Quote:
Originally Posted by beingmf
...This makes it extremely difficult to find "different" or "outstanding" solutions for an otherwise cheesy arrangement...
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I actually think that even fairly limited musicians can, should, and will benefit from putting some effort into arrangement.
Let's imagine a very crude garage-rock trio. They have a very "static" song which consists of two parts: a verse and a chorus. Each part consists of one guitar riff, doubled by the bass, and one vocal melody. They alternate verse and chorus three times. Let's stipulate that the vocalist might have very limited range and ability, and that the drummer is basically playing the same beat throughout, with a fill every eighth measure, or every transition. This is about as simple as a song gets.
So here is how we might approach arrangement, without requiring any lessons in theory, or any string sections, or any significant musical skill:
- Create an intro: the guitar plays the most memorable riff from the song, reinforced by the bass and big drum hits.
- First verse: guitar drops out, just bass and drums playing the verse riff. Singer whispers the the lyric instead of singing it.
- First Chorus: Guitar riff joins the other instruments, and singer switches to full-voice.
- Second verse: Band plays normally
- Second Chorus: Band plays normally, EXCEPT the guitar player, instead of playing the chords, plays only the high-E string (maybe at double-speed) AND the singer whispers the lyric
- REPEAT Second Chorus, as above, except with the singer singing full-voice AND the guitar player adding a second track of sustained power chords (not strumming the riff) to the high-E ringing.
- Third verse: Start drums and vocals only for two measures, then drums, bass, and vocals for two measures, then full band playing normally to finish the verse (you could change this to any breakdown/buildup, e.g. guitar only, then guitar+bass, then drums. Or whatever.)
- Third Chorus: Played normally, except guitar is playing sustained power chords (as above) instead of strumming the riff.
- Repeat third chorus normally or with high-E ringing or whatever.
Now you have turned a static, flat song into a dynamic arrangement where no section sounds the same as any other. Focus, attention, and energy is constantly moving, with ZERO improvement in musicianship. And I daresay this band would have no trouble at all turning this into a live arrangement. Even the Ramones could do stuff like this.
If the band is capable of playing any caliber of fills, lead licks, substitutions, or harmonies, then the possibilities explode.