music arranging tips

4. Time and distance

If it’s your own work that you are arranging, I do NOT recommend beginning to arrange it after just writing the composition or song. This is because it’s very important that the fundamentals of the musical material are right – the melodies, harmonies, rhythms etc. I usually try to leave at least a week before starting to arrange. This way I can come back to the idea with “fresh ears” and hopefully a measure of objectivity and assess if the song is any good or not! Remember that it (nearly always) takes longer to arrange a piece of music than it does to compose one, so it’s worth getting the fundamentals right. I know from experience that it can be very time consuming to re-arrange a work because the composition of a section is not working and needs re-writing.

This is a useful arranging technique for creating drama in a musical episode. It consists of playing a theme (already previously heard) up an octave (or doubled two octaves above), usually on a different instrument. For example, we might hear a vocal melody repeated later in the song on violins, playing in octaves (or with violins two octaves above and violas one octave above). This device can also be used at the same time as the vocal, to give it more strength and body. In instrumental works, I sometimes flick main themes into bass instruments such as the double bass or bassoon. This can give the melody a more menacing, darker edge.

Laying is a very common trick in recording and can be used on pretty much any instrument or vocal part. It’s usually used to strengthen the sound of the instrument and increase it’s “weight” in the mix. An example of laying would be by recording a rhythmic acoustic guitar part, and panning it over to the left. Next, we record the same thing again, this time panning it to the right. The result provides a much “fatter” sound than just one guitar on it’s own. Other examples would be in doubling the bass by adding another bass sound (on a different bass instrument) at an octave lower than the original one. Sometimes I “thicken” piano parts by adding octaves and fifths an octave higher. At other times I copy the original piano part, strip it of it’s thirds ( e.g. take the “E” out of a C major chord) and play the same thing on a different piano (often on a electric one). Remember to never just copy a part and play it twice on the same instrument in a computer because this will create an unpleasant “phasing” sound.