3 Songs
Theme is Conflict And/Or Peace
3 compositions as .mp3’s – any genre/style, plus brief evidence to show how it links to the theme
Written report
Arrangement Process –
“Of all the stages of music production, arranging is perhaps the least understood and most neglected. When a song has a good beat and melody but gets too repetitive after a while, this is usually a problem of arrangement. It’s the arrangement that makes a song interesting.
In very simple terms, the arrangement of a song refers to the selection of instruments playing in each section – how they’re “arranged” – and how the sections themselves are arranged within the larger timeline of the song.
If you’ve written a great verse and chorus, it’s not enough to just play them over and over, one after the other on repeat. There needs to be a buildup of some sort. For example, the 1st verse only has guitar and vocal, the 2nd verse adds the bass and drums, and the 1st chorus adds the synths and vocal harmonies. This is the arrangement of the various instruments within the song.
And just because you introduced an instrument doesn’t mean it should stay there the whole time. Sometimes you only want a certain instrument playing during the pre-chorus, or you’ll bring it in during the second half of the final chorus for climactic impact, or you’ll have a part playing only on the left side for the first half of the verse and then in stereo for the second half. The possibilities are endless. What’s important is to keep things moving. Even subtle additions can add a lot of interest for the listener, whether they realise it or not.
There’s also the question of how many sections to include. I like to judge by feel. You can usually feel when a section has reached its limits, or if you need to change something up to keep people interested. Again, the song should always be moving, even if it’s very subtle. Instruments should come in and out, building in energy, introducing twists and turns along the way. You can also talk about arrangement at the level of the harmony and what kind of chord voicing you’re using.
Whenever I think about the arrangement, I first try and pick out the one or two elements that are most important to the song and what I want the listener to focus on. Then I listen to the track and ask: What else could I do here to vary it up? Does it need anything else? Sometimes the right answer is to leave it alone. Knowing when to do this is what makes a great producer.
https://www.waves.com/six-stages-of-music-production
https://www.waves.com/six-stages-of-music-production
"Arranging can broadly be defined as the process of transforming a collection of musical ideas into a complete track. It can involve everything from writing harmonies, re-arranging parts, adding parts, removing parts, planning the structure of a song or even adding effects from time to time."
https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/22-essential-arranging-tips-133898
"In the context of music creation in a DAW, the arrangement refers to the layout of the parts of your song along a timeline. You may have assembled a rich pool of material, but the actual act of putting that material in some kind of order that unfolds over time is what will eventually turn that material into a finished song."
"In the context of music creation in a DAW, the arrangement refers to the layout of the parts of your song along a timeline. You may have assembled a rich pool of material, but the actual act of putting that material in some kind of order that unfolds over time is what will eventually turn that material into a finished song."
https://makingmusic.ableton.com/arranging-as-a-subtractive-process
"Just like a painting, a song arrangement needs contrast. If everything is too similar, it will be boring and the listeners will tune out. You want to keep their attention, so you should structure the song so that it’s not static. Think of it almost like a book or play, which has a beginning a middle and an end.
"Just like a painting, a song arrangement needs contrast. If everything is too similar, it will be boring and the listeners will tune out. You want to keep their attention, so you should structure the song so that it’s not static. Think of it almost like a book or play, which has a beginning a middle and an end.
You have a number of tools at your disposal for creating drama and interest with your arrangement, which include varying the dynamics, adding to the instrumentation as you go, and building the complexity of the instrument and vocal parts as the song progresses."
https://ask.audio/articles/arranging-for-success-how-understanding-arrangement-techniques-can-improve-your-songs
"Though all songwriters approach arrangement process with great enthusiasm and a lot of positive energy, more often than not it turns into a very long and frustrating process where it seems that trial-and-error never ends. As a paradox, with more time invested – less close to the desired outcome we are."
"Though all songwriters approach arrangement process with great enthusiasm and a lot of positive energy, more often than not it turns into a very long and frustrating process where it seems that trial-and-error never ends. As a paradox, with more time invested – less close to the desired outcome we are."
https://www.supremetracks.com/how-to-song-arrangement-guide/
"Arrangement is a fundamental component of practically every piece of music ever written or recorded. We understand creating music, at its most basic level, to be the act of “arranging” sounds in some sort of order over a given period of time. Still, what constitutes a “good” arrangement is not always so easy to pin down. This is in part because arrangement is one of those tricky things that is actually most successful when it goes virtually unnoticed, so subtle in its execution that the listener is unaware of the effect it is having on their experience.
"Arrangement is a fundamental component of practically every piece of music ever written or recorded. We understand creating music, at its most basic level, to be the act of “arranging” sounds in some sort of order over a given period of time. Still, what constitutes a “good” arrangement is not always so easy to pin down. This is in part because arrangement is one of those tricky things that is actually most successful when it goes virtually unnoticed, so subtle in its execution that the listener is unaware of the effect it is having on their experience.