Music Producing & Engineering
Course 8: Producer Considerations and Arranging

The lines have blurred a bit when it comes to songwriting and producing, but in course 8 you’ll learn what the differences are and what’s expected of a producer. While it may boil down to who gets the songwriting credit (and the ownership and payment), songwriters and producers alike are both in the business for the same thing: making hit records.

You’ll learn how themes and variations from verse to verse are used to engage the listener by offering the occasional surprise while still maintaining an overall feel to the music. There are a few different ways of doing this, and you’ll go over the speed, color, and texture (foreground and background) of songwriting. You’ll learn how some producers fall short of a complete song and the steps you take to ensure that doesn’t happen to you.

You’ll also learn how to be rhythmically minded, and how these elements drive a song forward. Although the rhythm is usually established by drums or bass, you’ll see how other instruments can also play a part in the rhythmic aspects of your music. During this course, you’ll consider how to keep the interest of your listener, why context and direction matter, and leading your audience to the finish line with a few twists and turns.

When the course is finished, you’ll recognize and explain the importance of arrangements and other considerations when it comes to making music, how to bring an idea to life, and describe and use different techniques to build a song. As always, you’ll complete a course review, write a blog entry, and take a quiz as well.

Objectives:

• Be able to define the importance of arrangement and other considerations when creating a song.
• Be able to explain the importance of arrangement in music.
• Be able to take a musical idea and begin to build a song.
• Be able to use the different techniques in this chapter to begin building a song.
• Be able to describe the different techniques used to begin building a song.