Includes 3 hours of instruction and a study guide with classwork and examples
All of us have faced the fear of sitting down to write an arrangement and not knowing where to start. Traditional teaching in this area has not helped much. Pianists are normally just encouraged to cobble together a few ideas, tack on an intro, and hope for the best.
Arranging should be more than that. An arrangement is a chance to communicate very big ideas and impact people at a very deep level. That is why I talk a lot about the big decisions you have to make before I ever starts playing in this 3-hour course.
This course gives you seven concrete steps from picking a song to polishing a final arrangement. We are aware of no similar approach anywhere.
Here are things you will learn:
- How to choose a song to arrange.
- How to choose a shape and storyline for the arrangement.
- How to develop the form and length.
- How to develop hooks (unique ideas that tie the arrangement together).
- How to document your arrangement through the process.
- How to develop each section of the arrangement.
- Dozens of technical treatments and creative ideas.
- How to polish your arrangement for performance.
This course does not teach reharmonization (fancy chords, substitutions, etc). If you are interested in that subject, you should consider purchasing Reharmonization. Also, you might consider purchasing the course on Modulations.
You might find as you work through this course that you want to rearrange the steps to better suit the way you work. That is perfectly fine. These steps simply reflect decisions and processes that arrangers should be thinking through when they create. You should have big goals for your arrangements; they should not be time fillers during a worship service and they should not be themes and variations designed to show off technical skill. This course will help you think at a higher level.