The Arranging Process

[Bespinben]

"...the attempt to make a useful object equally usable for a variety of purposes is usually the way to spoil it completely."
~Arnold Schoenberg

Spoken in the context of piano reductions, I have come to believe that making a pure, computer replica-esque piano reproduction of a song "spoils it completely". I do certainly aim for the highest degree of faithfulness, no doubt, but when push comes to shove, if a song has a bunch of long sustained tones with a really driving percussive rhythm, I'm going to make a accompaniment that reflects the timbre of the percussion using the tones spelled out in the chords (ex: "Primal Dialga", PMD2 "Ending Theme", Pokémon Ranger "Title Theme", etc.), even if not necessarily given in the OST. In the end, I feel like this approach actually produces a MORE accurate piano arrangement than by the "strict" approach.

A similar scenario from other people's sheets: stellarlight24's "Kracko"

if you know a way to include the bass notes without being too hard I'd reaaaally appreciate that.

Okay, so I think "let's incorporate the rhythm of the high RH ostinato into the notes of the current LH chords, and make that the new right hand part, and then write in the omitted bass:



She likes it! But then...

So far, your rendition works reaaaally well. My ONLY issue is that, I generally don't like changing the octaves, but this is an arrangement not a transcription sooooo I'll see how that works technically.

We have this idea of changing ANYTHING from the original somehow makes it less faithful, somehow less worthy of the title "transcription", but I would like to challenge this notion.

[Clanker37]

We have this idea of changing ANYTHING from the original somehow makes it less faithful, somehow less worthy of the title "transcription", but I would like to challenge this notion.

I agree on some points. Yes, some members of the community think that deviations are less faithful, but as a whole, I think we already embrace them. Take you arrangements for example. The only complaints there are about your arranging is that they're too difficult. Nobody is claiming that they are less faithful than anyone else's arrangements (In fact I would argue that the opposite is true). Another example would be my arrangement of Mario Kart 64's "Bowser's Castle." At the time, I remember Winter telling me to change the monotonous bass line from just being a single held tone for 16 bars into a mimicry of the percussion line. Suddenly the arrangement bounced with drive, yet still attained the haunting feel from the lowness of the notes and it more accurately reflected the piece than before.

Personally, my hypothesis is that, rather than a community-wide loyalty to transcription, to accurately reflect the feel that the percussive lines give, is simply too difficult and too time consuming. I personally have files upon files of incomplete arrangements which I am left frustrated with because I simply cannot recreate the energy or the drive of the original piece, mostly due to the fact that this energy live in the percussion. I don't know if I'm speaking for other arrangers and I certainly don't want to misrepresent them, but I feel that simply transcribing the boring bass lines is an easy route which ensures timely arrangements that I can squeeze into my busy life. While I certainly want to work on them so that they truly do reflect the song's nature, I simply don't have the time to develop the skills in order to do this.

However, I do agree. I think that we call them arrangements not transcriptions for a reason; because they shouldn't be transcriptions. I would love for the arrangements on this site truly represent what a song is truly saying. I agree that there is some degree of people disliking deviations and this must change, but I don't think it's as wide spread as you think.

TL;DR imo this is somewhat true, but not really.

[Bespinben]

my arrangement of Mario Kart 64's "Bowser's Castle."

Good example! Gee, I still remember when you first uploaded that one like it was yesterday I chose the percussion adaptation example because I think, like you said, most if not everyone would see that as a necessary part of making the sheet. I think the main point I was trying to make (subconsciously), but never actually said it (until you said it for me), was this:

simply too difficult and too time consuming.

There are times where I've quite truly spent an entire day (or two!) tweaking with only a couple measures of a song (ex: m. 37-40 of my PMD Gates to Infinity "Opening" [admittedly, my arranging gears were still pretty rusty then, but still]). I don't regret it though, because I know in the end as long as I am 100% satisfied with the end product, the time it took was worth it. Having had the new experience of reviewing people's sheets for submissions officially, I jump for joy when I see this same level of attention to detail. I'm not expecting people to write in a whole database of invisible articulations, but it would be nice if we as arrangers in general just spent a little more time attending to aesthetic details, because sheet music is art, I believe. In fact, there's a whole profession dedicated to this end: "music engraver".

I love what Brassman wrote in my arrangement thread:
 

you'll be surprised how good you can get a sheet to actually look. Whenever I thought I would be done with a sheet, I would think soon after, "Does this sheet look good enough for someone to pay money for?" ...every time I wrote something new, I would always strive for that quality.

I hope I haven't offended anyone in this or the last post. It's just something I'm really passionate about.

[Sebastian]

I guess (until a few months ago) I've been lazy at arranging. But I've recently really been striving to get all my sheets as good as that: Something someone would pay money for.
I've learned a lot this past year about arranging and it has helped me so much. I probably learned 90% of what I need to arrange this past year!
Thanks everyone for investing your time in helping me. I'm very grateful!