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Arrangement - Part 1

Hello and welcome to this video where we're going to be arranging this song. So right now we've got a loop with a chord progression, a bass part, a drum beat and a melody. However, we want to change this and make it more of a song. We can't just have this same loop going round and round or the listeners will get very, very bored fast. Let's have a listen to this loop and then I'm going to give you some tips and techniques for arranging this into more of a song. OK. So one thing we can do is just not start with certain instruments, we can add instruments later on. So, what we're going to do now is just move some of these instruments around. So I'm not actually going to start with the drums or the lead. So we're just going to start with the piano and the bass. If you do add different instruments such as vocals, you could always add this at the start and then wait for the drums and the synth to enter. And another thing we can do, it's not used as full chord progression. We're just going t...

o use the first half. So going back to our chords, we have C and G these loop together absolutely fine. Just the first and the fifth. And then when the drums and the synth enter, we can add the, a minor and the f, we can add the minus six and the fourth. So I'm just going to copy this over. And then for the first part, I'm just going to trim this. So it's just the first half of the loop. OK. So what I just did there is I looped the first half of the cords and of the base. So what I'm going to do now is actually just add the kick drum. So I'm going to copy over the drums. Let's open up this midi information and I'm just going to mute everything in there. Apart from the drums, you can delete it, but I like to mute it so I can always go back and add it later on if I wish. So we just drag all this information and then mute it. So now we just have the kick, the base and the courts. I'm actually going to make this even simpler. I'm just going to have the kick drum playing quarter notes. So on every beat. So we can just go through and adjust this. So it's just on quarter notes. So we just have it really simple to start with Sophie Z Men you'll notice on every beat. So in each bar, we have four beats, 1234. We have the kick playing on every beat. So let's have a listen now just to make it simpler. So when the drums do come in, later on, when we do have different parts, it will stand out and sound a bit different. Ok, great. Now, what we're going to do is actually continue with this, add some more movement to the drums. So let's just copy over the cords and the base parts and then copy over the drums. This time, we're gonna change it. It's not just going to be the kick drum playing every quarter note. Now, we're going to add the high hats and we're going to have more interesting kick drum pattern. So let's click on the drums that we don't want to add and just mute these. So we're gonna get rid of the snares and we gonna get rid of the toms and also the crash. So I'm going to leave the high hats and then just make sure to get rid of all the other drums. This is just a way to slowly build your song up. Now, let's have a listen to this next section which will be the high hats and the more interesting kick drum pattern. One thing I'm going to do is actually change the instrument of the drums. So previously, we had the kick drum playing this pattern. I want a low tom or a floor tom playing this pattern. So if we move this up to where it says low Tom. So we have a different instrument playing. So let's hear this bat now. So what I'm going to do now is combine the two together. So I'm going to start off with the part I just made and the next section is going to have the kick drum. So we're just adding some variation into our drum beat. So what I'm going to do now is add a kick drum playing on the quarter notes. Remember the bar, we have four notes, 1234, you can just type it in. Of course, you can copy and paste and drag stuff around. Sometimes it's just simple just to type it in, just gonna scan through quickly, make sure everything's in the right place. So now we have this pattern with the high hats and the floor tom and then we continue, but with the kick drum. So we add in movement, we're making stuff happen. We're making stuff build. So let's hear this from the start. This time, we're going to continue on, add the claps and the snares. So we're just building slowly building the drums up making it a bit more interesting. So we're just going to unmute the snares and the claps. Let's hear this. But now, however, I'm going to continue just using these two chords. We're gonna save these four chords for the chorus. So when the chorus comes in, it sounds different. It sounds similar because we have the first two chords, but it sounds different. So let's drag this section over and just copy over these first two chords. Let's delete this drumbeat here and copy it over the previous one and then we just unmute some information. Now we're going to add everything. So we're going to unmute the floor toms, going to unmute the mid toms and there's another high tom here and even at the start, there is a symbol. So let's unmute this, have a quick scan over this. So now we have some more movement in the drums and it gradually builds up. And when everything enters, that's when we're going to have the four chords. And that's when we're going to have the melody as well. I'm also going to drag over the sections. The chorus is eight bars long. There is certain stuff as well. You can do, you can color different sections if you wish. So you know what you're doing. So I'm just going, so I'm just going to color this slightly different. So we know it's the chorus. So let's have a listen to the start. So we're gradually building up the drums and then we have the chorus where it kicks in. OK. Great. Another technique we can do is actually start with the chorus and then break down to the verse. So let's try this. Now we're going to drag over all the verse information after the chorus and then we're going to select all and drag it back. So starting with the chorus, you can always build up to the chorus where you can start with the chorus, then break it down. There's many different ways you can arrange. This is just another example. Another thing I'm going to try just for this example is use the second half of the chords, not the first half of the chords. So we can try that as well. I just want to give you a few different examples. So let's copy over the piano chords. Let's get rid of this loop and we're going to trim this. So it's just the second half of the chords and loop this section instead. And let's do the same with the base part, copy it over the chorus and get rid of this loop and trim this. So it's the second half of the chords. This is just another technique. I do recommend experimenting with this with your arrangement. And to be honest when you're writing music, a lot of it is about arranging. You may have a few parts that you write, but you will have to spend a lot of time arranging. Let's just color this different as well. So we don't get too confused and now let's hear this from the start. So we're gonna start with the chorus, then we're gonna break it down to this first section that uses the second half of the chords and then builds up the drums. Ok. Great. What we can do as well is use this for the chorus section this first bit. So let's copy this over. Then we're actually going to chop this in half and just have this as four bars to start with. We don't want to give away too much of the song straight away. So I don't want too much of the chorus, but we can have a nice four bar chorus. So let's actually drag this around. And one more thing I'm going to mention now is something called a pre chorus. So this is a section before the chorus. So it's a good idea to break it down even further. So when the chorus comes in, bang, it hits you harder. So I'm going to drag this back and we're just going to have a four bar pre chorus. So we're going to go back to the start of the verse drums, put these here. So now we're going to get rid of the bass and this time we're just going to have the last chord playing. So let's just copy this over and trim it to the last chord of the chorus or the last chord of the verse and just loop this. Now this should break it down, make it sound even more simple. And then when the chorus hits, it should be a bit more impactful in the mix as well. It won't sound as rich, it won't sound as full because we've got rid of the base. So when the chorus comes in, we have that base here as well. So let's have a listen to the end of the verse and then go to the pre chorus and then the chorus, I'm also going to color the pre chorus slightly different. So we know it's a different section and there we want the chorus to enter. So we don't always have to have the four bars. We can have this just two bars long if you wish just a small section just to make the chorus stand out a bit more and break down even further. So let's drag this chorus back and this pre chorus is just a small section this time, just two bars long, that'll make the chorus stand out even further. You could also add stuff like a build up or reverse symbol in the pre chorus. So you can feel that something's coming in and then when the chorus enters, boom, it's in. So if you have any loops of maybe a reverse symbol or a kind of riser, you can add this in the pre chorus. So I'm just going to find a loop of a riser. So I've just found a razor leap going to drag this here and then just trim this to size. And then one trick I like to do is to actually have the riser or the sample stop a beat or two just before the chorus kicks in. So it stops and you can feel like it's gonna kick in. So I'm going to drag this back to beats like here and let's have a listen to this with the riser. And we can also experiment and try maybe a bar before that works as well. So we can have a few beats or even a bar before we have a riser just so we know that something's happening. So right now we start off with half a chorus, then we have a verse and then we have a pre chorus and then we actually have the chorus coming in as well. We can of course add melodies for the verse as well. But later on, I will be singing in a vocal melody. But for this, I'm just going to keep the melody for the chorus. There is other things we can do such as a bridge and a breakdown. And I'll explain that in the second half of this lecture. So thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next half where we're going to be looking at creating another verse, a bridge and then a chorus and an outro.