Arranging Songs - Some Ideas For the Process

I have been gearing up for the NERFA conference and noticed that once again they are having an arranging panel.   It made me realize that we haven’t talked about the nascency of any arrangement.

I have done at least one cover song on all my cd’s but the latest one and I have also done a complete rearranging of eleven classic Rolling Stones songs with my pal, John Batdorf (www.johnbatdorfmusic.com) on a CD entitled, All Wood and Stones (www.allwoodandstones.com) which has been hailed as a masterpiece by everyone but Louise Capone, who maintains that the Rolling Stones songs cannot be changed. (smile)

I am presently doing the same thing to a dozen classic Doors songs, this time with my pal, Cliff Eberhardt (www.cliffeberhardt.net), and it is coming out so wonderfully that both John Densmore and Robby Krieger of the Doors have contributed to three tracks each.

So now that you know that I might actually know from whence I speak, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing if you are considering doing a cover song or rearranging a song that you wrote.

If it’s a cover song, I print out the lyrics from the Web, as you can find the words to any song you want up here.

Then I don’t listen to the original at all.  I try to remember what I liked about the song and then see if I can remember the chords.  Invariably, as you try to recall, your own creativity will rear it’s opinioned head and changes will transpire to make the song different than the original.

Now you can try some chord substitution, modulation, or even change the whole tune from major to minor or vice versa.    You can also change the tempo which always frees you up.  If it’s in  4 / 4 try 3 / 4  or in the instance of one of the Doors songs, I put it in 5 /  4, which took it someplace entirely differently.

Start there and then record what you have and listen to it.  Is it compelling?   Does it draw you in?   Is  it as good as the original?   If you, you’ve got some work to do, Lucy.

One other thing you can try is to create a progression, or cop one from some other song.   Now try singing the song you are working on over top of that.   As the progression changes you will be forced to rethink the song harmonically and that’s going to lead to ideas.  

Comments

[wb]

James - the various links to Cliff's site in your post(s) are incorrect - he's at www.cliffeberhardt.net, not .com.

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