What Makes a Great Arrangement?
The terms "arrangement" and "orchestration" are sometimes used interchangeably and often combined into a single task. However, this blog post will focus specifically on the arranging aspect of music.
What makes a great arrangement?
This question is inherently subjective and open to various interpretations. While there is no single "right" way to arrange music, there are techniques and tips that can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your arrangements. Let's explore how you can apply these concepts to your own compositions or arranging projects.
Think of arranging music like building a house. The composition provides the raw materials—wood, steel, concrete—while orchestration adds the decorative touches like paint, textures, and colors. Arrangement is the blueprint (the layout and framework) dictating how these materials and building blocks are used.
1. Style and Genre
When beginning a new arrangement, deciding on the style or genre is typically your first major creative choice. Do you want your arrangement to be a Samba, '80s Rock, Bach Baroque, Duke Ellington Jazz, Modern Pop, '90s Hip-Hop, '40s Doo-Wop? Choosing a genre informs your musical structure, rhythmic patterns, phrasing, harmony, and overall groove. For illustration, let's use Jazz as our chosen style.
2. Structure and Building Blocks
The fundamental building blocks of an arrangement are rhythm, melody, harmony, and tempo. Once you've chosen a style, you can tailor these elements to fit that genre. When you think of Jazz music, what characteristics come to mind? Let’s list them:
Swung rhythms
Syncopated and playful melodic phrases
Complex harmonies incorporating 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th chords (including altered chord tones)
Varied chord voicings (closed or open)
We can apply these characteristics to our composition to create our jazz arrangement. Of course, jazz isn't the only style available. Try listing defining characteristics for other genres like Rock, Hip-Hop, Reggae, or Blues to familiarize yourself with their unique qualities.
3. Accompaniment and Harmony
Typically, the melody remains recognizable but may be embellished with stylistic nuances to enhance the character of the arrangement. What strongly defines the genre and style is often the accompaniment and harmonic language supporting the melody.
For example, in a Rock 'n' Roll arrangement, you might have a steady 4/4 time signature, driving eighth notes in the piano's right hand, minimal syncopation, and a prominent bass line. Harmony would likely involve simple triads and power chords—root and fifth intervals without the third.
Jazz, on the other hand, incorporates significant rhythmic and melodic syncopation, short rhythmic accents, swung rhythms, triplet figures, and chromaticism in the melody. The accompaniment and harmonic structure in Jazz can be dense, layered, and rich with chord extensions like 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, etc.
4. Application
A great example of these arranging concepts is the Jazz Big Band medley arrangement from WICKED by Cj Rhen on YouTube. This arrangement effectively showcases jazz characteristics, such as swung rhythms, pronounced syncopation, accented chords, melodic nuance, slides, and chromatic passages. Cj provides sheet music along with the video so you can follow along.
The "Popular" theme is set in a Samba style, with straight eighth notes and pronounced accents. The drums emphasize this character with the ride cymbal, hi-hat, and rim-click pattern. At letter D in the arrangement, the style shifts to swung eighth notes, clearly marking a transition to Jazz Swing, supported by changes in the drum pattern. Then, at letter E, the arrangement returns to Samba. These contrasts effectively illustrate how changing groove and rhythm can profoundly shape an arrangement's character and show the characteristics between styles.
The accompaniment in this video also demonstrates close chord voicings, syncopated accents, and dense harmonic progressions to color the arrangement.
This is where arranging and orchestration becomes one and the lines can be blurred. The orchestrations and how each instrument is functioning within the ensemble gives clear indication to the style and can support the arrangement of all the elements. The drums help to define that for us along with the straight / swung eighth note rhythmic patterns.
Conclusion
If you're just starting out with arranging, I recommend immersing yourself in a wide variety of musical genres and styles to understand the possibilities. Take note of defining characteristics in each genre—be as specific as possible. Pay close attention to elements like harmony, melody, rhythmic feel, and tempo to analyze what shapes the distinct sound of each style.