
A Cappella Arranging
Description
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At the heart of every vocal group is the music it performs. This often means writing its own arrangements of popular or traditional songs. This book is the long-awaited definitive work on the subject, wide ranging both in its scope and in its target audience - which spans beginners, music students, and community groups to professional and semi-professional performers, vocal/instrumental songwriters, composers, and producers - providing genre-specific insight on a cappella writing.
The tone of the book is instructive and informative, yet conversational: it is intended to stand alongside any academic publication while remaining interesting and fun. A Cappella Arranging is a good textbook - and a "good read" - for every vocal arranger, whether amateur or professional; every vocal music classroom, and any professional recording studio.
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Content
- Front Cover
- Contents
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Who Is This Book For?
- Our Perspective
- Conventions in This Book
- The Exercises and Recordings
- Acknowledgments
- Section I Quick Start
- Chapter 1 Basic Arranging in Ten Steps
- 1. Choose a Song
- 2. Listen to the Original-Repeatedly
- 3. Look At-and Listen To-Other Arrangements
- 4. Decide on a Form
- 5. Prepare Your Materials
- 6. Write Out the Melody
- 7. Write Out the Bass Line
- 8. Write the Background Vocals
- 9. The Final Touches
- 10. Record/Rehearse
- Exercises
- Section II Principles of Arranging
- Chapter 2 What Is Arranging?
- Exercises
- Chapter 3 The Arranging Spectrum
- Transcription
- Adaptation
- Translation
- Transformation
- Mixing the Elements
- Arranging Formats
- Chapter 4 The Dreamer, the Editor, and the Critic: Discovering Your Toolkit and Developing Your "Inner Ear"
- The Dreamer
- The Editor
- The Critic
- Making Them Work Together
- The "Inner Ear"
- Exercises
- Chapter 5 Transcription
- Preparation
- Choose Your Song
- Listening
- Lift the Outsides: Melody, Then Bass
- Lift the BGs, in Sections
- Vertical Transcribing: Being a Harmonic Detective
- Chapter 6 Five Myths about Music Making
- Myth No. 1: There's Good, There's Bad, and There's a Hierarchy
- Myth No. 2: Music Has Rules, So Learn Them and Stick to Them
- Myth No. 3: Music Should Be Left to the Experts
- Myth No. 4: There Is One Great Path to Studying Music
- Myth No. 5: Creativity Can Be Measured
- Final Thoughts Before We Start
- Exercises
- Chapter 7 Vocal Conventions: Ranges, Breaks, and "Sweet Spots"
- Think Outside the (Voice) Box
- Vocal Range Conventions
- Exercise
- Section III The Ten Steps Expanded
- Chapter 8 Step 1: Song Selection
- Does It Fit?
- Why That Song?
- Love It or Leave It
- Consider Anything-and Be Different
- Have a Soloist in Mind
- Variety Is the Spice . . .
- I Can't Think of Anything!
- The Ten Steps in Action
- Chapter 9 Step 2: Listening to the Original
- How to Listen
- Learning the Song
- Chapter 10 Step 3: Listening to Other Versions
- Other Recordings
- Sheet Music
- MIDI Files
- Chapter 11 Step 4: Form and Conceptualization
- Conceptualization
- Translation or Transformation
- Your Ensemble
- From That to This
- Decide on the Form
- Exercises
- Chapter 12 Step 5: Preparing Your Materials
- By Ear
- Arranging through Recording
- Handwritten Notation
- Computer Notation
- The Great Commandments of Music Notation
- Chapter 13 Step 6: Melody and Lyrics
- Altering the Melody: Where and When
- How to Treat Melody
- The Role of Lyrics
- Lyrics as an Inspiration for the Arrangement
- What If I Want to Change the Melody or Lyrics?
- Exercises
- Chapter 14 Step 7: The Bass Line
- Basses Are People Too
- Know Thy Bass
- The Bass Section: It's Not Just for Bass Lines Any More
- The Single Bass Singer
- The Female Bass
- Sounds, Syllables, and Phrasing
- Learn by Doing
- Connect the Dots
- Make It Interesting
- Exercises
- Chapter 15 Step 8: Background Voices
- Voicing and Voice Leading
- Different Textures: Building a Vocabulary
- Chapter 16 Step 9: Final Touches
- The Rule of Three
- Read Through the Chart: Know It Vertically
- Sing Through the Chart: Know It Horizontally
- Chapter 17 Step 10: Record/Rehearse
- Two at a Time
- One at a Time
- Rehearsal
- Learn to Let Go
- Intermision In-Depth Arrangement Analyses
- Four-Part Jazz Writing: "Christmastime Is Here"
- Instrumental to Vocal: "Skating"
- Creativity Through Limitation: "From Ash You Rise"
- Section IV Advanced Topics in Arranging
- Chapter 18 Change-Ups and Clever Bits: Adding Spice to Your Arrangement
- Start Simple
- Clever Bits and Song Quotes
- Chapter 19 Arranging for Other Vocal Formats
- Men's Ensemble: TTBB and More
- Women's Voices: SSAA
- Writing for More Parts
- Writing for Fewer Parts
- Chapter 20 Vocal Percussion
- The Single Drummer
- The Drum Section
- Interwoven Percussive Elements
- VP for Your Group
- VP for Other Groups
- Basic VP Vocabulary
- Notating Vocal Percussion
- Basic Groove
- Syllables
- Notating Changes
- What Do I Keep from the Original?
- Chapter 21 Specific A Cappella Styles: A "How-To" History of A Cappella
- Classical Music
- And Then Came Polyphony
- Chorale-Style Writing
- Barbershop Style
- Doo-Wop
- Vocal Jazz
- Big-Band Style
- Gospel
- Chapter 22 Writing for Your Own Group
- Know Each Person's Voice
- Change Voicings
- A Library of Sounds
- Putting It All Together
- The Essence of Your Group
- Chapter 23 Writing Medleys
- Conception
- Distillation
- Assembly
- Transitions
- Ending Your Medley
- Mash-Ups
- Chapter 24 Breaking the Block: Overcoming Creative Barriers
- Block No. 1: The Blank Page
- Block No. 2: Everything Stinks!
- Block No. 3: Painting Yourself into a Corner
- Chapter 25 Final Thoughts
- Give Yourself Permission to Stink
- It's Not About You
- It Can Take Ten Lousy Ideas to Make a Single Good One
- Practice Makes Perfect
- Just Notes
- Simple Beauty
- Appendix A: "We Three Kings" and "Go Tell It to the Mountain"
- Appendix B: Notable Arrangers: An Incomplete List
- Appendix C: Recommended Texts
- Appendix D: Online Resources
- Glossary of Terms
- Afterword
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