How To Arrange Music In The Style Of Frank Sinatra

[@sjlearning149]

Three questions.. 1) By lead tone you mean the top line of the brass/strings chord sequence right? 2) Im a little confused by the turnaround mentioned Amin D G Db C as a I, VI, II, I. I get the Db is a tritone sub for V (G) but the rest eludes me. 3) Why the 1/4 time signature? Anyway I’ve probably gone over this 10 times and I’m learning quite a bit so THANK YOU very much!!!

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Hi, I hope you are well, and thanks for the questions! 1) The lead tone is the highest note of the spread, which can be (but doesn't necessarily have to be) even higher than the melody itself. Remember that while the lead tone is not the melody (since the spread and therefore all voices making it up is a form of accompaniment), it doesn't mean that it cannot double the melody an octave up or down, even if it's only momentarily before reverting to its own line. 2) I see where the confusion is. The turnaround refers to the chord sequence (I-VI-II-V-I). Nevertheless, this doesn't mean that you can't expand it, modify it, or merely use it as a starting point to create your own turnaround-which is what I did in the video. This is why it doesn't perfectly align with the turnaround model, but it's clear that it stems from it. 3) The 1/4 relates to my personal workflow when working in a DAW, not with the arrangement itself. I usually produce music with constant time signature changes. This would require changing the time signature all the time, which is not very efficient. This is why I always work with "fake" single-beat bars regardless of the actual time signature, which, in this case, is always a 4/4, obviously. Delighted to hear you're finding it useful. Take care! :)

[@sjlearning149]

@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic Thanks so much for the detailed reply!!!

[@sjlearning149]

@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic On last question actually, are you referring to a turnaround with only major chords (I-VI-II-V-I) or are you just capitalizing all the roman numerals? I'm asking because these examples have a lot of modal ambiguity/chromaticism so I could see a blues "all chords are dominate 7x" situation taking place in the cadence

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

​@@sjlearning149 The original turnaround would be a normal diatonic cadence, so I-vi-ii-V-I, but I always capitalize all Roman numerals. Nevertheless, as I said, feel free to make the chord sequence your own by modifying it however you like! The fact that the chords are at a distance of perfect fifths makes them lend themselves very well to using dominant chords, regardless of their original nature. Also, why not add an extra subdominant in between? Or why not make that subdominant a modal interchange or the dominant that would correspond with a tritone substitute of the following chord? There are endless possibilities!

[@jasonhackett7217]

Man I’ve been looking for something exactly like this. Thank you so much for this video

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

My pleasure!!

[@user-xedwsg]

Always start with a piano reduction when teaching

[@TLMuse]

Quite a lot of helpful info in just 15 min; thanks! I think it's really the style of Nelson Riddle, one of Frank's main arrangers. -Tom

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Thanks you, glad to hear you found it useful! Yeah, Nelson Riddle is one of the big ones for sue. In fact, lots of the contents for this video come from his book "Arranged by Nelson Riddle".

[@andriealinsangao613]

Great video! I would love it if you would do one on the Carpenters, their arrangements (not to mention the production) is sublime, IMHO!

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

@@andriealinsangao613 thanks you! And point taken, thanks for the suggestion! 😊

[@DarkSideofSynth]

Muy muy bien hecho e interesante

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Muchas gracias! 😊

[@GodsStoryteller]

Coming back to learn.

[@farnaztabatabaee]

Such a wonderful video!I've been looking for this kind of arrangements since forever!Thank you so much for making this!

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

My pleasure Farnaz, lovely to hear you found it useful! :)

[@averilwilliamsmusic2957]

Really Kool, I just subscribed! Bravo!!!

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Thanks a lot!!

[@danielwebster9]

Thank you 😊

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

@@danielwebster9 my pleasure! 🙏

[@smilea6438]

Brilliant video. Thank you. Do you have any notated versions of these introductions? i.e. from Sibelius and not midi

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Thank you so much! I didn’t consider it necessary to produce scores for the examples, as the counterpoint complexity is minimal and the arrangement can be easily followed in the piano roll. I'll keep the suggestion in mind for the future though. Cheers! :)

[@chrisgaskell]

Excellent video thanks. What strings VI are you using? The one from PS Swing more??

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Thank you! If I remember correctly they were a combination of Spitfire Chamber Strings, Spitfire Solo Strings and Spitfire's Bernard Herrmann's Composer Toolkit! :)

[@diver26251]

Hi, I have a couple of questions. 1. When it comes to the orchestration of 1-2 woodwinds and 4 horns, can they just be ANY horn/woodwind? 2. When it comes to replicating the chord progression "a step up", what do you mean? Whole step or half step? 3. Is it possible for this to be transcribed in sheet music with chord symbols and succinct explanations? I speak for myself and a couple people when I say that that is the way we were trained and whatnot. That's all I have. Thank you in advance! Que te pasa bien!

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Hi there, I hope you're well and thanks for the questions: 1) In terms of horns it'd usually be french horns and in terms of woodwinds you'd be usually looking at flutes, alto flutes, clarinets, oboes, english horns... Think of middle/upper-middle register woodwinds. 2) I meant a whole step. 3) Thank you for the request. I'll definitely try to find the time to do it. As I said in another comment, the level of complexity of these arrangements is quite modest and I thought the piano roll would be enough. Thank you and happy new year! :)

[@diver26251]

@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic Thank you for what you have done. I will definitely be following you for now on! Gracias por todo!

[@jj8703]

hell yeah. thank you

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

My Pleasure! :)

[@gijazz1757]

Thanks for sharing your work and knowledge. Very helpful. Could you show more of the process of building the score with the software ? How you choose which section plays the melody ? How you mark the different sections? From where you start etc.

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Sure! I primarily use Logic Pro as my DAW, and for this, I used multiple libraries, with the main ones being Spitfire Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Herrmann Composer Toolkit. In terms of deciding who's playing the melody, I went for something with a timbre that stands out from the rest of the ensemble (in this case, flutes in the first example for that Henry Mancini sound, and an English horn in the second one). But realistically, the melody should be sung anyway-remember that these are song accompaniments. I'm not sure I understand your question about where I start. Could you elaborate a bit? :)

[@gijazz1757]

@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic do you start with thé Melody or with the rythmique section ? Then do you work on the strings, woodwinds brass or all of them simultaneiusly?

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

@@gijazz1757 Oh alright. First off, it's always melody plus harmony (only plain chord symbols). Once that's clear, I work out the actual arrangement, going through all the decisions I mention in the video (spread voicings, counter-melodies, who plays what, etc.). Finally, at the end, I polish everything up with the rhythmic trio and any other extras I want to include, like a harp, for instance. PS. so yeah, answering your question, when I work out the spreads I decide who plays what simultaneously.

[@TLMuse]

@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic Thanks for this reply to @gijazz; I was going to ask what libraries you used. They sound very good!

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

@@TLMuse Thank you! I must say it's taking me years to make them sound like that.

[@mthornit]

Good video! 😊

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

@@mthornit Huge thanks Marius! 🤗🙏

[@sergigimenez8633]

Bueníssimo! Gracias

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

@@sergigimenez8633 un placer, gracias a ti por el comentario! :)

[@demsi2004]

Could you show us these examples in sheet music?

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Hi, thanks for the request.I didn't deem it necessary in this instance because it is quite a vertical style of music and not very counterpoint-driven. But I'll keep that in mind!

[@demsi2004]

​@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusicThank you for the answer.

[@DominicSewellMusic]

@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusicwould also appreciate the sheet music too so we can analyse exactly what is going on. Great video though. Thanks for this

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

@@DominicSewellMusic Point taken, I'll surely produce the scores when I find the time. I love your content by the way, I've been following you for years! :)

[@DominicSewellMusic]

@@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic bless you sir !! Thanks so much!!! :) I know how much time it takes to do this so totally understand!

[@telaim]

👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

🙏🙏

[@synthplayer1563]

It would be nice if you used musical notation. I couldn't really follow it. Musical notation is the right tool for such explanations.

[@alvarorodriguezfilmmusic]

Thanks for the request. I'll surely produce the scores for this!