There’s More To Writing Music Than The Notes
Writing music can be amazing but unfortunately like most things in life, can be extremely frustrating when things don’t seem to line up. When I began my arranging journey I was swept up with all of the amazing techniques I was being introduced to. It seemed like everyday I would discover something brand new which would fuel my passion to write. Whenever possible, I would try to churn out new charts, eager to incorporate as many of the techniques and learn how they actually worked. However, as those of you who have stuck to a passion or career long enough will know, that initial burst of enthusiasm doesn’t last forever.
I was lucky enough to be carried along by it for a number of years but sometime in 2020 I started to hit a wall with my writing. There were many factors which contributed to it, not all musical, however the result was the same. I felt like I was regurgitating carbon copies of my older charts every time I tried to create something new, a feeling that was only reaffirmed when a musician I worked with jokingly described a set of music I had written as being all medium swing. With the presence of a global pandemic forcing me to stop my normal day-to-day activities, I had time to process the issue and try to find a solution. One which came in a different format than expected.
Prior to 2020, when I jumped into writing an arrangement I focused more on the technical side of composing, things like voicings, color tones, or substitution. I didn’t take that much time to look at an arrangement as a whole, nor look past the actual notes I was writing. Today I see this as being quite a restrictive way of writing, but at the time it had been working for me and my career was growing in the direction I wanted so why change anything?
As I’ve written in previous newsletter entries, the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 provided me with the opportunity to dive deep into Cuban music. Although I was inspired through other means to pursue Cuban music, this exploration into a new culture actually helped me out of my creative rut. Faced with a mountain of styles that I knew nothing about, I decided to try and map out the characteristics of everything I heard. In that process I took more time to be aware of how so many other aspects than just harmony and melody impact a piece of music. One of which was form.
Up until that point my main interaction with form had been minimal. I had been introduced to a number of different structures through classical theory and composition classes, but even though I knew about them, I mainly used two options: the blues and AABA. However, once I started looking at Cuban music, most popular styles were built around completely different forms. Some were built around a number of montuno/mambo vamps, others had a verse/chorus relationship, there were a few which used an AABB form, and some made use of an altered rondo ABACAD form. Regardless of the specific forms being used, by listening to a number of different examples I was seeing that music can be organized in so many more ways than what I had been using.
Some time later I started to incorporate my newly found knowledge into the arrangements I was writing. By taking the time to explore different music I had rekindled that initial hunger I once had. The best part was that it helped me realize that there is so much more to music than those initial techniques I once focused on. The new charts I was writing sounded completely different to those that came before even though I was still incorporating similar melodic and harmonic approaches. They were just reorganized into new and creative ways by focusing on form.
Initially I stuck to the forms rigidly, not deviating from a set structure. As I became more confident I started to incorporate different sections and “break the rules” so to speak. Through this exploration I discovered a number of wonderful ways to add interest into an arrangement and even to this day I’ve still been experimenting and finding new solutions I like. By focusing on a different aspect to writing, specifically the planning of an arrangement and structuring the form before I put pen to paper, I started to think about the big picture of a chart which led to more epiphanies. However, those will have to wait for future entries. In the meantime though, here’s a few of my favorite forms and sections that may help spice up your own arrangements.
Forms (this is by no means an exhaustive list, just the ones I tend to use)
AABA
ABAB
Blues (8, 12, or 16 bar variations)
Binary: AABB
Ternary: ABA
Verse/Chorus: AB
All of the above but with an added C (bridge) afterward
Rondo: ABACA
Added Section Types (can be added anywhere into a given form)
Pedal: a section where the harmony focuses on a repeated bass note
Interlude: a section where a small melodic fragment or new material is used to bridge two sections together
Vamp: a section which highlights a repeated rhythmic and/or harmonic pattern
Intro: a section which goes at the beginning of a piece and sets the tone for what is about to happen
Outro: a section which goes at the end of a piece and generally feels conclusive. Sometimes writers use this section to introduce something new that hasn’t happened
Between each of these options, you can create a number of different combinations. Of course there are many more that could be covered too so I highly recommend exploring other types of music to add new forms to your collection. Another simple way to add variation to these forms is by extending or reducing a certain section by a couple of bars. You’d be surprised how impactful this can be and how it can help a section feel fresh even if it may be the 5th time through a form.
Form helped me rekindle my creative spark and refresh my arranging approach. However it is only one aspect when it comes to writing music. As this month I’m focusing this newsletter on the topic of how to plan and develop an arrangement, next week we will look at how you can think about density to help create points of interest and flow in your charts.
Thanks again for taking the time to read this far. If you have any questions or want to talk more about arranging, feel free to reach out to me by replying to this email.
Thanks,
Toshi