Most musicians and non-musicians alike have that one song that just brightens their day! Most people love the original version of that song, but are not afraid to find different arrangements of it for comparison or just for fun. Sometimes, they want to arrange the piece themselves. But how do you get started? From beginner to another, let's do this!
1. Find a Song You Want to Arrange
First of all, find that song you want to experiment with. It needs to be within your skill level, but there is no shame in trying to fiddle around with a more difficult song. For sake of argument, I will use “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas as an example as it was/is my biggest project up to date throughout this article.
2. Find the Sheet Music/Original Score
When wanting to arrange a song, this step is more or less optional. It's always nice to have source material to work with, but sometimes people like to figure out the notes for themselves, which is amazing! However, upon finding sheet music, it's nice to see the chords, the notes, the key, the time signature and everything else associated with the song.
3. Label Basic Chords/Roots of the Chords
Go through the base line of that song and label the individual roots of the chords. There is a bit of leniency here as someone can easily change the key of the song, but this is a good starting point. In “Colors of the Wind,” the key switches from C minor into C major within the first couple measures. As an intermediate musician and first year music student, the key itself was not the problem, but figuring out that it was in that key at all was a challenge, hence why I went out and looked for original sheet music. Naturally, of course, it is okay to have the same song in multiple keys--I chose the C major version as I was starting out on piano and wanted something easier to work with, but, again, there is no shame in finding something a bit more challenging.
4. Fiddle Around With Chord Structure
This basically means, in the harmony line only, finding notes that sound good together. Find out which notes flow together, even if they don't make sense in the beginning. Experiment on the piano for an audio example, write it down, record the notes, ask a friend to see how it sounds to them. Not everything has to be in root position, but not everything can be the most extraordinary thing in the world either. Try different hand positions, different notes that don't seem to go together, and have fun making yourself cringe at the sound of ratchet notes.
5. Start With Block Chords
Play with your selected notes together at the same time, or just one note at a time. In “Colors of the Wind,” I started off just playing the root of the chord to see if it made sense with the melody, then I slowly moved into adding one note on top of another and creating a chord. I played them together, separate, then together again. “Colors of the Wind,” being in C major, often has a C in the baseline, but it does move to E, G, A, B flat, or D, depending on what was happening in the melody.
6. Move Into Broken Chords
Start getting creative. Block chords are a great start, but they get boring after a while. That doesn't mean get rid of them entirely if the piece calls for it. Example, starting a piece with blocked chords then switching to arpeggios half way through can add affect and make the piece more rich with musical colors. “Colors of the Wind” begins with one elongated note that is played for several measures, then it moves into simple Perfect 5th's, then into arpeggios as the climax of the song nears. Then, to bring it all home, I switch back to single notes in the base or no base at all for that solo-melody line feel.
7. Learn the Melody One Note at a Time (Disregard Chords in Melody)
This is for someone who is unsure how they want their melody to go. I, personally, went straight into melody lines with chords and extra notes, but a lot of people want the basic melody first. For songs like “Colors of the Wind,” this means playing only the notes that link up to the lyrics of the song. Everything else underneath it is just added fluff to make the piece more rich and full. So, for sake of practicing, start one note in the melody at a time before moving into chords.
8. Sync Chords with Melody
What I mean here is add those chords in the melody. Leaving the harmony out altogether, play around with the different notes for the melody. It's similar to what you originally did with the harmony line. Don't worry about how it will sound in combination with the harmony yet, that comes later.
9. Add Chords to Melody in Sync With Harmony
Now you get to sync everything up. See how everything sounds together, find out where things sound awful or really good! See where timing is really weird, because in arranging not all the harmony notes need to happen at the same time as the melody. Referring to “Colors of the Wind”again, there are several sections where the melody is doing something completely different from harmony without notes being played at the same time--this includes off-beats, eighth notes over sixteenth notes or vice versa, block chords versus broken chords while the other line is off in its own world. This is all about finding what works and what sounds musical.
10. Shake Things Up!
Once you learn the notes and find what sounds good to you, it's time to throw out the basic stuff and get creative! Switch octaves, add grace notes, work in dynamics, add even more notes, play around with the ending or beginning, play with timing and stretching of pace/rhythm, add little bits of fluff here and there. Get creative!
11. Have Fun!
Show off what you did! Perform your little heart out!
