For example, if you assume that this melody ends on the I chord, then the penultimate chord should be the V chord. What chords best lead to a V chord? Try the ii (the dominant of the V), and you’ll see that it works. Which chords lead to the ii chord? There are a few, but again try the dominate of the ii—the vi chord. This also works. And how do you get to the vi chord? There’s nothing like a I to lead to a vi, and since that I would sit on the very first beat of the phrase, you know that’s the best (if not the only) choice. By working backward, you’ve fit a I-vi-ii-V7-I progression to your melody.
Start at the end (with a V-I cadence) and use chord-leading theory to work backward from there.
NOTE
When harmonizing a melody, don’t make things more complicated than they have to be. This means starting with simple triads, rather than complex extended chords. You can always add extensions later, but working with simple three-note chords puts a limit on the available chords, which means you have to work through fewer options.
Exercises
Exercise 19-1
Write an eight-bar chord progression in the key of F that starts and ends with the I chord and includes both the IV and V chords.
Exercise 19-2
Write an eight-bar chord progression in the key of G that starts with the ii chord, ends with the I chord, and does not include the V chord.
Exercise 19-3
Compose an eight-bar melody in the key of C, using the C Major scale, in 4/4 time. Use whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes; and begin and end your melody on the C note.
Exercise 19-4
Compose an eight-bar melody in the key of G, using the G Major scale, in 4/4 time. Make this a rhythmically lively melody at a relatively fast tempo, using half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes.
Exercise 19-5
Compose a melody to fit the chord progression you wrote for Exercise 19-1.
Exercise 19-6
Compose a melody to fit the chord progression you wrote for Exercise 19-2.
Exercise 19-7
Harmonize (add chords to) the melody you wrote for Exercise 19-3.
Exercise 19-8
Harmonize (add chords to) the melody you wrote for Exercise 19-4.
The Least You Need to Know
You can create a composition by writing the chord progression first and then adding a melody (harmonic composition) or writing the melody first and then adding a chord progression (melodic composition).
Use chord leading and other harmonic techniques to create a logical chord progression.
The best melodies feature step-wise movement, a singable range, and some degree of repetition.
To harmonize a melody, use structural tones and try some common chord progressions.
CHAPTER
20
Arranging for Voices and Instruments
In This Chapter
Discovering the different voices in the choir—and all the instruments in the orchestra
Uncovering the best—and the worst—keys to write in
Finding out which instruments don’t sound in concert pitch—and how to transpose their music
Learning how to write for common vocal and instrumental ensembles
Unless you’re writing for your own unaccompanied solo voice, you’re going to eventually deal with how to have other voices and instruments play your music. This could be figuring out how to attack a song with a four-piece rock band, creating a simple vocal arrangement for your church choir, arranging a sophisticated piece for your high school jazz band, or orchestrating a multipart symphony.
Whatever size group you’re working with, you have to deal with the same issues of theory, and call on the same set of skills. You also have to know a little bit about the ranges of each instrument or voice, and how each instrument will play the notes you write.
This chapter deals with the particular skills necessary for arranging vocal and instrumental music. I recommend you bookmark this chapter; if you do a lot of arranging, you’ll find the information very useful!
Vocal Arranging
A vocal ensemble is probably the easiest type of group to arrange for. That’s because all the voices reproduce exactly what you write, with absolutely no transposition. (Well, except for the fact that the tenor voice sounds an octave lower than written—but that’s an easy one to deal with.)
Voice Characteristics
When you’re writing for a choir, you have to know the voices available. In general, you have two female voices and two male voices, with an optional third male voice to work with.
Soprano. This is the highest female voice. The soprano typically sings the lead part, as the highest voice naturally stands out from the rest. Some sopranos can sing quite high, although you might want to avoid the very upper reaches of the range; these high parts often sound shrill, especially with younger or less-experienced singers.
Alto. The alto is the lower female voice, with a deep and resonant tone. The alto range overlaps the soprano range, but know that an alto will sound strained at the top of her range—just as a soprano will sound strained at the bottom of hers.
Tenor. The tenor is the highest male voice; it overlaps significantly with the range of the female alto. Tenor parts are written in treble clef, but actually sound an octave lower than written.
Baritone. The baritone is an optional male part; most choruses don’t have separate baritone lines. The baritone falls smack between the tenor and the bass, but typically has more of a basslike sound—without the very low notes.
Bass. The bass is the lowest male voice. It’s natural to assign bass notes to the bass voice, which works out okay most of the time. At the low end of the bass range, the sound gets a tad rumbly.
The main voices (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) combine into what is called SATB form, which is how most chorale works are arranged. If you have a younger or less skilled ensemble, you can always arrange a simple two-part score, with all the females singing one part and all the males singing the other.
Vocal Ranges
It’s important that you write vocal parts that can actually be sung. It’s no good to write a bass part that sounds forced—if the poor fellow can hit the note at all.
For that reason, pay close attention to the ranges listed in the following table and stick within these ranges when writing your vocal parts.
Vocal Ranges
Voice
Range (Concert Pitch)
Write It …
Soprano
Concert pitch
Alto
Concert pitch
Tenor
One octave above concert pitch (unless sharing a staff with the basses)
Baritone
Concert pitch
Bass
Concert pitch
Instrumental Arranging
When you move on to instrumental arranging, you have a lot of different instruments at your disposal. You need to know a little bit about how each instrument works—in particular, the range of the instrument and whether it sounds in concert pitch or is somehow transposed.
Instrument Characteristics
Instruments are typically organized into several major groups. For our purposes, we’ll look at strings (both bowed and plucked), brass, woodwinds, keyboards, and percussion.
Strings
When you think of stringed instruments, you typically think of the violin and its close cousins: the viola, cello, and double bass (sometimes called the string bass or upright bass). Each of these instruments works on the same principle, with four strings stretched over a hollow body. Music is made when a bow is pushed and pulled over the strings, or when the strings are plucked.
The highest string voice is the violin, followed (in descending order) by the viola, cello, and double bass. The violin is written with the treble clef; the cello and double bass use the bass clef; and the viola—the oddball of the group—uses the alto clef, as shown in the following figure. (Remember, the pointy
part of the alto clef points at C.)
The alto clef; used primarily by the viola.
These are exceptionally versatile instruments, equally capable of both solo and ensemble work; especially useful is the fact that their tone color stays very constant over the entire range of the instrument. If you plan on writing a lot for strings, it behooves you to learn more about how the instruments work, in particular the various types of bowings.
Guitars and Other Plucked Instruments
The guitar is technically part of the string family, although most folks differentiate it from the violin-type instruments. That’s because the guitar is never bowed; it’s always plucked or strummed. (The guitar also has six strings, compared to the four strings of the violin instruments.)
Several other instruments fit within the guitar category. The mandolin and ukulele are smaller and higher pitched than the guitar, whereas the electric bass is more like a traditional double bass, but in a guitar-like configuration with just four strings.
Guitars, of course, can be either acoustic or electric—and the electric ones can have either solid or hollow bodies. The different configurations produce different types of sound, although the notation is the same for all the different guitars.
Guitar parts can be notated with notes on staves or, if you just want a strummed rhythm, by using chord notation. You can also spell out the fingering of each chord by using guitar tablature, as shown in the following.
Guitar tablature.
TIP
Guitar tabs can be automatically derived from traditional chord notation when you use a computerized music notation program, such as those discussed in Chapter 21.
Oh, and while we’re talking about plucking strings, we can’t forget the harp. The harp isn’t really a guitar (it’s kind of like a piano, but vertical), but it does work when you pluck its strings.
Woodwinds
Some woodwind instruments are made of brass; some are made of wood. But all (except the flute) use a wooden reed to produce their sound; you put the reed in your mouth and blow until it vibrates.
The flute produces sound when you blow across an open hole—kind of like blowing across a soda bottle. But it’s still classified as part of the woodwind family, probably because it has a similar valve structure and fingering for determining individual notes.
There are lots of different woodwind instruments. You have flutes and piccolos, at least four different types of saxophones, a variety of clarinets, those odd-sounding oboes and bassoons, and even the not-so-common English horn (which isn’t a horn and isn’t even English—it’s an alto version of the oboe).
Woodwind instruments primarily use the treble clef, although the bassoon and contrabassoon both use the bass clef.
Brass
Brass instruments typically are made of brass; however, so are saxophones and cymbals and timpani, and they’re not part of the brass family, so that really isn’t a good indicator, is it? Nope, what makes brass instruments unique is that length of brass tubing wound up into a tight little package, the open mouthpiece you blow into (instead of the reed of a woodwind instrument), and the three or four valves you use (in conjunction with changing the shape of your lips) to create different tones.
The trumpet is the brash and annoying younger brother of the brass family, the trombone is the more stable older brother, and the tuba is the not-always-serious uncle. Also hanging around is the weird foreign relation, the French horn, and a few other unusual relatives, such as the baritone. All in all, it’s a rather loud and brassy bunch—pun intended.
Brass instruments use either the treble or bass clefs, depending on their predominant pitch.
NOTE
Although the trumpet is traditionally a B♭ instrument, many players today use C trumpets that sound in concert pitch.
Keyboards
Depending on whom you ask, keyboard instruments are really string instruments or percussion instruments. In reality, they’re a little of both. The sounds are produced by internal strings, which are struck by tiny hammers—much like percussion instruments are struck.
There are many different types of keyboards, and they all have fairly wide ranges. The piano, of course, is the big dog, but you can’t forget about organs, harpsichords, or any number of electronic synthesizers. A full piano has 88 keys; some smaller instruments can have shorter keyboards. Without exception, all modern keyboard instruments sound in concert pitch.
And let’s not forget the newest category of keyboards, those electronic instruments known as synthesizers. Synthesizers can be either analog (creating new sounds via oscillators and other electronics) or digital (typically sampling and then reproducing the real-world sounds of other instruments). Digital synthesizers can be used to replace other instruments, especially when you’re composing on a budget, or to create a virtually unlimited variety of wholly new sounds.
Percussion
When you talk percussion, you’re talking about a lot of different instruments. Percussion instruments make noise when you hit them or shake them, so the family includes everything from snare drums and cymbals to marimbas and timpani. Most percussion instruments are of indefinite pitch—that is, although they make a noise when you hit them (or shake them), that noise isn’t associated with a specific pitch. Other percussion instruments, such as timpani and the mallet family, do produce a definite pitch (or pitches).
When you’re writing for an indefinite pitch instrument, you don’t have to follow standard staff notation. For example, when you write for drum set, you assign different parts of the staff to different drums and cymbals in the set. In the following example, the bass drum is the bottom space on the staff; the snare drum is the third space up. Cymbals are at the top, notated by X-shaped note heads.
Writing for drum set.
Of course, you can save yourself a lot of time and trouble by just telling the drummer how many measures there are in each section of your song and letting him (or her) make up his (or her) own part. That’s particularly common when you’re arranging for a rock or jazz band.
Transposition
Many instruments read one note and play another—at least compared to concert pitch (the actual notes as played on a piano). For example, a trumpet reads a C but sounds a B♭. These so-called transposing instruments need to have their music transposed to a different key to play in the same concert key as all the other instruments.
Let’s take the trumpet again. Because the trumpet always sounds a major second lower than written, you need to write the trumpet part a major second (two half steps) higher than the pitch you actually want to hear. So if you want the trumpet to play a concert C, you have to write a D; the trumpet reads D, sounds C, and everything is right with the world.
You learned about transposition back in Chapter 14, and you’ll need to apply those skills here. That’s because there are a lot of instruments that don’t play in concert key; all the following instruments need their parts transposed.
Most transposing instruments fall into three groups and are named according to how they relate to C:
B♭ instruments, like the trumpet, sound a major second below their written pitch. That is, they’re written a major second above the concert pitch. So if one of these instruments plays a C, it comes out sounding as B♭ in concert pitch.
E♭ instruments, like the alto sax, sound a major sixth below (or a minor third above) their written pitch. That is, they’re written a major sixth above the concert pitch. So if one of these instruments plays a C, it comes out sounding as E♭ in concert pitch.
F instruments, such as the French horn, sound a perfect fifth below their written pitch. That is, they’re written a perfect fifth above the concert pitch. So if one of these instruments plays a C, it comes out sounding as F in concert pitch.
The following table details which instruments fall into which group.
Transposing Instruments
Transposing Type
Sounds
Instruments
> B-flat instruments
Major second lower than written
Bass clarinet (actually a major ninth lower)
Bass saxophone
Clarinet (B♭)
Cornet
Flugelhorn
Soprano saxophone
Tenor saxophone (actually a major ninth lower)
Trumpet
E-flat instruments
Major sixth lower than written
Alto clarinet
Alto saxophone
Baritone saxophone (actually a major thirteenth lower)
E♭ clarinet (actually a minor third higher)
F instruments
Perfect fifth lower than written
English horn
French horn
NOTE
There are actually many more transpositions than listed in this table, especially among the instruments used in classical music. For example, trumpets in D were often used by Mozart, Haydn, and other composers of their time. This is because early trumpets and horns had no valves, so there were only a limited number of notes available on them. A composer would then choose a transposition that gave him the best selection of available notes for each instrument.
Idiot's Guides - Music Theory Page 25