Online Music Production Lessons – Song Arranging Tips

Digital  music   production  has made things easier with great software, whereby you can work visually. You can have dope chord programming but your song might be boring simply because of a poor arrangement. Think of your track as a journey. Imagine you are on a bus trip and the whole way (from point A to B) you only see Apple Trees with nothing to attract the eye, obviously the trip will be dull and boring, but if you see different landscapes it would be exciting.

Your arrangement has to have dynamics. Dynamics are the loud and soft parts of a song, so give your listeners some ear candy. This is why effects are used as send Fx/return channels, to make the chorus parts sound bigger than your verse. Basically you will be automating your effects e.g.maybe you might want your snare to stand out more on the loudest part of a song, or you want more delay on hi-hats in certain parts of the arrangement, but be careful especially when applying reverb to vocals it might make them sound distant.

These are the simplest  music   production  tips but most effective and sometimes overlooked:

1. Start your arrangement with a catchy and vibrant introduction that will keep the listener’s ears glued to the stereo.

2. Next will be your verse, remove a few instruments, the first verse is softer than all the other parts so you must bring down the level of your effects.

3. And now for the bridge you will want to introduce maybe one instrument before the chorus. A bridge serves as the connection or “bridge” between the verse and the chorus.

4. The chorus must have a lot of energy than your intro and first verse. Save your backing or ad lib vocals for the next parts.

5. Now for the second verse you will need to add more effects than the first verse, maybe add backing vocals or a few additional instruments.

6. The second bridge can be the same as the first one but it must have more energy than the first one, so add more effects or instruments, you can even add a drum fill.

7. The second chorus must be the most energetic part so far, with full instruments, backing vocals and more effects.

8. And now you would want to breakdown the song. When you breakdown an arrangement bring down the level of the effects and bring it up again when you going back to the chorus.

9. After the break you will go to your third chorus and this is where you have all your instruments, vocals and maybe add a freestyle vocal. The energy must be at maximum level.

10. You might want to repeat the last chorus and then fade it out or remove the vocals and let the listener enjoy the beat until you gradually fade it out.

Listen to your favorite songs to get more arranging tricks. Don’t look at it as copying but look at it as inspiration, because once you get a hold of it you will be doing tricks you never thought you will do.