Songwriting Prompts #2: Arrangement

Arrangement in music is how our different musical ideas are presented, from the instruments chosen, to what groups of instruments are playing at the same time, to the harmonies and melodies they play.

Re-writing a rock song for a string ensemble is an example of composing a new arrangement. Major musical ideas are shared between the two versions: melodies, themes, riffs, chord progressions. But, the overall presentation of the song has changed as a result of the new arrangement.

Using arrangement in the writing process

Arrangement variations are great for extending and expanding your creative material!

In film composition, for example, this idea often takes the form of themes, usually tied to specific characters. Each different theme is subject to many different variations, which allow a large amount of music to be developed from a small amount of creative source material. Go re-watch The Mandalorian, or any one of your favorite TV shows or movies, and notice the theme that plays most times the title character is front-and-center on the screen. You’ll notice that this theme repeats itself, and can be subject to different variations.

Here’s another example of arrangement variations in a rock music context: look up the song “Ordinary Feeling” by two different artists, “Luke Temple” and “Here We Go Magic”. These are two different arrangements of the same song. Listen to both: what musical material is shared between the two versions? What changes?

There are lots of other great examples out there: Big Thief is a band that does this a lot. Phoebe Bridgers has come out with string album versions of her songs, etc etc.

Writing Exercise A

Take a song you’ve already written, and try to arrange it in a new way that achieves an opposite style. Turn a thrasher into an ambient tune, or a tearjerker into a banger. Keep at least one piece of musical material the same between versions, but change anything else: melodies, order of sections, tempo, chords, instruments, etc.

Writing Exercise B

Make up a short riff, melody, or chord progression. Then, use that riff as a starting point to develop three different song fragments in three very different musical styles. Try to make each song fragment as distinct as possible in style. Again, keep the primary riff the same, and change other things going on around it to achieve the style change.