Actually a good arranger takes a song and makes it work for the group he arranges it for. He must capture the essence of the song and make it identifiable and at the same time make unique with his/her style! He must know chord structure and voicing! That is a key! Voicing can make or break any arrangement!
Actually a good arranger takes a song and makes it work for the group he arranges it for. He must capture the essence of the song and make it identifiable and at the same time make unique with his/her style! He must know chord structure and voicing! That is a key! Voicing can make or break any arrangement!
Actually a good arranger takes a song and makes it work for the group he arranges it for. He must capture the essence of the song and make it identifiable and at the same time make unique with his/her style! He must know chord structure and voicing! That is a key! Voicing can make or break any arrangement!
I definitely agree with that statement but to go a step even further: Song selection goes a long way with any adjudicator and can give your band/arranging an edge on anyone. A lot of arrangers transcribe and we all are guilty of that at some point but the key is to tap into songs that have not been played or genres and time periods that have been forgotten about. These days it is hard to find pop tunes and R&B that has “music” in the song. But if you can capture and incorporate the elements of music that Philharmonic discussed in his reply and take in consideration your choice of music/genre/time period of the music you choose to arrange then this can turn a good arranger into a great one.
Philharmonic said:
Actually a good arranger takes a song and makes it work for the group he arranges it for. He must capture the essence of the song and make it identifiable and at the same time make unique with his/her style! He must know chord structure and voicing! That is a key! Voicing can make or break any arrangement!
Let me ask a question, Do any of you guys that can arrange do songs you don't like? Like if you were asked to arrange a song for the dancers and you didn't like it , would you do it. 65 to 70% of the songs I do I don't like BUT I do them anyway and they turn out decent. It is ideal if you do songs you like but It's talent when you do songs you don't like and they still sound good!
A good arranger knows that ONE arrangement isnt going to work for EVERY band.
A good arranger will compose based on the instrumentation he/she has. Meaning, an arrangement for a 250 piece band wont necessarily get the same effect with a 50 piece band.
Take a page from PV's Prof Edwards r.I.p.. Every arrangement I heard Prairie View play- 1. There was no doubt it was Prairie View playing and 2. He was doing things within his arrangements that gave you the "effet" that the band was larger
Phil is on point about voicing. You have to make use of each instrument's "sweet spot" and how it fits with the tune you want to play. I never fully appreciated chord inversions or cadences & resolutions until I started arranging.
A good arranger also knows when to be complex, or to keep it simple. Sometimes, less can be more in an arrangement.
And yes, good arrangements can make your band sound bigger.
Replies
Philharmonic said:
^that lol
Philharmonic said:
A good arranger will compose based on the instrumentation he/she has. Meaning, an arrangement for a 250 piece band wont necessarily get the same effect with a 50 piece band.
A good arranger also knows when to be complex, or to keep it simple. Sometimes, less can be more in an arrangement.
And yes, good arrangements can make your band sound bigger.
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