Easy Edits To Make In Show Choir Arrangements
No matter how great your arrangements are, there will inevitably come a time during the school year where things start to plateau, or even worse, start to get stale. Knowing how to make useful changes and edits to the music is the key to getting through this and kicking your rehearsals back into gear. Here […]
Bad Habits That Weaken Your Choral Writing
For better or worse most arranging is done on a computer, which means that composers rely increasingly on how things sound on playback. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach (it’s what I do), the computer has a way of making certain things sound better in playback than they will in real life. When I […]
Finding Your “Golden Brick”: How to Push Boundaries with Success
One of my mentors in college, Ron Simpson, taught a lesson that has since informed my composing and arranging every day. He described what he called the “Golden Brick Rule”, and it concerned how to break convention and try creative things without going too far. Read more at Productions Magazine.
Apps For Arranging Music
Incorporating technology into your music arranging process is essential if you want to work more efficiently. It’s basically a given that you will use some kind of music notation software (Finale, Sibelius, Dorico, Musescore) and/or DAW (ProTools, Logic, Cubase) but there are a lot of really great tools out there that will help you work […]
Pop Choral Voicing Techniques (28 Ways to Harmonize a Melody)
When writing a choral arrangement, variety is more complicated than complexity. That variety encompasses not just melody and harmony, but also voicing and timbre. As an exercise for a recent conference presentation, I decided to take a simple melody (Mary Had a Little Lamb) and come up with as many ways to harmonize it as […]
The Five Common Mistakes New Arrangers Make
Arranging music is extremely rewarding but it is not without its challenges. In looking at my own early arrangements as well as mentoring other arrangers, I’ve learned to watch out for certain pitfalls. Avoiding these five common mistakes is one way you can make sure your arrangements don’t come across as amateurish. 1. Over Arranging […]
How to S.T.A.R.T. Arranging
Arranging music, like a lot of creative activities, can seem really overwhelming at first. But if you follow these five principles (after all, who doesn’t like a cheesy acronym?) you’ll be able to set achievable goals for yourself and notch some early wins as an arranger! Keep It Simple Even when you’re a seasoned professional, […]
Teaching Arranging in the Choral Classroom
Download for FREE Exposure to arranging at a young age was one of the things that kick-started my love for music. It enabled me to learn the music I wanted to play and gave me the tools I needed to eventually start creating my own music. Unfortunately, arranging is not traditionally part of the curriculum in secondary […]
Making Pop Music Arrangements Memorable
In a guest post for Productions Magazine, I outline three ways arrangers can make sure their arrangements of pop songs are effective and memorable. Read about it HERE: