How do YOU arrange?

[fingerz]

That's right, folks! I'm asking YOU how you go about arranging!

I'm just curious to see what people do! We're all completely different people, so our ways of arranging must be different too! Just give me and everyone else some insight as to how you go about arranging; your plan of attack, how to work out chords, breaking down difficult parts, how long it takes you, etc. It doesn't matter how you do it, I'd just like to know what you do to get to a final product.

Now get posting, people!! The more conversation we get going here, the more likely I'll be to share how I go about arranging and get to my finished product. Hopefully that's an incentive. XD

Hope to hear from you all soon!

[spitllama]

• I use VGMdb to find OST information and do all formatting first.
• Then Finale 2012 on one side of the screen; Transcribe! on the other. I like Transcribe! because there's a virtual keyboard attached, so I don't have to take my computer downstairs to the piano! It also allows for the placement of measure and beat markers for organization.
• I usually establish the key signature ~5 measures into arranging. I feel like it's easier to see the tonic rather than hear it.
• For chords I just slow the section down and continuously replay it until I've got all the voices.
• I try to not think about difficult sections and treat each voice individually-- makes things much less intimidating!
• Add shading; expressions
• Shrink pages down to the closest whole page
• Bring to the Live Feedback Thread if possible
• Submit!

I still have a lot to learn, of course (Olimar has done wonders in teaching me Finale shortcuts xD), so I look forward to hearing what everyone else has to say!

[mikey]

Well for coconut mall I'm listening to it closely on youtube then putting in what I think is accurate, then making sure it makes sense with music rules I guess.

[Clanker37]

I start by finding the time sig. This like so easy, my gawd.
Next I use this nifty website to find the tempo marking.
Then, I take the song and try to play along with it on my keyboard. I use Audacity to slow it down, if I need to.
Translate what I play into Finale (Still haven't figured out how to connect the computer with my keyboard lol)
Rinse and repeat the last 2 steps until completion.
I usually find the key sig. in step 3 by concentrating on what accidentals I'm playing and what the tonic is most likely to be etc. etc.
Apply Harmony to whatever key signature (If there is harmony) in Finale. If it doesn't make sense, use different harmonies. (This is usually the point when I realize that I've got the key sig. wrong)
Then I make up whatever dynamics there is.
Then make it pretty for submission.
Wait for Olimar and Deku to look at arrangement and tell me it's all wrong.

So that's how I arrange. How do YOU arrange?

[Olimar12345]

I do a lot of very intense listening. As of late I don't even start transcribing until I can mentally see the final product(speaking if which, I have like 10 arrangement I need to actually write down xD ). After that, it's just a matter of doing the grunt work of writing it down(though I should probably explain a bit what I'm listening for).

The first thing I listen for is the meter(or meters, if it changes). Once I think I know it, I compare it to other similar meters and make the best decision. Next, I find the form, first of the melody, then of the entire piece. During this time I also note important things like key/mode changes, changes in the instrumentation, register changes, etc. Finding the form helps to visualize not only what is happening, but what will happen. It can also be a nice tool to have when you're stuck.

Then, I figure out what key/mode we're in by analyzing the melody, which I've already partially done with the form. After that I make a few decisions, based on the song at hand, about how the structure of the arrangement for piano will work. This is when I decide which voices to preserve and which to leave out, and when/where they will change, etc.

At this point, I have a pretty good grasp of the piece. During all of the above I have been singing/humming/whistling different voices and their intervals, making the future transcription almost effortless. All that's left is to transcribe away. I usually start with the bass, then the melody then the inner voices/everything else.

[MaestroUGC]

Magic.

[Sebastian]

(Olimar has done wonders in teaching me Finale shortcuts xD)

So true!

[Dudeman]

Hoo boy. How do I arrange?
First, I pick the song I want to arrange (duh).
Create a new score in MuseScore and put in the title, game, composer, and copyright info.
Listen to the song and determine both the time signature and the number of measures in the piece. This usually involves tapping my fingers on the desk and trying to keep track of how many times I've reached ten fingers.
Input the key signature.
Use the tempo-determiner-device that Clanker posted to find the tempo.
Decide what part of the piece will be the right hand and which will be the left.
Input each and every note by ear, one hand at a time, one measure at a time. In case of really fast pieces and rhythms, I find an audio recording of the piece, put it in Audacity, and slow it down.
Put in slurs, stacattos, etc. (this usually happens during the input process)
Put in pedal (I've only had to do this twice, to date)
Save pdf, midi, and xml files.
Transfer the xml file into Finale Notepad.
Attempt to fix the weird glitches that Notepad inevitably throws at me.
Save a .mus file.
Put everything into Dropbox.
Post and wait for feedback!

[fingerz]

Magic.

You got a wand or something, do ya?

I do a lot of very intense listening. As of late I don't even start transcribing until I can mentally see the final product. After that, it's just a matter of doing the grunt work of writing it down(though I should probably explain a bit what I'm listening for).

YEAH! Someone else who does the same thing as me! Anyways, I suppose I'd better tell you my method too.

SO! I do pretty much the same thing as Olimar and listen to the piece to determine its tempo, melodic shape, time signature, etc. At this point, I decide if I'm going to do a single sheet, a duet or both depending on how many voices there are and if I like the song a lot. I'm a bit more unorthodox as I'll attempt to cram EVERY single voice into an arrangement (especially a duet), but I do think it through carefully. It's like a puzzle; I decide which two parts I want for one piano and which two parts for the other. I at least try to make sure that parts on the one piano don't interlace.

I get a general idea of the speed of the piece by running it at the same time as playing the blank Finale sheet I created. By watching the guider, I can roughly predict the tempo. Once I've written out the whole piece, I'll go back and play both of them together to make sure they're identical and that all the notes are, too. Kills two birds with one stone.

I use Audacity to manipulate the tune I want to arrange; I usually slow it down to 60% and sometimes boost the bass if it's hard to hear. I've got damn-good quality headphones now so I don't really need to boost the bass. HAVING MINIMAL SOUND IS IMPORTANT! Kinda hard to write something out if there's noise around.

What I do is I work my way through in 4 or 8 bar intervals. I'll start with the melody, then add the bass line and follow up with any extra voices and plonk them in if I'm doing a duet. Then I'll do back over the bars and add in articulation (seeing as I LOVE articulation). Then on to the next 4 or 8 bars! I just keep repeating this until I'm at the very end.

Seeing as the tune's slowed down, it's very easy to hear all the notes and rhythms going on, especially if it's quite a fast piece. I find it quite hard to make out chords in newer songs as they're much more realistic and everything blends... I can still get it, though. It just takes more effort. When I get to a chord, I just listen very carefully for the inner voices and build it up that way. I have quite a good understanding of chords, so I can usually pick its tonality; major, minor, diminished, a 7th of some kind.

As I was saying to mariolegofan, I also listen to the percussion in the piece and decide how much of an impact it has on the actual piece. For instance, if you go to hum that tune, do you also incorporate some of the percussion into it when you do that? If you do, then it's vital! Where the piece is lacking in actual notes, I add in 'extra' notes that mimic the percussion to give it interest and help with the flow. You don't have to, but I think it helps. The notes you add have to work, though.

If I get stuck on a tricky part, I just repeat it over and over for a bit so I can hear it very clearly in my mind. Sometimes that doesn't help and it all becomes a jumbled mess, so don't always do that. XD I find that if you write it out as accurately as you think and come back to it later, it helps settle it in your mind. That way you can decide if what you've written is correct or if it needs tweaking.

I add in my dynamics at the very end. I tend to think that people checking out arrangements are like people who go out to a restaurant to eat; the eat with their eyes, or in this case, with their ears. It doesn't matter how good an arrangement is, if it can't be listened to or doesn't sound good, it ain't gonna be liked! So I go through and invisibly modify every section so it sounds as close to the original as possible. My pet hate is when you've got a melody that's being drowned out by another smaller part because it's too loud!

And yes, I've finally learnt to shrink a sheet so I stop wasting paper. XD After doing all of that, I put the arrangement to the side for a few days and then come back to double check and make sure I haven't stuffed something up (such as my name [yes, I did misspell it once]). After that, I can be completely satisfied with an arrangement and post it on the site for you all to listen to.

So yeah! That's how I do it! I'm also very OCD about my arranging, so I make sure it's as good as it can be. It's very rare that I'll get lazy and careless... If I do, I know I'm tired and need to have a break for a little bit to freshen myself up again! Hope that gives some insight as to how I go about arranging.

[JDMEK5]

My methods sometimes vary depending on the song I'm doing.

If I'm doing something I really think is cool and I find myself listening to a lot, I usually have the melody line figured out on piano or something first. After that I decide what parts I'm going to arrange and include and where they're going to go.

Then I'll usually run the song through audacity so I can slow it down (I find it helps even if it's not too fast for me already). I usually go 50% speed.

Using the altered tempo (and occasional bass boost when needed), I figure out the parts I set out to get, jot them down, and double check. Part of the double-check process includes checking chords and chord progressions to make sure they (for the most part at least) make sense in theory.

After all that, I go through formatting (although I occasionally do it before getting started). Doesn't take long, never very complicated. You all know how it works.

Once all the above is done, I add the final touches. These include double-checking playability, adding articulation and dynamics where needed, making sure the staves themselves look nice and pretty, resizing if needed to cut down on the number of pages, etc.

At that point, I make midis and pdfs, and I'm considered done.

[mikey]

I ran out of room for Coconut Mall.

Wat do?

[FireArrow]

Edit > Add measures

[The Deku Trombonist]

Wow, there are lots of well thought out responses in this thread (obviously the best of these being Maestro's). It's nice to see people putting so much thought into their arrangements.

[spitllama]

Nice way to evade telling us how you arrange Deku

[The Deku Trombonist]

But I don't have a method. I just open a song in WMP, open Finale and go... Everything kinda falls on the page in a random order.