Music Arranging

What is music arranging?

In most cases, a song begins with a melody. Let's take "Three Blind Mice" as an example. Using the sol-feg system, the melody goes "mi-re-do, mi-re-do". If all we had were the melody, however, it would be pretty boring. If you were to play "Three Blind Mice" with an orchestra, for example, you'd have to tell all the different parts what to play. The first violins would likely play the melody, so, if the piece were to be in C-Major you'd write "E-D-C, E-D-C". You'd also need a bass line, so perhaps the string bass would play "C-G-C, C-G-C". Different instruments would play different parts (with some of them doubling each other). The art of writing each of these parts down in order to create a comprehensive and cohesive piece is called arranging. The same tune can be arranged for many different styles. For example, the Beatles' "Yesterday" is one of the most widely-arranged pieces in pop history. There are a cappella arrangements of the piece which feature the soprano singing the melody and the bottom three voices accompanying her, jazz arrangements which feature the melody being traded off amongst various instruments, and, of course, the original Beatles arrangement (yes, even the original is an arrangement!) which features Paul McCartney singing the lead and a string orchestra backing him up.