5. Arrangement

If you wrote a song with just the elements covered so far, you could produce a lovely, singable melody with lyrics, in a neat, effective structure. And you could perform it, singing a cappella (unaccompanied) or playing the melody on an instrument. Arguably, this is the most important goal to achieve in writing a song!

Still, you might already be concerned that an unaccompanied melody feels a bit barebones and overly simple, since the vast majority of music is written and performed with instrumental accompaniment.

So how do we go from the “pure” melody of a song, to that fully-fledged musical arrangement we’re used to hearing and perhaps playing?

We can see this arrangement as the combination of harmonisation (in simple terms: adding chords) and instrumentation (assigning particular instruments to play each musical part, also called orchestration). There may also be various embellishments and additional musical parts to write, to create the full Timbre and Texture (see Chapter 5: Active Listening and Chapter 17: Expression).

How To Arrange A Song

Although there are things we could say about the overall harmony and instrumentation of a song, the details of both will vary from section to section within a song.

The harmony should match/support the melody and vice-versa—so if the melody is different across two sections then the harmony probably will be too.

Instrumentation is one powerful way to convey a clear change from section to section. For example adding or removing percussion, adding backing vocals, introducing a mariachi horn part, etc.

So it’s important to think about the role, purpose or function of each section, and design the harmony and instrumentation for each to help build and release tension, increase interest, or help you convey the emotions you’re aiming for.

Instrumentation

The instruments you choose to use in a song can make an enormous difference to its musical impact. Imagine a love ballad played by a four-piece rock band, complete with heavily-distorted lead guitar… compared with the same music played by a classical string quartet (a la Metallica-tribute band Apocalyptica!) The underlying music composition might be almost identical, but the instrumentation makes all the difference.

This can be a vast topic, taking into account not just which instruments suit the style you’re going for, but also the particular strengths, limitations and peculiarities of particular instruments, to make sure the musical part you write for them fits.

For our purposes the most valuable way to start exploring is to work with instruments we can play (or have a friend who plays), and focus on the choices we can make for musical effect.

Supposing, for example, that you play guitar and a friend plays saxophone. How could you make use of those two instruments in a song you’re writing? If the guitar is to provide the harmony, will it be through regular chords, power chords, broken (arpeggiated) chords or something else? Will the saxophone have a counter-melody to the vocal part, or contribute a riff or lick that acts like a hook? Will both be present throughout the song, or only in particular sections?

If you’re working with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) then you may have unlimited realistic-sounding synthetic instruments at your fingertips. This opens up a world of possibilities. Exploring freely and being ambitious can both be rewarding. As always, you’re encouraged to find your own best Songwriting process, but based on experience with our members I would suggest letting the instrumentation serve the song, rather than getting lost in all the instruments you want to include and then trying to figure out what to write for each of them without having the core elements of the song (form, Melody, Harmony, etc.) defined—at least, to begin with.

This is an Active Listening exercise, and the more you practice it, the more you’ll start to automatically notice the instrumentation in music you listen to, which can help you get in touch with your own taste and preferences, and inform the choices you make for your own songs.

Harmonisation

Harmony refers to the collection of notes present at any given moment in the music, which with our building blocks from Part II in mind we can simplify as “the chords which accompany the melody”.

Chords and Progressions are covered in detail in Chapter 11: Chords and Progressions, including guidance on harmonising a melody by ear.

We won’t repeat those explanations and exercises here, but now would be a good time to check out that chapter if you haven’t already, and to try applying the ideas there to some of the musical material you’ve been working on here.

Additional Elements

Often a song will have various musical elements which aren’t the melody or the chords. Percussion would be one prominent example, but this also includes embellishments from other instruments, such as riffs and hooks, instrumental solos, basslines, etc.

Riffs, hooks and solos can all be considered to be kinds of secondary melodies, and the same writing techniques from the Melody section above can be used. Basslines fall somewhere between “mini melody” and harmony, since they can be as sophisticated as a melody in their own right, but are typically core to how the harmony is perceived too (because the lowest note of a harmony has a particularly strong effect on what chord we interpret it as).

You might like to repeat the “Analysing Instrumentation” exercise above, this time noting where instruments are contributing to the Melody, the Harmony, or providing embellishments of one kind or another. Again, this can inform your own creative choices when arranging songs of your own.

How to Practice Writing Songs

If you’ve been following along with the exercises throughout this chapter, at this stage you will have a number of musical creations in progress! You are also now familiar with a number of techniques for tackling each element of a song: Form, Ideas/Emotion, Lyrics, Melody, Harmony, and Instrumentation.

As we said at the outset, we’re not dictating a 1-2-3 process for you to follow in this chapter. Creativity is unpredictable! And with practice, you’ll find your own preferences.

Armed with the understanding and techniques that can allow creative Songwriting, the important thing now is to continue practicing regularly. All of the exercises so far can be useful, just as they are. More likely, you may wish to adapt and combine them into activities you find enjoyable and fruitful.

Document everything along the way, and make it a habit to work on some kind of Songwriting—ideally daily—and you’ll find songs shape up faster than you might expect.

Some musicians like to focus on one element of a song at a time, others to move them all forwards together. Some will want to “work on a song” for multiple sessions, getting it finished (or close) before moving on to another. Most find that having a number of songs underway helps keep things interesting and progressing.

Whichever approach you prefer, keeping your tasks focused and simple during a session can help prevent perfectionism and overwhelm. Applying Constraints can also greatly help—for example setting a specific amount of time aside to work on a song, or deciding to only work on the lyrics today.

Don’t neglect the Heart side of things! Stay focused on the process more than the outcome, and be mindful of what helps or hinders your creativity. Beyond the step-by-step methods presented here, and your overall process for bringing a song to completion, there are other factors and types of context which can be important. For example, you may prefer certain ways of jotting down notes (e.g. pencil vs. pen vs. electronic) or certain writing locations (e.g. quiet room vs. noisy café vs. out in nature). Many of the things which we think “shouldn’t” matter really can.

Remember the recommendation to share what you’re working on. Not only will the encouragement and objective feedback you get from others spur you on, it can be motivating and exciting to know that the music you’re writing won’t just languish in a drawer or in a file, but will be heard and enjoyed by others.