The Process: Part 1

   




     You've probably seen those pictures on the internet showing the amount of costs incurred to create a pro sounding song and then the song ends up getting played through Apple earphones. I've realized how important this "poke fun at" picture shows how crucial arranging and producing a song is.

     I bet you, that mostly anyone would rather listen, with Apple earphones, to a well produced song from a talented artist then listen someone's "mixtape" through a professional studio speaker system.

     Typically when you create a song, you'll end up with a rough arrangement of what the song should be. At first this can sound incredible to you and this is where I think a lot of beginning musicians, (even myself), have made this mistake of thinking the song is done and ready to be released. This is where hours spent listening and analyzing well produced/arrange music comes in play. For example, Verse 1 should be different in some way from Verse 2. Same also goes with the Choruses and how you layer vocals to create the emotion to help drive the song home to the listener. These are just a few ideas out of thousands, Producers take into account when working with an artist song.

     This all ties into the sessions I've been a Producer for for a local band, for a good chunk of this Fall.

      For those of you reading this and are starting out trying to produce artists this applies to all genres in music: THE QUALITY OF YOUR SONG DEPENDS ON HOW WELL THE ARRANGEMENT IS.

The Process: Part 2 will go into more detail on the 5 stages a song will go through and the importance of each, with examples from my own experience.