5 Arrangement Tips PROS Use (and Amateurs Usually Don't)

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

I hope you learned a ton from this! Our holiday sale is over - however we are getting ready to open up a 30 Day Producer Challenge where I'll give you a vocal stem to create a song around with an exclusive private community and you'll get a whole mini-course (included) of me showing how I created my version - you can text the word "Challenge" to [phone] and I'll shoot you a text when we open the challenge up!

[@TopQuebeq]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🎶 *Too Much of a Good Thing* - Overusing a cool element in your song diminishes its impact. - Tease interesting moments and let them go, creating anticipation for their return. - Be tasteful with repetition; avoid overdoing elements to maintain their effectiveness. 02:35 🔄 *Verse Two Optimization* - Avoid copying and pasting verse one to verse two; it's a missed opportunity. - Enhance verse two with new sounds, different chord voicings, and varied percussion. - Use verse two as a springboard to introduce changes and set the stage for the rest of the song. 04:59 🎛️ *Layering for Sonic Depth* - Professional productions often excel in sonic richness achieved through layering. - Layer two or more sounds to fill in sonic gaps and add depth. - Don't solely rely on mixing hacks; layering contributes significantly to a fuller sound. 08:32 🎭 *Plan the Climax* - Plan and identify the climax of your song early in the production process. - A song without a clear climax may feel dynamically underwhelming. - Intentionally build towards the climax, making it the peak moment of the composition. 13:15 🎹 *Spread Out Your Chords* - Utilize vertical spacing to spread out chord voicings among different instruments. - Avoid stacking all instruments in the same register, creating a cluttered and muddy sound. - Think of notes as individual pockets for instruments, enhancing clarity and allowing each element to be heard distinctly. Made with HARPA AI

[@iamrolexsir]

Super

[@GabrielBacon]

rhythm is 90% of music. Even with melodies, the rhythm they're played is what makes it memorable, the notes themself are just the icing on the cake of rhythm

[@xentis007]

What do you think about giving examples for each tip? Wouldn't it help to provide some context to each idea? What I mean by showing an example, a clip of a before / after piece of music arrangement.

[@halfbee7886]

We’ve been saying this for a long time.

[@kevandmal]

That'd be helpful. I learn better that way

[@tuseemusic6269]

Great suggestion

[@redboycaptures]

Yeah instead he has video showing his face and waving arms about - ‘make bold decisions’. Huge serving of nothingburger

[@sfuture08]

What do you mean? You don’t learn well by being vaguely lectured and talked down to? And corny jokes in between?

[@johnsalzarulo]

I did final "Bounce" on a track just before watching this last night, went back this morning and listened to my copy paste of verse 1 and 2, re-worked the verses so one features guitar, then the next features piano. Good lord it came together so much nicer. Thanks for making this and making my song so much better.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

I LOVE hearing this. Thanks for sharing. You are doing what others should do - take a concept and then actually try applying it... don't just take my word for it - TRY IT.

[@chiparooo]

#1. 0:25 Too much of a good thing is not a good thing #2. 2:28 Verse II is an opportunity #3. 4:50 Layering is your friend #4. 8:30 Plan the climax #5. 13:03 Spread out your chords

[@noahortega9908]

The chord spreading section is great. It definitely plays into the layers and dynamic sections of the video as well. For instance, the verse could very well be close and more stacked and simple, while the chorus could be layered and the chords/notes more spread out to create drastic change and movement. Fantastic tools.

[@wrede4447]

I have mixed plenty of songs that have instruments stacked and stepped over each other. What I do is that I select which of the channels are "allowed" to be in the mix, and lower the other channels to zero that don't contribute to the mix, to the song, to the tidiness of the mix. That leaves me with several channels that are inaudible and useless. With these "useless" channels, you can really go wild with effects and pitch shift them, and use them as "spice" in the mix. You can chop them up, reverse them, do sound design with them, and sprinkle them in the song. By breaking out of the prison to use every single audio file that an artist or band sends you in their mix, by taking creative liberties and thinking outside of the box, yields so much better results and very happy clients (at least in my case, never had any backlash against me doing this). So yea, go wild and pitch-shift a channel up or down if that would make the overall mix sound better. Better yet, ask the band or artist to re-record that instrument or vocals an octave higher or lower, in order to fill out the mix. It will make the mix sound huge and wide.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

That's obviously very creative. Like that. I would say it is a different mix philosophy than someone like me would be looking for in a mix engineer. Because that is really altering the production beyond that scope of what I (personally) would want a mix engineer to do! That's just me and I know many others who love their mic engineer doing more of that kind of thing!! And this is why there will always be demand for different types of people. Truthfully being a mix engineer for clients is super hard cause guys like me are pretty much like "don't change anything creative" and others feel like that's what they hired you for. So you really gotta do is know what the expectation is. But I do like your take creatively 100%

[@wrede4447]

@@NathanJamesLarsen Thank you for your insight as well. I agree, ultimately, it's the client's vision and product, not the mixing engineer's. I would have no problem mixing exactly what the client wants, even if it would sound less than I would want it to sound. But the creative part of being a mixer is what drew me to the field in the first place, it tickles me in the right place and satisfy me on a deep personal level. Good video!

[@8eight104]

This video came in at the perfect time. I'm actually crafting two diss tracks, and I need the songs to be perfect.

[@lzrbmz]

solid video & tips, really like #2 this is a big focus for me rn, #5 is cool too, thanks! 😎🎶✌️❤️

[@tommorton7211]

Great video. Arrangement is so important and so underrated. A minor nit, I think the last point conflates 2 things. One is to consider wide/open voicings for chords and the second is put different instruments in different octaves. The latter, in my experience, favors closed voicings that are voice lead to occupy a smaller frequency range across changes. Maybe the first part was just a way to introduce the idea that the chords could be voiced differently across octaves on different instruments. Thanks again for a super interesting video!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Yeah so I wasn't saying that you should only do wider voicings. - I think I mentioned that but perhaps I shouldve made a stronger point there. I personally LOVE closed voicings when it's used intentioanlly.. what I'm mainly mentioning is how a lot of the times instruments are simply loaded into one frequency range without real intent.

[@johnwinslow8841]

high point. yes. another tip: one can compose/arrange/plan the densest part of the song first so that you can better judge how dense to make the other parts.

[@DavidLilja]

Absolutely agree with the 1st and 2nd verse possibilities. I like the first verse to be toned down, if it comes after the intro/chorus. Then the second verse to be bang on with pads and arpeggio elements which then carries over to the chorus following the second verse. Great video with really good tips! Even if you’ve already heard them it’s a good thing to be reminded of them again.

[@piktormusic2538]

I agree, but there is also the challenge of giving the first time listener a compelling reason to hang around for the second verse. I ask myself how the short intro or first verse can have something to hook the listener while saving something to build momentum throughout the song. If only we could all have singing voices that made every listener want to hear us sing anything and everything. Music is hard.😁

[@DavidLilja]

@@piktormusic2538 Yeah, if only we could sing about knitting and everyone would stick around - that’d be amazing 🤩 On a more serious note, I completely agree. But, that’s what the intro and/or first chorus is for. We tell the listener “this is where we’re going if you stick around”. I’m right now reading a great book about anticipation, feelings and how to surprise the listener in a positive way. “Sweet Anticipation” by David Huron is the book I’m talking about.

[@piktormusic2538]

@@DavidLilja Thanks for the book recommendation David.

[@arto-lp1co]

This just insprired me to finish my latest song arrangement. Thank you man.

[@arpeggioblues5924]

I love your channel, Nathan. Your producing / writing techniques are really inspiring : Mixing: OMG.. Yes, mixing things in the same frequency range is horrible to mix.. I create pockets for each instruments, and keep them in their own pockets, and then I can do post-processing on those instruments that doesn't collide with other instruments.. When I listen to great reference mixes, it's how they all do it.. If I can comprehend each instrument, and what they are 'saying' it's more enjoyable.

[@briangurnett]

An unreasonable amount of very good free information and advice. Bravo.

[@simonhaworth5948]

Greetings from Canada. This is extremely useful information. Thank you so much for this and all your other videos. I have been checking out your channel for the past week, and I am blown away at all the useful content you have created. I haven't produced anything since before COVID, so these interesting and entertaining videos are helping me gear-up to get back at it. Btw, I loved your Hallelujah production, and hope it shuts a few, choice, Internet pie-holes. Hopefully, that video will also show people the importance of arranging ... it's not just for "Serious Music." Cheers -- Simon

[@judethedudeb6776]

I strongly confirm point 2! I usually keep my first verse consistent and smooth and then switch it up with the same patterns in the second verse, intercut staccato and dramatize the 808. Utilizing verse 2 is a must when it comes to trap music, my prominent genre.

[@johnwinslow8841]

Owl City (adam young) songs are excellent to study progressively increasing density/variance leading to the high point.

[@drjtwoodrow]

Great tips! As for the calls for examples, as long as one can comprehend language and use imagination, no examples are necessary!

[@DNeil5]

Great video Nathan! Everything you said is Right on target. It's like a classic painting, it's not only the subject matter but it's how that subject matter is highlighted and accented. All of these things that you've made us aware of I'm going to try to apply in my music. Just the vertical placement comment is a game changer. Using different octaves can have a dramatic impact on the final product. Thank you so much for the video!

[@4rg0nnnnnnn]

14:57 mixing a song of mine that I arranged to be too dense in the mid range - super annoying trying to carve out space for my vocalist!!

[@k98killer]

Elaboration on/example for point 1: I am currently working on an arrangement of Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights for 2 violins, and the things I am being mindful of using sparingly are pizzicato, double stops, and harmonics; there are some places where the pizzicato obviously works, specifically where the original orchestral version uses percussion, and a few double stops in the bass line make sense, but I think that the use of harmonics will have to be very rare and for sustained notes rather than the rocking sections with pairs of dotted 8th + 16th.

[@DJPastaYaY]

Really valuable tips. Great vid

[@eriksolg]

Thank you so much! The vertical spacing really blew my mind.

[@vewilli]

A big „Thank you“ for these tips, it would certainly exactly be that. In the future I should concentrate on these things much more. Hope I‘m able to improve as I‘m by far not that great musician and producer/mixer than you are and by far not as busy!

[@mikemdos8310]

This is so helpful. I can't believe this is free, this really helps out a lot. Thank you for sharing, kudos to you brother

[@heitonjoshuaziegenbalg602]

I am from india .... Ur tutorials are very useful to me... Bro

[@recordman555]

Nate - it's just a matter of time - some film studio is gonna want you for a soundtrack!

[@Phadddy]

So many helpful tips! Your music proudction course is the best one out there.

[@piktormusic2538]

Good video and important musical concepts. 👍 Tip 1: I agree. Why do I hate John Woo movies? Answer: Because he has something blow up every five minutes. Tip 2: I agree. Even in sonata form we change something in the repeat of the A section. Yes, add interest. I almost never copy and paste anything. Tip 3: This is especially true if one is a presets jockey. Sometimes layering presets at least give you something new. Now, in the early days of midi, some people found out that layering TOO many sounds had diminishing returns. If you layer, you don’t have to layer every single note, chord or drum hit. How much spice does a dish need before it is a mess? Tip 4: Good point. Dynamics can be so important. If there are vocals, give some consideration as well to the lyrical idea that comes at the high point. Why climax on anything but the most important idea? Is the word that aligns with the highest note an important word, or is it just something insignificant like “the”? Tip 5: Agreed. You music training and experience are evident in this tip. If a person doesn’t know how to voice chords this way, they can do it in editing. Perform closed voicings and then do the drop two, etc. I know that you are referring to spreading notes vertically, but you can even spread them out in space. You can copy a chord part and it’s patch and then spread the voicing out in stereo. e.g. cut every second note of a right panned chord and paste them into the left hand panned part. Many arranging and mixing problems between instruments playing chords nd the mud that they create can be solved but arranging them with complimentary rhythms where the two instruments are having a conversation, rather than playing simultaneously. I am guilty of adding too many parts and then eventually having to kill my darlings by muting them. The ear likes to hear parts that are not playing constantly. That killer patch and part (tip 1) is special, because you understand the question, “How can I miss you, if you won’t go away?” I know that YOU know this, but you can also remind your viewers that their chords often don’t need roots if the bass part is covering them. Great tips and presentation. Thanks for the reminders.

[@MONOSONICS]

Thank you ❤for your generosity... Your tips help me alot. I'm doing all the mistakes you talked about... but that's how we learn right 😅

[@cinematichormone]

sUPER important Things , Arrangement , Which no one is talking about.. Thankyou Brother.

[@BrandonBurch]

My biggest takeaway was not overusing the best parts. I'm so guilty of that. It's no wonder my favorite artists don't do that very thing when I'm wishing for that theme to come back.

[@FrankHarding-g6c]

Love that you shouted out Verse Two 🥂

[@FossilStudios316]

Fantastic video! You really delivered on this one.

[@theshinyobject2438]

As a Jam style producer. My music creation process is part performance. I mean that Is how I choose where the song is going next,. But once the song Is created I have unlimited choice of how to arrange it on the fly and also add live music parts. I have been trying to train myself to arrange the song properly only live. I mean I really don't want my music to sound familiar at all. I want people to think, whoah that's trippy, woah that's groovy Anyway thanks for the information ill have it on my mind.

[@johnwinslow8841]

Nathan, are you raising the overall volume on the high point of your song? How much, 1 db? thank you.

[@Toonces74]

Thank you Nathan, it makes so much sense. You are a good at explaining. Great lesson!

[@petrieberries]

Absolutely great. Thank you 🤍

[@randykalish7558]

Some wake up calls are like a tap on the shoulder, others like a shout in the night. This is more like a mule kick; quite effective.

[@ivaylosl]

Golden tips here

[@uffevonlauterbach]

Use variations to avoid having a repetitive melodies. Use A B A formatting. Or use A B A C. A being your main melody. B being a melody that is similar or different, but doesn't sound like it doesn't belong. C being perhaps your last section of the song. Use layering to add more meat/texture to the song. Use dynamics. This is to give it more emotion.

[@jorgedejesustejedavaldez5283]

This video Worth a lot of money! Thank you!

[@lilian896]

Great video, especially the magic of layering❇

[@randykalish7558]

There are great examples of these topics in most of the music released in the last four centuries and in the 60,000 daily internet releases 😃

[@keithlawcomedy]

Planning the climax is great advice. Although a song is taking a listener on a journey, it also needs to have an interesting destination. Otherwise it's just staring out of the bus window

[@combatwings]

This is great advice. Thank you!

[@jasonmeyermusic5639]

Thanx Nathan, like always, just right on. For climaxes, (haha) Rachmaninoff often said the same thing. Every movement will have one or two climaxes; all else is based around them. Thanx for your intelligence, too.

[@malachibasoah8213]

Goated advice as always!!

[@jsr9397]

Can you please make a video about music transition from trap rap to song...like eminem ft sia sort of songs... if you elaborate important factors which should be considered while transition from from one style to other style of artists

[@aaronbaldwin4900]

Dope video. Thanks, man

[@marceaucouve6427]

Awesome, thank you!

[@Lmmixs]

Ennie meanie by Kingston has same chord loops from the beginning to end, but different Melody

[@DepressedCapitalist]

Hi Nathan. Your video is good and your tips are very useful, but I would have liked you to demonstrate such techniques with musical examples. I know this takes much more work in terms of recording and editing, but it would be 10X better and more educational to actually listen to what you are saying instead of a long lecture (which tends to disengage the viewer). Thanks.

[@christopherjansen5135]

Vertical spacing (and/or) mix decisions coupled with instrument selection & arrangement - OK, all of these crucial elements - dictate the sonic aesthetic of the space. For example, one doesn’t throw a bunch of chairs in the middle of the room and call it visually pleasing. Take a cue from the visual space to help inform the sonic space.

[@CarsonHoy]

Do more of these please! 👏🏼

[@joshuaallenzurbano3476]

Many thanks!

[@allkeyspro6606]

Fantastic video!

[@Sunny-tu5ox]

Getting a stems of vocals and pianos and guitars all in the same register = I'm mailing the shit in and running through Ozone and taking that check lmao

[@juanguti6641]

Great tips 🤘👏🔥

[@OrbGoblin]

1:33 That's right, they'll keep listening... because of the IMPLICATION...

[@DK-5]

Thanks, I took notes

[@OZKitchen]

Professional mix engineer who does hate everything in the same register

[@arataka57]

I would add to listen to classical and jazz music orchestrations. It is all there. Good points though.

[@alessandrosummer]

Great video Nathan! Just a question: if I have a quite small first verse (e.g. I have a quite soft lead vocal, a synth, a quite small bass and a 80's drum machine) then for the second verse I do double time, raise the key and introduce loud distorted guitars with heavy drums and much more aggressive vocals, am I arranging well or am I making the second verse too different? The melody remains the same btw

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Hard to say without hearing it - though I would say that a key change in the second verse (without hearing it) seems a bit odd, but not saying it can't work. This is where you do need to trust your ears a bit and try to be honest with yourself. The key change element is the only piece of that which seems a bit odd - the rest would probably work assuming it's executed well.

[@alessandrosummer]

@@NathanJamesLarsen I often do this kind of thing after I discovered some songs I really like change key for the second verse (most notably “The show must go on” by Queen).

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

@@alessandrosummer Yeah! Like I said - hard to say without hearing it! Not saying it CANT work!

[@alessandrosummer]

@@NathanJamesLarsen yeah I got it, just explaining the first reason why I did it (the other one being it’s impossible to play the bVII in A minor - G5 - on a 7 string guitar in the very low register to get the metal sound, so I switched to C# minor to be able to play the bVII - B - using the low B string - didn’t want to change the chords! 🙃)

[@KarstenJohansson]

All of Yngwie Malmsteen's newer stuff has the first problem - "too much of a good thing isn't good." He takes a 20 second riff and plays it like 30 times in a row with the odd scale or arpeggio in between to break it up. It gets to be very tedious.

[@meronsimeneh]

bang on

[@MoontariArt]

I literally thought it was Jazza {Draw with Jazza} when I saw the thumbnail, lol

[@erJonhy]

Niiiiice 🔥✨

[@GdpJapan]

I'm both a musician an an engineer. And I hate when the clients keep sending arrangements all within the same spectrum, same octaves. I hate it more when I'm the one recording them too. Currently I'm on a session that has over 100 audio tracks. Fifteen of them are drum mics. Then there are 8 more different kinds of percussion altogether, sax flute, trombone, trumpet, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, more percussion, then a second sax, then a charango, EG riffs, AG cuttings, all there, sounding on the same spectrum. I'm kinda "how about here? there's nothing here". "Oh, we'll through more percussion and choruses". Wow... Anyways pay me, and don't forget to remove my name from the credits and use an alias.

[@leopapa-q3y]

nice

[@Shurehlm]

This video needs examples

[@calebmayo2170]

Lol. Tell that to Hans Zimmer. The king of repeating something to death.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Quite a bit different when scoring a film.

[@calebmayo2170]

@@NathanJamesLarsen no doubt.

[@RobAzam]

Layering is a rabbit hole that too many bands/ producers etc. go too far down. As an example, a 5 piece band that performs live should not need backing tracks to simulate their 10 different layered guitar parts, 3 layered keyboard/ synth parts (and they don't even have a keyboard player) for the song to sound even close to what it sounds like on streaming platforms. It is one thing to use a couple of backing tracks to thicken up parts, click and cues to stay on time etc., but when a band "relies" on backing tracks, they have went too far. Been there, done that, and "yes" I realize I have just described 90% of all bands playing live gigs today at any level above the bar/pub venues. To caveat, I understand layering may be more important for certain genres and things like film scoring.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

I mean it depends on what you're trying to do. I'm not a band - I'm not making music as a band and don't do shows live. Not my goal. My goal is making awesome music. Sometimes that requires 50 tracks and sometimes it requires 150. I could care less how little or how many cause it's irrelevant to me personally - I can about the outcome. I think layering can be overdone 100% but I also think that there is a purist mentality that can be essentially anti-anything that can't be done live and I'm just personally not a fan of that. Not saying other people can't be but I don't really like that because it is super limiting. Again that's me

[@jenstornell]

In my case I blame my headphones. It's really only in those it sounds good.

[@errogiemusic]

It’s Yin and Yang. For every rule, there is an exception.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Never said these were rules :) I agree with you!

[@errogiemusic]

You didn’t say that, my apologies. Love your videos :-)

[@em8969]

If you need examples for what he is discussing then you guys aren’t at the level he is discussing at yet in this video it’s simple. Sometimes I look for tutorials but I don’t understand what they are saying, it means I’m not at that level yet to understand and I have some ways to go. I don’t complain because someone doesn’t cater to a beginner, intermediate or whatever level I’m on at that moment but that’s just me

[@MarkHimley]

Spot on about mixing and doing client work hahahah. That’s one of the biggest reasons I stopped taking on client mixing work. I falsely assumed people were going to send me stuff that was produced to my standards. Nope. Most of that work ended up being problem solving and trying to force a bad production or arrangement to sound as good as possible. Not fun

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Yep it sucks. A big reason I do not mix clients. Never wanted to mix other people's music in the first place but that is the worst when a producer is going in thinking "Fix this" instead of "Enhance this"

[@hansdumbf7608]

The Irony here is, when he talks about overusing a theme, he tells people about 15 times within a 2 minutes span, not to overuse something because it annoys the listener...

[@ChrisHardyWorld]

#5 is a pet peeve of mine, especially in a band with 2 guitar players - when both of them play the same dang chords! Geez, guys, stop doing the same thing the other guy is doing! Mix it up!

[@johnmccullough4472]

Is it possible for you to show us an example of what you say instead of talking about it. It would be very helpful

[@arpeggioblues5924]

Hmm.. Producer Accelerator site, broken? just get a 'white' screen.. so you know. btw.. Sweetwater IS the best, I've built my studio thru them.. and the most cost effective way to do.. Play as you Pay.. nothing better.

[@johnmccullough4472]

I’m not being negative about what you say..

[@vladimirciboci1485]

Please have your piano tuned.!!!!!!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Haha... a little back story - this piano is almost 100 years old that I am having restored and it is winter. Winter is THE WORST time to get a piano tuned because fluctuation in temps will just cause more probs... so I need to wait till early spring. I've already had it tuned 2x in the past 5 or so months in addition to having a full day of restoration on it. All this to say - YES it needs tuned - but it's out of tune right now because of dropped temperatures - very normal. My piano tech looked at it a couple weeks ago and said we should wait to fully tune till early spring or else he's gonna have to come back again in a month or two.

[@rexforwood]

Great ideas .. just found your video edit very hectic .. take a breath dude .. sorry, but I feel exhausted after watching this

[@brendansullivan4101]

I stopped watching Nathan videos not because they weren’t knowledgeable.. this man never smiles or seems happy. making music is suppose to be fun & I find he takes it way too seriously.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Wow. Sounds like you've actually not watched many of my videos if you think I don't smile or seem happy... sheesh. Kinda weird to say you stopped watching my videos and then proceeds to comment on a video which you presumably watched? Can't please everyone - good lesson there for everyone.

[@randykalish7558]

His smile is in his style and the outcome of application.

[@mastry1676]

You talk alot. Please show us examples.

[@boazila]

This guy repeats everything 10 time. Make your point and move on. Geez…

[@randykalish7558]

People remember 10% of what they hear. He said stuff once, what I got.

[@eabea]

this is clearly a marketing page why should anyone listen to your vague half-takes on music production?

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

This comment seems as though you never actually looked at my channel to find 300+ free videos... I have done MANY videos showing extremely specific examples, but if you want to choose to be jaded - that's on you.

[@Wol8wol]

Boring, that's right

[@lukather1]

People asking for examples need to join his producers course ! Just take the free tips and take it all on board ❤🎸❤️🩼