Hi there, I'm Clément, from armanesy.com Welcome back in the CHALLENGE #2
series "How to produce a song" Composing Arranging Recording Post-production How I produced my song, the whole process In today's episode, we'll talk about the arrangements Last time we were talking about composition Which is the first step when producing a song If you missed this, click on the "i" showing on top of the screen And see you in a few minutes 😉 The arrangements "Arrangement" is a word that has plenty of different meanings But in music, it's the step where you choose the instruments That you will be hearing in the song And how these instruments will coexist So that it serves the emotion of
the song Let's consider again the song "Joy of Life" (link in the description) Huh, what kind of instruments can we add to this song? Electric guitar? Some ukulele? Djembe? Or drums? A shaker? Claps? Bass guitar Well…
Are we really gonna put all of them together? I hope I can make you realize why arranging is so important Everything is about subtle dosing The fine balance Imagine that you are at home Thinking about cooking some food You're probably wondering – What can I cook? Imagine that the meal you'll cook represents our song Then imagine that the ingredients represent the instruments we can add to the song And finally, imagine that the quantity of each one represents the quantity of each instrument we'll be adding to the song Well you might know that when cooking There are proper quantities to respect For salt or oil for example If you don't, eat the meal at your own risks ! In music, it's exactly the same If there are too many
instruments, the song will be a mess Let's arrange everything Arranging is simply choosing what to add, and what not to add.
It's a compromise, which depends on your tastes You will be right if you say that in that case There are thousands of way to arrange a song That's right This is a very personal process, your tastes are decisive If you wonder what choices I did in the song "Joy of Life" I won't reveal it to you right now, so that you can discover it by clicking the link in the description below Make your opinion about the arrangements And the instruments that are involved in the song Panned left and right in your earphones Try to pay attention to those little instruments I'd be glad to know your opinion in the comments section ! Now YOU play ! I have a game for you friends From now on, you are the arrangers of the song You just listened to my version Now I can't wait to know what choices would you have done? Which instruments? Djembe, ukulele, …
What are your tastes and ideas about this song? I'd be glad to know which meal you would have cooked If you were the arrangers Write it in the comments ! And next week, I'll choose the one that I prefer And I will re-record the song, with YOUR arrangements ! That way you will hear how a single song can have many different atmospheres When the arrangements are different Okay, now let's talk about the second fundamental step in arranging The structure of the song The structure of a song plays a very important role in how you perceive the song because it will give it some air and energy Let's explore two notions that I like considering when deciding a song's structure The first one is what I call "alternations" No political alternation here, But the way I organize calm and
punchy sections in the song In the song "Joy of Life", you'll hear many examples of calm sections like this one and other punchier sections, like the choruses like this Thanks to alternations, the mood changes And it helps keeping the listener interested in the song It just gives the impression that it's moving forward and the song becomes more exciting Breaks make the song As well as alternations, the breaks can also help to keep the listerner interested Sometimes in a song, it's good to decide that at a given instant some instruments have to stop playing Such as when you speak, you need sometimes to take a deep breathe Break …
It simply give some air to the song ! Here it is friends, thank you for watching this video If you liked it, don't forget to give me some support for my musical project "Armanesy" It takes lots of time and energy from me to create this content for you You can simply go visit armanesy.com and discover my originals, my covers in video As well as my travel diaries Last time it was about Spain, really cool country I'm on Facebook as well if you're more familiar with it Don't hesitate to like my page, and leave some thumbs up Subscribe to this Youtube channel if you want more videos like this ! I think you got it 😉 Oh yeah, and if you have some ideas about the arrangements, don't forget to leave a comment below And next week you may hear your version recorded ! And I'll see you in the next video ! Next Sunday Recording in the studio Subscribe ! Don't need to choose, they're all great 😉