happy without being too sweet and weak sounding. It reminds me a bit of country music and gives this a "down home" sort of feel. Well it least that's what it makes me think of.

I hope that was useful and don't worry there is more to come. I'll be going over more progressions that I hope will help you make better music. As always leave some comments below and if you have an idea or something you want me to answer, feel free to ask.

part 2