We look at the power of arrangement within the songwriting and music production process, and aspects that improve the impact of songs when executed correctly.
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Although it’s not the most glamorous part of music production, arrangement has the ability to transform a song into the most exciting version of itself. Shaping the song’s timeline and determining which selection of instruments play in each section creates the listener’s experience before mixing tools like compression, EQ, and saturation enter the equation.
How many times have you created an eight- or 16-bar loop with incredible sonics that still somehow feels flat when arranged? There could be too many elements fighting for focus, or too few to carry the energy of the track. Perhaps there isn’t enough contrast between each section, the core melody isn’t in focus, or there isn’t enough anticipation before a key moment in the song.
The Power of Arrangement: Creating Energy
Building energy and movement in different sections isn’t always about raising the volume of all the elements in your arrangement. Instead, this shift can happen when we add, remove, or change individual parts by creating contrast with density or sparseness. While a verse may contain a drum pattern, a bassline, and some simple chords, the chorus shifts the energy when it arrives.
This happens through additional percussion, rhythm guitar hooks, synth layers, and backing vocals that increase the size and width of the mix without increasing the master bus level in any major way. Alternatively, by creating a minimalistic pre-chorus or bridge with a focused melodic part or hook, we can make the chorus explode even more dramatically when it hits.
Sometimes, building subtly with automation or compression simply doesn’t deliver the punch we need. In this case, simply muting channels as the song moves into the more sparse sections can create that sudden jolt of drama you need. This can also help you reinforce the philosophy of only having the elements essential to each particular section of the arrangement playing at any given time.
The Power of Arrangement: Using Fewer Elements Can Enlarge The Track
One of the most common mistakes we can make with arrangements is to leave every element playing relentlessly for the entire song. Even the most simplistic and loop-based Daft Punk songs have transformative changes that lead the listener through the experience; the key lies in knowing which elements are your focal points and which are simply supporting members of the cast.
Imagine, for example, a rock song that had all the guitars, vocals, keyboards, and drums playing incessantly for its whole duration. Even if we’ve ensured that every individual instrument sounds compelling, being lumped together can become a mind-numbing listening experience and actually reduce the clarity of the key melodic parts.
To solve this problem, we need to create space for these important elements to truly shine. Even simple changes like removing the final downbeat of the kick before a chorus or taking the bass away during a transition can increase the overall impact. Your lead vocal is always front and center, so dropping guitars underneath key phrases or removing high-frequency percussion in the verse keeps it in focus.
The Power of Arrangement: Contrast Makes Sections Meaningful
One of the main reasons the chorus of a track comes across with such power is due to the structure of the verse that is leading into it. Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit is one of the best examples of this, as every element in the verse, especially the vocal melody and dynamic of the performance, builds in perfect anticipation of the chorus.
In contrast, if each section, including the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, is all comprised of the same instrumentation, pitch register, and density, it makes it difficult for the listener to determine which parts of the song are key moments. To create contrast between sections, we can use different structural characteristics as tools to create what we call arrangement dynamics.
While density allows us to shift between a few elements and many, or vice versa, the use of pitch register can create intimacy with narrow pitch intervals or expand with wider movements into the upper range. In addition, aspects such as rhythm, dynamics, timbre, and stereo width can also be used as building blocks to create stark contrast within your song’s arrangement.
The Power of Arrangement: Commanding the Listener’s Attention
When it comes to arrangement, a good producer is always concerned with drawing the focus of the listener to different areas throughout the song. The lyrics and message within them certainly have a role to play here, as important vocal phrases may need to take the spotlight in order to ensure the listener walks away with something memorable in their head.
The thinking behind this really isn’t too abstract. If we consider a group of musicians jamming together, in order for one soloist to take the focus, the other players will naturally simplify their parts to create breathing room. When there is a dramatic bass slide or fill, for example, we can apply this concept by reducing the complexity of the surrounding instruments.
In dense electronic productions that aren’t led by the vocals, this becomes particularly important, as there must be some kind of hierarchy that allows the listener to discern the main focal elements within a wide landscape of moving sounds. As in mixing, we use the apparent 3D space between the foreground and background, and this is also useful in arrangement.
The Power of Arrangement: A Substitute for Processing?
When it’s time to mix a record, the level of clarity becomes one of the main priorities. However, if we haven’t carefully sifted through our arrangement, we can actually create obstacles for ourselves further down the production line. In a section of the track that sounds muddy, for instance, simply removing a synth pad can completely solve the problem, without even needing to touch an EQ.
In the same way, a vocal part that seems slightly obscured can suddenly jump to the front of the mix without the guitar playing at the same time. Otherwise, our fundamental kick and bass relationship can sometimes be improved drastically by changing up the pattern of the bassline. In each case, the problems that present themselves are often much easier to solve with arrangement techniques.
One way to implement this in each song you make is to spend 20 minutes focusing exclusively on which instruments are required in each section. What could happen as a result is that you find your song didn’t actually need more mixing, but rather to become a more defined story that is easier for the listener to follow.
More about The Power of Arrangement:
- Learn more about Music Production
- Check out some Workshops on Gearnews
- Thomann’s Guide to Home Recording*
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