Let me start off by saying this so you don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t care if you arrange the living hell out of a song. If the melody is lifeless and dull, the arrangement will only save it so much, if at all. Yes, a lot of pop music is saved by arrangement. But there is still a catchy melody somewhere in the mix, especially when it comes to the top pop songs.
Having said all that, arrangement is still important. Not so much to make up for a lackluster melody but to add character to a good melody in order to make it better. It’s for this reason that outside of some piano music you will rarely hear a track with a solo instrument and nothing else, especially if you’re purchasing royalty free music for the purpose of conveying some feeling or emotion within the context of the project where the music is heard.
Picking the proper arrangement is no easy task, especially not when you’re staring at a bank manuscript. Where do you even begin? Does the song lend itself to a basic band arrangement (drums, bass, guitar, synth) or does it cry out for something more exotic (Taiko Drums, Bansuri, Sitar, Erhu) in order to convey the proper emotion?
In order to answer the question we need to look at several variables. In doing so, we can come up with an idea for an arrangement that we can be fairly sure will work for the track we’re producing.
Probably the first thing we should look at is the project itself. What is it? Are we producing a video about a foreign land? If so, instruments common to that land are probably in order.
What if we’re producing a period piece such as a documentary of the 1920s? In that case, we probably want to listen to music from that era to see how it was arranged and try to simulate the sound as best as we can. Sometimes listening to old recordings it’s difficult to decipher exactly what instruments are being used. In that case it might be a good idea to maybe hunt out sheet music that contains arrangement notes.
For example, some of the anthems we do for our church choir have such arrangement notes on them so that we can see what instruments the piece was intended for outside of the standard church pipe organ.
What if we’re doing a short sting for a sports radio broadcast to be used as an intro? In that case, it might be a good idea to listen to as many radio sports shows as you can in order to get an idea of what kind of music is being used. You will probably find that a lot of it is upbeat with a hard rock sound in order to appeal to the younger crowd.
After you’ve looked at the project itself, should that turn out to be too generic to come up with anything definitive, the next thing you want to look at is the emotion that the project wants to convey.
Let’s say the project is unique. In other words, there are no current examples to copy from or emulate. This could very well be the case with a new product or idea. It does happen. Not everything in the world is recycled. Every once in a while, somebody comes up with something that is truly different. In that case, what do you do?
What I would do in a case like that is speak to the creator of the project. I would ask him what he wants his audience to feel when watching is video, or attending his nightclub act or whatever it is the project entails. Everything in this world makes us feel something. Hopefully, more often than not, the emotion we feel is the emotion the author or creator intended.
For example, let’s take the finale scene of the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life.” It’s no secret that the intention of the author was to make us cry our eyes out, and it does just that. But how? Between a combination of some well chosen words and familiar standards, all with orchestral arrangement and choir.
In fact, watch any of those “tear jerker” movies and you will notice that they all have that one thing in common, a big orchestral arrangement complete with high strings and low horns. Sometimes they’ll go for the more subtle piano solo, but that is rare, especially these days.
Have you checked out some of the recent superhero movies over the last few years like The Avengers, Superman, etc? Have you noticed the big over the top orchestral scores during the “let’s destroy the city while we battle the bad guys” scenes? Those over the top arrangements have become pretty common these days. Sure, we always had exciting music during “fight” scenes, but these days they’ve taken it to a whole other level. That standard will probably remain for quite some time until tastes change again. For now, if you’re writing for something of that nature you’re going to have to let the big guns out. Anything less won’t get the job done.
But we still haven’t answered the most important question. Why is arrangement so important? Well, everything today is pretty much tied into getting your audience to take some kind of action that will ultimately lead to them spending money on something you’ve created. That’s why movie trailers are so lavishly produced. They’re done that way to entice you to go see the movie. I mean you don’t see trailers containing the “quiet” scenes from a movie. They’ll usually try to put their best foot forward.
It is for that reason that intros are so important. The intro to a video could very well determine whether or not the viewer sticks around for the rest of the video. It all comes down to entertainment and capturing the viewer’s attention. If you don’t do that, the rest of the project is meaningless.
You will find that the more you watch videos, regardless of what they’re about, that music plays an important part of most of those videos. And the arrangement of that music can make or break how effective that music is in capturing the viewer’s attention.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim