How to learn arrangement

How to learn arrangement? It seems deceptively simple, and yet it can be hard to listen critically to other people's arrangements.
In this video we look at a strategy for getting a deeper understanding of your reference tracks, and analyzing it in a clear way.
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Contents:
0:00 Why is learning arrangement challenging?
0:52 Setting up your reference track for analysis
3:10 Using locators to identify song parts
5:45 Using the storytelling techniques from your references
6:25 Homework assignment
6:58 Developing a personal notation system
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[@OscarUnderdog]

Find Oscar's video courses here: courses.underdog.brussels 🖤🖤🖤 Join the Underdog Discord channel: discord.gg/z5N9CTA 👾👾👾 Sign up to the mailing list here: tinyurl.com/yy92sx5u 💌💌💌 Pledge to the Patreon: ​ www.patreon.com/underdogmusicschool 🌱🌱🌱

[@indigenerdeutscher3768]

I have a really good tip that helped me learn arrangement alot: You need a story. For example last week i got the idea to make a track about a spaceship having to do an emergency landing on a unknown planet and then meet and party with aliens. You wont be able to understand the story just by the song but it gives me alot of ideas of unique arrangement. For example when the Engine was good we had a normal 1/4 kick, then after it broke it goes to breakbeat. then the ship crashed and i do a break with alot of impact effects, pressurized doors opening, wondering outside on the alien planet maybe some "nature" sound from this planet etc. we start to wonder around with 1/2 Kick pattern and then we meet the aliens: Short 4 bar meet n greet and the we get rolling again with the same 1/2 beat but some breakbeat kick on the offbeat etc. Sometimes i dont get Ideas for stories like that, then i just think about a story from a film or ask a friend of mine wheather he got a story for me or his favorite movie scenen etc But most importantly: Take your time. Dont rush it. Enjoy the process. Make unique transition effects from other elements in your track and Never. Stop. Producing

[@OscarUnderdog]

I love this comment with every bit of my soul. 👆 Wish I could hear this spaceship track.

[@sebastianshuster5229]

Dude! Great comment!! That is really close to the way that I concluded. Mine is more abstract and visual. Shapes and movement and such. Low to high frequencies fill the box top to bottom. Panning fills left to right. Volume / brightness / filtering / etc fill front to back. Then I try to make an abstract little movie. We are architects of sound. We make sonic stories or little vignettes made of sound. The buildings can be any shape or size. The stories can be about anything, like a book letting your imagination fill in the sonic world. The vignettes are moving & evolving sound, shapeshifting through your head.

[@DawnrzHicksky]

wow thanks for the tips !!

[@obamaatemybanana1415]

Kann man sich die Geschichte irgendwo anhören?^^ :D

[@self-made-datascientist1181]

Share us your track man! We would love to hear it :)

[@user-tv7jx9pw1q]

Okay okay okay, I will do my homework today..

[@joybeats2425]

extra credit for creating your own "SIMPLE SYMBOL SYSTEM" 👊how producers communicate jk! lol

[@ryancollins5488]

been watching your videos all week, I've been in the industry for over 10 years and I have learned more from your videos than any other educational tool ive seen. GREAT VIDEOS!!!!

[@AnthonyDavid94]

An additional tip, you could add midi tracks for every track element. You could then add empty midi clips to those tracks for the entire arrangement. I did this for a bunch of tracks and it's been incredibly insightful.

[@OscarUnderdog]

Absolutely, great suggestion indeed!

[@Aetila]

This is what I did right now...out of pure frustration, to try to break out from the short-loop hell with no complete compositions. I have enough experince knowing the parts so I just have to arrange the thing in advance, a FULL darn song, and only after the visual arrangement I start adding the notes. It's an exercise how to be able to finish a song. If I start with a loop no matter how nice it is, it's very hard to make a full song... many short loops on my HD, lol. Now I try this approach!

[@Madkay]

@@Aetila Oh gosh man.. So simple but its a genius tip!!

[@Aetila]

@@Madkay Honestly, it's even better to take the 4-8 measure loop and copy the whole thing creating say 128-135 measures with the same loop...and THEN go in and delete and add parts, while you also change some notes here and there...it works well for some kind of ambient stuff, changes are necessary but it could be subtle. When you have just the loops copied into 135 measure it gives a feeling that you can finish it. But I'm a more of an ambient guy, I like dreamy and meditative electronic music, it still need changes of course, not just a big repeat but you get the idea. It's a pity that I have barely time to play with this, have many other problems...Peace

[@aliaksandrilyushenka5597]

@@Aetila thank you for this advice, mate!

[@attiliohollige]

Awesome as usual. I can see a complete new school of future producers coming out from this series of lessons.

[@francoallotey1098]

I spend hours doing a similar process on logic, then maybe at the of the week I try to combine all the arrangements into a new arrangement. By the end of the month, I have a few of my own compositions added to the arsenal. love your channel, big up!

[@zsteinkamp]

Consistently great content. I really appreciate it. Thanks for doing all this.

[@donniesmidway]

Thanks so much for taking us through this on Ableton. I’ve been using it for four years and I haven’t thought to do this

[@djragnar407]

Thank you for your insights! Best channel on KZbin. Tremendously invaluable.

[@tarotaddicts4695]

Excellent tutorial and advice. Thank you so much!!! ❤

[@Mattiimateo]

Absolutely amazing content!!!!! Great instructor 🙏🏻🥇

[@sramirez1906]

Great video as usual! I'll definitely sign up for the deep dive when I have the time and money.

[@geryverlinden6843]

you can also make notes in the Ableton project it self by means of dummy midi tracks and clips and renaming these with your notes , for each element in the track and so get a visual template of the arrangement . great video !

[@OscarUnderdog]

This is very true and very helpful! Definitely recommend doing this!

[@samuelll3166]

ELPHNT has a notes M4L device that is quite useful for this purpose. :)

[@misericordiasdomini7782]

Extremely helpful. I am using “both & and System.” After I notate, I do analysis of how the story progress. Line by line or by verse/s, pre-chorus or Chorus, bridge, etc. Then, I carefully apply the possible arrangements of the instruments that describe the emotions of the song parts. Each verse or line of the song interweave with the instruments character and personality. Then I will be ready to analyze it in my DAW, listen to it many times, possibly applying the 3E’s: Experiment - Explore- Evaluate. It really takes a lot of creativity beyond space and time, beyond our workflows either in notations software or in our DAW. Thanks for sharing the over-the-top knowledge of arranging.🎶🎼

[@quantum_ocean]

I wish I could like this 303 times. Great approach. I've been thinking the same thing, to analyze some of my fav tracks, but you add a lot of value here.

[@user-yf6yr4wb4u]

It never occurred to me to systematize everything like that. When I was trying to do covers to better understand music in a certain genre, I would go back to the track and listen to it many, many times. It was so excruciatingly long and uncomfortable. It turns out that you could just write everything down. In studying any subject, a systematic approach is needed and, in fact, your advice will be useful not only in producing. GREAT THANKS!

[@binsquirrel]

Nice, thanks for sharing the knowledge:)

[@onzatroy999]

What a great video a usual, man!

[@mr.renflow3693]

Thankx a lot , learned something again and explained it so simply and great, more of that please

[@AudioAssassin]

I like to create a 'flow' with some of my tracks by slowly fading out the hi-hats when the breakdown is approaching so that there is somewhat of a smooth transition instead of an abruptness. Slowly lowpass filtering (with a 6dB slope) on the hats and the snare/clap has a nice structural transition effect too.

[@kyleconrad2850]

Great video. Love the "sound sculpture" metaphor.

[@tronos]

great as always and very nice referenz track i love this track from magdalena ♥️ I always place an empty midi channel over my reference track and color the sections of the arrangement in sections and write the information on the midi track and then save it. so you can quickly call it up again and then set the locators

[@LeoneSimonettiDJ]

The last part with Windows Paint was such a good idea! Thanks for sharing! (Subscribed and liked this video :] )

[@PavanSibal]

Love your tutorials. Thank you.

[@randomdudefpv4927]

thanks man for great content. been doing music for many years, but some things seems so fresh.

[@yungstreichholz]

Big fat knowledge bombs getting thrown around here for any kind of music!

[@joshua5887]

Great video!! Thank you 🙏

[@anthonyclark9004]

I’ve done this using FL Studio. I use time markers to mark the different sections (intro, thematic sections, breaks, etc.) and clips (usually empty) to mark the presence of various elements like the kick, bassline, leads (or themes), pads, etc.. The top channel lane holds the track being analyzed. I usually leave the next channel lane empty before labeling subsequent individual channel lanes for the elements referred to above. Then I start placing clips where appropriate. For one shots, such as a reversed cymbal, you can use samples. Some DAWs, like Bitwig, have a project notes feature that can be used to take notes that can’t be otherwise handled with the previous methods.

[@omnione7894]

Merci! tres instructif !

[@AirZeee]

Hi Oscar, an extension of your mapping technique would be to use NAMED blank midi clips in new midi channels to create a lay out of the composition you're analysing. Love your work, your channel rocks!

[@matejsunjic7486]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@fattmusiek5452]

Great--! tip!! Very next level, the tip about doing this “5 or 6” times. Fantastic tip 🤌 These are such a good suggestions. In my own words, I think mimicking what your favorite artists do- 100% 👌 OK. Learning that phenomenon/basic idea and use it as you adapt it to how you naturally gravitate. This video is great 👍 . I can tell it’s packed with gems)

[@vectorson]

Good job. Thanks

[@Zuhs]

This is an amazing channel, thank you

[@leinadlessil82]

Another Great explain to find my way

[@davidcooke779]

Love that sketch technique. Worth getting a gridded sketchpad too

[@TheOnodera4]

Awesome as always :D

[@OscarUnderdog]

cheerio 😁

[@concrete-disco]

Inspiring as per usual.

[@technicolorgiallo1111]

+1 for Belgians for inventing New Beat & EBM, and for teaching this Ukrainian how to be a better producer.

[@carlrowlinson2833]

The trick I use for this is to create a midi channel for each element and add empty clips for where I hear them. E.g. the kick would be first and it'd have the biggest blocks. Then the hats (one for the off-beat 4ths and one for the 16ths), each synth, etc. When done you'll have what looks like an actual project. Then you can add midi notes to match what you hear and really drill down deep. Because you've not added any sounds you can then take those arrangement 'notes' and use them elsewhere with sounds

[@OscarUnderdog]

This is a great technique, and I kind of wish I had included it in the video now that you mention it :)

[@Mihai-eg6ux]

I use the same technique to copy arrangements I like and then I fill the empty clips with my own music, a cool thing to try is to use arrangements from other genres : for exemple an 80s style song on a trance arrangement or something like that :)

[@fabgott8026]

Another great video

[@marianagauer]

thank you so much!

[@MiguelTorres-tq3te]

You are a boss thank you so much for the videos love your content

[@Bati_]

Another potentially useful tip: When you record an instrument, you can cut the silent moments to see the overall layout of your arrangement better. It’s also useful for decreasing the computational load and presence of potential artifacts in a track.

[@luisfarias134]

A great homework assignment with a little work but we'll worth it! I just found your channel and subscribed. Do you do any tutorials for Deep House?

[@Rotyoto]

I'm happy to learn that I already do everything showed here intuitively

[@WillHatton]

Dropping knowledge as always!!! Great stuff thank you!!

[@jose-lucortiz5664]

Merci pour tes conseils

[@seancollins5998]

This video presents a concise method by which one may go about studying tracks - to study art is integral to the development of one's ability. So, I am self taught. Thus, I am ever revising my queries as it pertains to my level of understanding in regards to music productions. Watching this video taught me a couple things, and for all the newbies out here, I must digress... Although the prime objective is to produce music, I would argue that it is of utmost importance to study the composition of music that inspired you so. It is NOT UNoriginal to use reference tracks. It is NOT unoriginal to be inspired by specific elements of music. Nothing is original and the only possible way we can sound original is by studying the art which inspired us, lest we just be blindly attempting to create, failing to understand that those who inspired us have been through this exact same thing; navigating through the perplexing nature of becoming original through analyzing existing compositions (particularly those compositions that have sparked inspiration within us that serve as the driving force behind our desire to produce in the first place) Namaste. Sorry if grammar. 👉😁👉

[@harry2house536]

Brilliant 💯

[@sarmadahmad9021]

You can actually determine BPM by looking in the clip BPM. So you picked 121, but if you check your clip BPM (also called Seg. BPM), it shows 120. The clip BPM isn't always perfect, but is right 90% of the time, so your method is a good way to confirm.

[@OscarUnderdog]

Thanks for sharing this! I've found it a bit too unreliable in the past, so I only trust it once I see it line up to the grid exactly :D I guess in this case the risks are not huge, but if you're preparing a DJ set or similar thing in Ableton, not being perfectly quantised will cause major headaches.

[@IamYoris]

Or, since many people who produce also DJ, load the track into your software and let it anaylize the BPM. Or look the track up online (like beatport) where the BPM is given as track info.

[@mikedegrazia]

It lines up but slowly gets off time the further you get down the bar i think its 120...do a midi track with a 4x4 beat and see if it lines up..thanks for all the info anyway

[@jamilboricua]

This is a great series in Tecno... Can you please make a series on "Jungle Drum n Bass" next🔥🔥🔥 a lot of sampling a lot of chop vocals will be lit...

[@leeharlow5633]

Binged watch a load of your vids, found them really interesting, thanks for taking the time and sharing your knowledge. Haven’t had a go at making music for years and was never anything more than a novice. Still using fl studio 11 and have been inspired just to try and make one decent tune. Just out of curiosity, the track in you reference tracks called acid test, is that by lethal one and secret hero? I’d be shocked if it wasn’t. Acid techno has been my main go to music over the last 10-12 years. 😎

[@chrislzm]

Thank you 🙏

[@battledj2933]

I personally like to use a track with empty midi blocks and name them, instead of markers you see more clearly the length of your arrangement.You can use a second one for more info about the instruments in your intro,break,bridge etc blocks.

[@Jadolive3012]

THANKSSSSS! 🙌🏽🕉️

[@iancain6647]

Absolutely 🤗

[@fenumgra]

Thanks teacher

[@JSRF420]

I mainly use FL studio (which I know you can transfer the same principle to) Do you also ever reference FL studio? Also, thank you for having all these tutorials and informational mini courses outside of your classrooms!!

[@dieterclaes3657]

handy infowwww!!

[@sh-kw2ox]

Biggest tip I can give is make session view your friend. This is why I think djs can make quality producers because we can just feel where breaks need to be. I produce by dropping in clips in session view and record it then tweak and neaten up in arrangement view

[@markusnimmo2296]

The Dutch are always so smart with their production man

[@arjanpetersen]

Thanks... but I think he is from Belgium :)

[@OscarUnderdog]

Hahahaha as Stefan said, don't call Belgians Dutch, especially when both are present, you're guaranteed to start a commotion 😂💛

[@markusnimmo2296]

haha sorry. I knew I was making a mistake by assuming! I was about to say I had watched a really intelligent tutorial by a Dutch guy earlier this week but I could be wrong about that also 🤦‍♂️ I'm on this thread to learn, not just about music it seems.

[@szeredaiakos]

In FL we have a taper to get an exact bpm. Someone needs to create something like that for Ableton. There are also a lot of tools online but they are not averaging for long enough.

[@abelmatic3668]

Brother I really like your tutorials but wanted to ask you, I saw that, when opening a midi clip, you could select the scale you want to work in on the left side... I can’t seem to find this option? I work with ableton 10 standard. Is it something in the preferences or does it need to be version 11 or suite? Greets and respect from a fellow Belgian producer in Geel!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Hiya! Yeah it's a Live 11 feature! Belgium represent 😁

[@ulrichburke]

Peeps - download Audacity. For one you won't have to open a whole Ableton project just to listen to a track, for two you can do all the analysis you want using the tools built into Audacity, for 3 it's a lot easier to open comparatively tiny Audacity rather than a whacking great big DAW, for 4 you can split the track into left and right panned sounds to hear how the panning's been done (not easy when everything's slathered with reverb and delay!) and for 5 you can slow things down/speed things up without changing the sound of the track, so you can hear what it would sound like faster or slower. If there's bits you like, you can sample 'em, if there's bits you want to use as reference while writing a track in Ableton you can sample that bit and paste it into Ableton (I'm aware Ableton does cutting but it's easier in Audacity!) and you can also keep Audacity open but minimized so if you want to listen to a bit of the reference track while writing your own track, you can highlight that bit in Audacity and just listen to it whenever you want to, without having to go back and forth along Ableton time lines! Mac owners, for once you've got something useful you can download for free, Apple actually can't make you pay for this and I bet they hate the fact! Yours respectfully Chris.

[@AIJoeExperiment]

Hey I’m at the basics, I downloaded some pads just to mess with…I got lost… ChordPad , expression Padang XPad .while I do get the basics how to make a tone or notes I became well lost. I’ve been using GarageBand I see I need Ableton later on. In Garage Band I’m losing focus of picking a note using scales and trying to express 🫀🧠. But your videos have been extremely helpful. What other channels / tutorials would YOU recommend

[@mysalt]

Lovely Oscar. Was that a Dave DK track as your reference track?

[@omnione7894]

❤

[@legrognard6699]

Cool

[@julesbarents1197]

Nice guy

[@samirabdo5474]

When u say to keep a folder of well produced tracks, How does one get a file of a track into a DAW? Are there sites that also sell samples of particular songs, like just a vocal of a house anthem for example. Sorry, I'm brand new t this stuff!

[@darbomusic]

👍❤️

[@ThomasSolom]

👏👏👏👏

[@cagataysensoy8465]

just wanna say this: Love you!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Big love right back atya

[@Songwriterbehindthecurtain]

Why songs play from beginning to end when album sequencing happens and who is making the decisions and edit for album sequencing is that the producer or mastering engineer or both? Because it said that It's usually the artist and/or producer who decides the song order and the mastering engineer who does the actual editing and sequencing. Is that true that the producer does the decisions where the songs should be in order while the mastering engineer does the actual editing and sequencing or is it both underdog?

[@Songwriterbehindthecurtain]

And in your own words is imprint record label independent or major or both major or independent or only major or independent or if it’s independent then it has a major distributor but if it’s major then it’s major what’s your own words about it?

[@Songwriterbehindthecurtain]

In your own words why album sequencing important when recording a studio album 💿 and while listening to a song from beginning to end why every single listener should listen to the song from beginning to end from the very first song the very last song aka opening track to the closing track of a song 🎵?

[@batteryincorporated]

Sweeeeet!

[@welofi4466]

Очень крутой и содержательный канал, в Петербурге все точно заценили!)

[@modeus4196]

Instead of taking notes with unaccurate notation, my advice is that under the audio track you create several midi tracks. Then using properly renamed and colored midi clips you can create a really clear layout of the reference track showing the diffferents parts, instruments coming in and out etc exactly if you had the empty stems of the track. Takes a bit of time but really powerful to have a visual map of the track ;)

[@signalfields6763]

0112358... all u need.

[@wizmohaghanem]

Homework was the best album ☹

[@marcelomay4561]

This doesn't help. I don't want to pay for or use Abelton. Try again. I don't want to copy others. I want to learn myself.