ARRANGEMENT FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION & SONGWRITING: Turn Your Loops Into Completed Tracks

1. Course Intro: another tool I've been to A but the basics implement the music. Yeah. I'll show you how to make this. You ain't no already. Pizza with way. Bring down Wade system to learn. And how does that sound? You could say I'm determined. I kissed the ground. You just gotta sit in the throne. I mean, the crow. Listen up, because I made a three types of your colorful. You just give your boy weeknight. I'm giving you stems. Had secrets in the insights. When it comes to arrangement, it's often less complicated than you think. Way get stuck in these a bar loops start off. Okay, but don't always know where to take it next. So we end up with the graveyard of good ideas. Lots of started projects, but nothing completed. So I broke it down into three simple steps thing 2. Welcome To Class!: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your course on arrangement. I am super stoked that you're here with me today. My name is Key O Ryan. I'm an artist and an educator make courses on everything. Reason, production and I also make beats at election speeds. The artist had been placing content commercials, everything in between. I am such a firm believer in making music. I've also found that have a passion in teaching. So what are you going to learn in today's class? Let me tell their three different forms of arrangement that I believe in. Those are structural instrumental in spatial. When it comes to building out beats, I know what it's like to get stuck. You might have an eight bar loop and you weren't exactly sure where to take it. And that's what this class is going to focus on. I'm gonna teach you my tried and true methods. My step by step process that I use to take my beats from an eight bar loop and construct that into a full song. So if you're ready, grab your beverage of choice. Follow along. Let's get into it 3. What Is Arrangement & Why It Matters: before we can really jump into the substance of the course. I want to talk to you about why you care about arrangement. What is it and why does it even matter? So this is how I like to break it down. Arrangement could be broadly defined. Is the process of transforming a collection of musical ideas into a complete track. This means this is going to be all the different pieces in elements of your track. And then it's how you all tied together and how they fit nicely as a cohesive whole rather than just being individual pieces. This is where it becomes dynamic. You breathe life into it, and there are three different types of arrangements are going to talk about, and in each one of these, you can really add some interesting effects and character to your tracks to make them stand out and make them exciting for your listener, as they're hearing. I know this is going to sound strange, but take a second and I want you to think about a game of chess. You're going to have the main pieces you're gonna have your king and your queen, and then you're gonna have all these other pieces on the board. If you've never played chess, it's pretty simple. You have a bunch of small foot soldiers, these are gonna be your ponds, and then you have your big characters, your king and queen. That point of the game is to trap the other person's king. And so you have these these focal points of the game that are the centerpiece to the game. And I know this is strange because talking about arrangement, but there's a very clear method to how a chessboard is arranged because you have your your main characters, and then all the other pieces air there to support your main character. So all the pawns, the rooks, the nights they're all there to support your king and the same can be applied to music. When it comes to a band or a track or whatever it is, you have to have certain points that you focus on at certain times. The reason I bring up the chessboard is if you think about your king and your queen, certain centerpieces to the game or the arrangement. Same thing comes down to your musical track. That's why they have soloists so If you think about a band playing something like this, you can't have a lead singer competing with the lead guitar solo competing with the drums. It doesn't work, you know what I mean would be all too much cream together. That's why you have your lead singer singing at one point where there aren't many other instruments, you come back to refrain. You have your lead guitarist played, come back to refrain, everybody else drops out, and then you have your lead drummer going on something of that nature. You need to have different parts of a track or different parts of the arrangement where certain things can shine. And this is something that I want to talk about a lot in. This is that when it comes to your track, one of the main pieces of advice that I can give they're gonna teach you is how to really focus on a few things at a time. You can't all. If you ever heard the saying too many cooks in the kitchen, you can't all have to shine. You can all have the spotlight at the same time. Maybe later in the track. There's something you want to give the spotlight to, but you have to focus really on one or two key elements in your track, especially at a time. Really. Bring those the life. Those are going to be the heart and the soul. You attract that. The rest of it, you're gonna build around. So that is the main key. What is arrangement? That's how the song of structured but why it's important. It's because then it really gives you the direction for your track moving forward. 4. Art Of Reduction: is one of my biggest meat production tips, especially when it comes to something like arrangement. And this is gonna be the art of reduction. When I talk about it. Any time I teach mixing and it comes to seek, you won. The biggest pieces that often talk about is the reductive quality. Rather than trying to bump things up, what can you take out that allows? The track department began. You don't want to overcomplicate it, so think about what can you take out of the track that instead gives you the same effect or the same kind of idea that you're shooting for rather than having to add things. So I walk you through that in the case study. But here's an example of what I'm talking. One of the biggest ways that I create differences in the structural arrangement in my tracks is the drums, because drums have so many elements, from your kick to your snares, your high axes of percussion elements that you can create arrangements simply by adding and removing different elements of those drums at different times. Maybe I'm gonna take out the kick at one section. Maybe I take out maybe have layered snares that take one of the snares. Maybe I take out the high at you can add things in every 4 to 8 boards to keep different, mix it up and keep it exciting. But don't feel like you have to add a bunch more just to get the arrangement that you're shooting often this but I find it mind maybe it's different with yours, but the way that I teach it is if you have an eight bar loop, normally I'll build up the eight bar loop and I have almost everything. I'll have almost every single component that I want in that I normally build out my hooks first. So then I said, Okay, this is gonna be the loudest point of track. Makes that now How can I take that hook? That chorus that first that loud element of attract and then transform that build that out into an entire song and this is how I normally do it. Take that hook and then you can build it out piece by piece, different elements, adding them and removing them on, then automating effects. And rarely, if ever, do I add in new instruments. After I've already done that. Maybe if I think a pre course or something needs a lead melody, keep it exciting. Or do that, maybe I'll mess around the voicing of it. But for the most part of that eight bar loop, you can build up your entire track with just that one thing simply by adding and removing different parts. Different elements of that track win is necessary. So let's jump into this example. I'm sure exactly how I do it. I hope at this point you understand that it's not about making each song each track some huge things over the top. That's a full blast, because when you drop into that hook, you wanted to be in effect. I remember this when I was working with a vocalist on one of my tracks, and one of my mentors told me he thought, because the whole track was it high volume. I was high intensity. He was like, You become numb to. To think about that is a little become numb to it. If you want that hook, don't really have a punch. The rest your track can't be at that same going that same intensity or you're gonna notice any difference when you drop into that hope. So think about how the energy and the dynamics flow throughout. Your track can be a huge asset. We're building out from eight bars. Here's the example. Let's jump into it. I hope that that made sense. Here we go. 5. Structure Overview: Like I said, there are going to be three different types of arrangement that we're going to cover in this course. 1st 1 is going to be the structural. This is probably what you think of when you think about arrangement. This is going to be the flow. You think about it left to right. So this is gonna be maybe your intro Pre hook, hook, verse bridge, you get the point. This is how it's laid out in a linear fashion. And when we think about structure, this is often I think people get confused because you might be curious. How do I how maney bars do I make a verse? How long? Pre course What is a bridge? This is One of my biggest recommendations is to borrow or steal from arrangements and songs that you like. You don't have to come up with all of this on your own right. You have to reinvent the wheel, find a song with song structure that you like. Take that, drag that into your dog or just listen to it and then mimic that. I think one interesting piece about structure is that doesn't have to be super complicated . This is going to be a point that I revisit a lot and often in this course is may be. The difference between a verse and the bridge is simply that their drums in one and there aren't any other or there might be, Ah, Basin one not in the other. I'm going to show you a lot of specific examples in this course will walk you through exactly small tips and tactics that I often use for my tracks. That way you don't have to create a brand new type of arrangement. You can steal different ideas that you like and then implement those into your own tracks. When it comes to the structural idea of an arrangement. Don't feel like every piece has to be some orchestral crazy composed masterpiece, right? Like it can be OK if it's just diverse and hook and aversive hook. If you think about huge song by hit artists. If you looked at those tracks a lot of times the arrangement they aren't these super crazy , elaborate things. They're pretty straightforward, and I often think way want to over complicate this because we make it seem we think it needs to be, but it really doesn't. So take a step back, study a few different songs that you like the arrangement and then try to just copy those copy exact arrangement, but do it in your own way. So in this next video, we're gonna jump into an example. I'll walk you through kind of step by step, how I go about finding arrangement that I like and then implementing it into my own track. Follow along. Let's jump into this. 6. Structure Walkthrough: for this part of the course. I'm gonna I chose a track called Cinderella that I made that I think does a good job, kind of explaining, Ah, structural arrangement. Because there are a couple different components that I want to talk to you about. That I really think illustrate this point when it comes to how the track is laid out in terms of a intro hook course, etcetera. So when you think about a track, not every single track needs to be an orchestral masterpiece. Not every single one needs, Ah, an intro and a bridge and a pre chorus and etcetera etcetera. But to illustrate that point, I did choose a track that I feel like it does this in a way that makes sense. So when you look at this track, this is one I have these vocals down here I want to talk to you about in a bit. Is it kind of starts with an intro, which I'll play for you. So this is that my instruments air down here. So I have about eight bars of this intro and then in here I have what is about 16 bars. But this 16 bars is, um, both verse and pre course. So a way that you can tell just even by looking at this project is where my kicks are. So this is my kick. These all thes are I don't really do Ah, I do a lot of my drums just with audio files around the MIDI. So that's what these are. But each of these is gonna be a kick, so you can see sort of this would be, um, if you think about it in chunks, this would be the intro. And then the first part of the verse. This is the first part of the bridge, this four bars room 17 21 a 2nd 4 bars and then the hook and even the hook I haven't structured so that it has the first part of the verse. She's me. The first part of the hook has different elements than the second, so I'll play some of this so that it makes sense for you. So this is diverse, the first part of the verse and one way that I like to differentiate different parts when it comes to structure again. It's like a have a zillion different elements and components in here, but just simply by bringing them in and out of certain points, I think that this illustrates it. So that was the first part of verse. This is the second where I bring in the base, and I don't think anything else but because that base is such Ah, it's I have this base very loud, and I like this base a lot. So this kind of takes the lead here where I have the domain melody, Obviously which I kind of just let breathe. But because I have a lot going on in this verse, this isn't they'll talk about later. I don't want a lot of other components necessarily clashing with this. And plus, I have my vocals here as well. So I don't have a ton of different elements kind of going on in this part of the structure , and then it breaks down into the first part of the bridge. So this is really where the base takes the lead on. Then this would be something that I talk about later, another part of structure with voicing. But here we have that this base come in for this part of the bridge. This one's heavily distorted because s So this is where Also with the vocals I add structure. So this is the the bridge. The first part with the vocals help. So I turn him on. Thank you. Hot said a bad word here, so I just have blanked those out. You remember all the license that you said, Girl, you mess. I hold him up birth and then here as well is since it's a structures. And there I want this second part of the bridge to be a little bit different both with the vocals I bring in some distorted vocals and then ad Libs. And this is also where I I bring in a different bass sound That's very distorted as well. Where the shooting that fist little cinder. Rather. Yeah, You think you hot? I remember all the license that you said, But girl, you were mess. I holding my breath, I hold it and then my attorneys vocals off again So I can explain this when it comes to, um, the hook, it's a different. It's a bit of a different animal. This is where you comptel so structurally pretty straightforward. I just drop out the kick and most of the drums here for the bridge. And then I bring them back in for the hook. But this is also where I bring in. Structurally, I keep a lot of the same components, but since it's my hook, it's going to be allowed is part of the track. This is when I start to bring in a couple other components as well. So this is how the hook sounds. So I bring in these extra high hats and then these bills, and then it's just right back to the verse again. So then I do the verse, do the first part of the bridge, second part of the bridge hook and then an outro. So when it comes to the actual structure, you I started this with and most beats. I will start with just this part. Almost always. I'll have I make the busiest part first, where I'd actually probably have this base in here, too. But almost every beat I'll start as in a bar loop. Um, and if you're a producer to making beats, you probably know how that goes to you. You make most your beats because at least with hip hop and most music these days. It's a loop based, so you'll come up with this eight bar loop and then from there, what I'll do is I'll track the beat out. And pretty much what that means is, then I would I would copy out this part, maybe over here, once or twice, and then I would just take certain elements in or out. And what that allows you to do is really build out an entire beat from you're a bar loops simply from taking instruments, adding them in and out. Another way to do that that I like that really can add different elements to your structure is by adding different high hats percussion elements by adding drums that can signify different parts of your track. You don't always have to add new instruments. So if you think about the instruments in this track other than the intro, I really just have a main sense for the verse. I have a synth for the hook and have these bells and then the base, so it's not really that many elements because you want you want to let them breathe, which I'm going to talk about in the next element for arrangement. But once you have this main kind of your main eight bar loop, you can take that and then just add and remove certain elements. Take your kick out, takes snares out, add different percussion, different things like that because you've got to remember as well depending how you make your beats if you make them for a vocalist. Since I also rapping singing a lot of my own beats that your voice is an instrument. So this is gonna be this is going to take up frequencies for your on your main vocal to your bridge. Excuse me for main vocal to your ad Libs, your doubles accents, all of that. So you don't have to. If I just played this beat by itself, it might sound a little bit boring. But then, once you add vocals on top of it, really helped fills it out. I think one artist that does this really well is Kendrick Lamar. If you think about how many interesting things he does with his voice, um, he really feels the beat out. Another one is Drake. If you go back and listen to Drake tracks, uh, he actually has a lot of very simple beats, but he fills them out with his voice because he doesn't want a lot of distractions because he's often telling stories. He wants you to hear what he's talking about. So that's kind of the idea of structure again. You don't need every single beat, too, be, um, a crazy masterpiece with bridges and pre hooks and, um, courses and everything like that. Sometimes it could just be a straight rap track, but just it's pretty much the same thing the whole time. But ah, one way that I like the structure. My arrangements is often I'll come in. I'll either drop into the hook, drop into a verse, and then I'll have some sort of something that breaks it up before the next took or the next verse. So pretty straightforward. Don't overcomplicate it. Don't overthink it. Take your main eight bar loop and then add or remove instruments accordingly, and you can build out a beat for the structure. Another thing that I want to talk to you about is the voicing, which is the next part, which we're gonna jump into right now. 7. Voicing Overview: when it comes to the next part of arrangement, this is going to be the instrumental. This is gonna be the voicing if you think about your main melody, your main track, whatever that that king or queen pieces in your track, that you won't be doing the heavy lifting. Voicing is incredibly important. One tip and tactic that I recommend, which I'll show you as well, is how to switch the voicing and how that can also impact the structural arrangement of your track. Doesn't make sense. This is what I mean when your first playing your track. Maybe you start out with an 80 cent. Maybe it's some sort of a retro vibe that you have going. You're playing the chords and it might lead to track in one direction. Maybe that's sort of a synth way vibe. The same time those same chords played on a grand piano might take it a completely different that might be a rock direction when it comes to hip hop. If you think about different chords you're playing, the instrument couldn't be more important. And by that I mean theme instrument choice is incredibly important. When it comes to playing the voicing in hip hop. So one of my biggest piece of advice when it comes to using instrumentation and voicing to create different, interesting parts of arrangement, your track is think about how certain instruments can play that voice differently in different parts. Here's and I'll show you in the case that you were about to jump into. But there are so many tracks where maybe you has a baseline that has a certain sound, and maybe this comes in during your verse. But if you switch out that baseline for a choir or four bills or for some other low an instrument, maybe you just replace that baseline with some other sound. All of a sudden, it gives you a lot of license to switch out that part of a tractor. Something else Another way that you might be able to do this to keep things interesting. Toys Arrangement. This is a tactic that I use often is. I'll take the same type of instrument, but I'll voice it different, so meaning, maybe during the hook. This is one of my favorite techniques, actually, is my secret sauce is during the hook. If you have a bass sound, this is when I like my base to be the most meaty often and the most Grady. This is when it all the way for my distortion. If I'm going on eight awaits airbase, it's often gonna be in the hook. Not always, but for me, that is a way that I will then voice my instrument differently. Maybe 58 awaits going on in the hook. Then in the verse, I'll have it be a regular base, more of a sub base that you don't hear as much. But you might feel another way you could do this is maybe you have a base that sounds really gritty, and you just want to eat you off some of the highs or turn off the distortion. Things of that nature make it less noticeable. Another way that you can do this is if you have a lead melody playing different parts in your track, you just choose a different instrument. Maybe you take that since and use a different sense, or you switch it out for keys. You switched out for belt doesn't matter, but the point is you can take the voicing of the instrument, switching that and it gives you a whole new direction in peace of attract that you can then implement into your arrangement. I'll show you what I'm talking about in this video. 8. Voicing Walkthrough: the next port of arrangement that I think is important to talk about When I when I break it down to these three different categories, it's the voicing, and this is, uh, that sounds fancy, but really, all that means is what is playing at any given time and what type of a feel or those instruments. I think one thing that you end up learning as you become a better producer, this sound choices and how to design sounds, but also to sounds that fit your track better. So this entire track was inspired by this synth right here, this scent sound. And if you notice you can't see this here because I converted it toe audio. But this is pretty much the exact same. Is this? So if you look at these midi notes, um, they're all playing the exact same thing like this isn't anything crazy fancy again? I don't know music theory, but you can really get creative by voicing the same sounds and notes with a different instrument. So this I love this one playing called ominous Fear. So let's look at this diverse synth is the end wave space noise piano that's a preset And then whenever I choose a preset, I'll come in and I'll tweak it. All that effects to it. Things of that nature. Ah, and then I'll do a couple different things in here, which I'll talk about in the next element. But so the Versant is that Teva piano. Let's see what's in here. I think another retro keyboard, a g a. I a authentic, anthemic. And so both of these are retro keyboards and scents the hook, synth and the Versant. And that explains why this entire track I wanted to that drives the entire track. I then chose drum sounds that reminded me of Phil Collins. Like very machine like eight await old drum machine oriented. Um, on these splashy snares, they're just, like all feel like a drum machine. And these high it's they all have a very much like old synthetic retro feel because it was driven by the voicing or pretty much this instrument. These retro keys and the way that it comes to structure is on a piece of advice that I like to give my students is don't feel like you need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the melody that you're playing sometimes simply switching up the instrument can be enough. So I want to show this to you. If we listen to these keys, it's the same as these keys, which is the same as these keys. And so it's not like I'm doing a ton to these Teoh Make it that different when it comes to actual notes played. But I'm simply keeping the same chords and switching the instrument in another way that I wanted to demonstrate this to in this track that I think makes a lot of sense, is with the base. So if you look at the base, these notes change just a little bit, but not really. It's pretty much the same kind of melody up and down. Um, but in this part So this is the first part of the bridge. Second part of the bridge. Um, and I want to show you what why I made that choice. So this is the first base. I really like that base. And then here's the second base. And the reason why I have this hook base in here and in the second part of the bridge is if you listen to this bridge with the vocals. Um, I also bring in mawr. I bring in board distortion for this part of the track. So this is the the main part. Just the main vocals for the bridge Where the shoe with deficits. Little center. Rather Yeah, you think you have. And so that's the first part of the bridge with the regular base show of that little center . Rather, yeah, you think you had. And then if this part comes in, this is when I bring in the hook bass and everything else is there's more distortion distortion on the vocals. So this other vocal sound the second part of the bridge where the shoe of that fest little send around? Yeah, you think you hot And that's when the other bass drops as well. So you just get a bunch of distortion in the second part, too. Kind of bring up the energy before comes into the hook. This is how the pre course sounds with the bases. Well, where the soup of that fist little centered around. You think you hot. I remember all the license that you said. But girl, you were mess. I hold my breath. I hold And then it drops into the hook Where in between these vocals off again it drops into the hook, which then brings in this synth that which I talked about before. Same notes, different instruments. And if you listen to this part of the hook with these bills, that's a melody which I also then have Let me see if I have it here. All right. I grabbed these hook vocals because I wanted to illustrate the point that in here you can also tell with the voicing that the melody I'm singing in here is the exact same is thes bells. So these are the bells. I only said you love me when you need it. Don't say let me unless you mean so that was me getting in my feelings about some things. But, uh, that pretty much, if you could tell, is the exact same is these bills. So even in that regard, the voicing these two are playing something very similar. But just simply different instruments are, uh, playing it at the same time. And so when it comes to how you design a track, think about how you might be able to take the same melody, but add it with a different instrument and how that could actually create a different part of the arrangement without having to come up with a brand new idea. Ah, brand new melody Ah, brand new sound. Something like that can simply take something. Tweak it a little bit and you get a brand new section of your piece with the same melody. 9. Spatial Overview: in the third piece of arrangement that I often talk about is spatial. This is going to be the mix. So if you think about structural as left to right, think about spatial as top the bottom When it comes to the spatial in the mix of the track , this is where you can really experiment. And this can be a way that you can add to structural pieces from different things that you experiment with in the mix. I do this a ton if you have a lead instrument or a lead melody playing in your track. One way that you can make this a different part of attracted, different piece of your structural arrangement is in your mix. If you eat you off the highs, we throw on a filter if you throw on effects. I also have other courses on automating effects, which is a huge bonus makes arrangement way easier. But if you take that same instrument sound and you tweak it in small ways, it can give you so much mileage out of that. In your arrangement, let me give you an example one way. The often use this is I'll take the same melody or my maintenance, right? So if we talk about the guitar soloist, we talked about the King and queen, the chess game. You want to run with that analogy? I have some main instrument playing in my track, and I don't necessarily want to take this piece all the way out and after reverse. I want the track to calm down a little bit before I drop it into the hub. What I often do is automate effects either a filter or in a queue, something of that nature to subdue this main instrument, so I might not take it out completely. I just want to subdue it a little bit. I want to free up space for other elements in the track to breathe this. It might also be a good point. We're going to subdue that part of your track. You might also take some of the drums out, which is another thing I wanna talk about here in a second. But when it comes to the actual mix, if you can get creative with your effects and with your e cues with volumes fades things like that, it really allows you a lot of wiggle room to then add structural arrangements without having to add brand new pieces to your track. You don't have to bring in a brand new instrument. You don't have to create a brain, you malady. You might just add some effects to it. And that's enough of a difference that it allows you the license to then create that bridge pre hook course. Whatever it is that you're interested in, we're gonna jump into this next video and then the next part of the course I want to talk to about certain elements, tips and tricks that I use in almost every single track. That makes arrangement way easier than having to recreate the wheel every single time you get into it. All right, follow along. Let's do this. 10. Spatial Walkthrough (Frequencies): now, the third and final part of your arrangement that you think about it is so far, we've covered left to right structural. So this is very linear, kind of how things are laid out. A Sfar is Ah, beginning middle and end. We've talked about the voicing kind of the different elements that make up the track. And then this last part, um, is special, and this is arguably one of the most important. This is gonna be your mix, So this is not necessarily just left to right, but your top to bottom and a way that you can think about spatial is this is really what makes your track three D three dimensional. Eso your mixed When you think about, um, when things were later kind of top to bottom, that's how I kind of like to organize the's right. I have my low end of my drums, transitions, instruments, but everything. When I first started out making beats, excuse me, I would cram way too much in there. And so now when you think about your voicing, that's gonna be what instrument is doing your heavy lifting at any given time, your special comes in because you don't want to overshadow the instrument. Whatever it ISS for this track, The reason that I think this is a good example is because I have a lot of different things being panned, and they're certain instruments that are taking up certain frequencies. So when you think about spatial and you can learn about this my mixing and mastering course , you can't have two things at the same frequency. Well, you can, but they're going to be competing. And so the best way that I've found to really let things breathe is to have certain instruments playing certain frequencies, but then carving out room for others. So I'll show you a couple examples of what I mean. The kick is going to be one of your instruments. That's always has not always, but a lot of times has a lot of these low frequencies, right? This is an E Q eight. This is unable to any Q. You can do this in any court, any dog that you have, though it's an e que I've rolled off this low end because otherwise it feels a lot more muddy. There are all these frequencies in the air that you can't see, assuming that you can't hear so that by having this it's just the frequencies that we want Now at the same time, if you look at our base, are based becoming here our base. I've rolled off the bottom as well because I don't want these these bass frequencies competing with my kick frequencies. Ah, lot of these are so low you can't even hear them. But one thing that I do is if you have these solar, you can kind of hear it in together is a lot of my bases at a compressor that side chained to my kick. If you don't what that means again, that's in my mixing course. But pretty much it means that whenever my kid comes through, my base is going to duck out. However much you said it too, cover this in another lesson. Oh, diamond to it too much. But I will side chain just about anything to my kick, even this verse. I believe maybe I didn't in this verse, is it in the hook in the hook? I did so in this hook. If you listen to it, it's gonna you're gonna hear it kind of ducking out a little bit from the kick, so that's really exaggerated. But pretty much what I'm doing is because if you look at these notes, you look at these Midi notes. I have some in this low range and because I have these, I don't even want those compete with the kick. And I don't want, um, anything else really competing with my low end because to me, everybody is different here. But for me, I really like having my kick in my low end to be the heart of my track. I'm a drums guy, so that's just kind of how it works. I really like a thumping kick. Some people really like their snappy snares. For me, it's all about my low in my base in my kick and then my snares air kind of the icing on the cake, But to each their own, another thing that I do with this is to see if I didn't hear is you get some cool effects. I believe I did it here with the hi hats. Even side chained these to the kick just because that could give you a cool bounce. So when you think about your track spatially think about what frequencies are being taken up at any time. So if you come back here to the bridge, we have this Versant. And so even my vocals here are competing. Some with this since so I don't I probably could have had the bells and hear something, but I didn't want I didn't want this to be specially. I wanted this to be a little bit less aggressive. I wanted there to be let fewer things in here. So that way it really allowed that bridge to shine and also allowed, um, this second part of the bridge when the base comes back in. I didn't want the kick in there because I wanted this to be a pronounced very distorted low end. So that's one way to think about your mix. Excuse me? Your arrangement is when you think about it, top to bottom, what is sitting in your mix and what is being voiced at any given time. And is there room for it? Right? I don't have a ton of different things going on about the vocals there and then the main instrument, and that's about it. But when you think about a three d mix. It's also less about just your top to bottom and also left to right. And when I say left to right, I don't necessarily mean with the structural arrangement, but your ears and panting. And so again, it's in my mixing course. But if you look, I love panning because it allows different things to be accented depending on what you're listening to at any one point. So now let's jump into panning and have that plays out in this track. 11. Spatial Walkthrough (Panning): So with the panning, if you look at these drums, I just want to play these drums for you. Um, because I think it does. It shows it's a good example of kind of how things can be laid out. So in this part of the verse, it's just these just these couple instruments. But even with those snares I throw on this second snare, it's gonna be paying a little bit to the left. And then the other one is paying just the slightest bit of the right. Oops. But then in the hook, I bring in ah, bunch of other elements. And so let's take a look at this. So I have this high hat that one's to the left a little bit. This one's also to the left, but this one is just add some motion. But then I also have this one. But this was paying to the right. So this just creates space because if all three of these So let's look at this. If all three of these um or Pans Street down the center, it's not as easy to identify them. And if everything is coming, matches street down the center, it doesn't create a real wide mix This way you have things kind of spread out, and one of my mixing tips is if you pan things, that makes them easier to here. So you don't necessarily hard painted all the way. But just some can give you a little bit more character can help wide in the mix, thinking about it both the top to bottom but left to right in the sense of it being three dimensional and wide. And then the snares also have those pant a little bit as well just to keep things interesting. This one that is not, like super intense. This was just me wanting to be weird. Um, but when it comes to things like these since and the bells, um, having things panned can do wonders for allowing room for things debris. So let me show you I'm talking about. So if we take the instruments and I take this hook, since in these bells I need the second part of the hook that would help. There we go. If you look at these where the bells are, there's a lot in here and some in the air. And then if you look at this hook synth. It's a lot right in this kind of mid range as well. And so one thing I've done is I've rolled off a bit of this high end to allow some space for some high frequencies. But because these are kind of there's a lot in this kind of mid range here, if you but you can do is don't have to do a ton. But you could either pay in this main hook, sent a little bit to the left or if you have kind of. I called this an auxiliary instrument. It's not necessarily going to be your main instrument like this Hook sent. This is gonna be a meat and potatoes, but the bells. Then you might paying just a little bit over here just so that it frees up some of that, uh, that kind of space for your bells to breathe, and then you don't have to have them as loud because they stand out more so you can actually bring the volume down. I find if I paying them a little bit because they aren't then all competing straight down the center for the same things. Um, I don't obviously I don't Pan my vocals a ton when it comes to the main vocal. But when it comes to the, um, hook, I like a lot of my times If you listen to the rapper Russ, uh, he does this a lot as well. I did this. He'll have kind of his main verse. There's main vocal and then we'll have these other things that are kind of panned off to the side. So this is the main hook vocal Don't say you love me less You mean a I only said you love me when you need it Addison distorted vocals on the left Don't say you love me less You mean thing. And then I also added some distorted vocals on the right. And as you can tell, the vocals are much softer with these doubles. But they're panned. I imported these back in, so you can't necessarily see the panting here. But, um, there pans, they are evenly panned because of their evenly paying. Then it's gonna feel sometimes a bit like comes straight down the middle, but they're paying just a slightly off, so that creates a little bit more of a wider vibe. Don't say you need, and so that's kind of a way to think about it. When it comes to your arrangement. Is where do things sit in terms of space, like are, Do you have frequencies carved out for your low end? And as you can tell, I don't. I barely eke you stuff sometimes, because for me, a lot of it comes down to getting your volumes right, letting them breathe. But I do like to roll off the Lohans here. Some tips and tricks in the mixing class shot at the mixing glass. A but not just your mix there, but thinking about how can you pay in things in a way that allows them to breathe and you feel them but not necessarily need them, uh, smacking you in the face. And if you're having trouble with your mix because it's too loud, but you still want things to be heard, having things being panned could be a huge asset, an element that I highly recommend. So when it comes to your overall arrangement, um, thinking about it as more three dimensional, I think can go a long way 12. Tying It All Together: All right, So let's wrap this thing up, put a bow on and tied his holding together. If I could get you to take away a few things from the course, I want you to remember a few things. First of all, find the part of your song that you want to shine and support that not everybody can be singing full blast at the same time. Create the parts of your track that are going to be the most meaningful, though the rest your track around that I think of it. A chess game. King and queen. How can you arrange the rest your pieces, The rest your tracks to really bring those two together. Let those shine. Another one is repetition. Is the mother of learning. I say that often it's good to repeat the same melodies. You don't need to have a zillion melodies. Each one doesn't need to be unique, creative, interesting melodies. Stick to it. Bring that in throughout the track multiple times, maybe different voices to keep it interesting. But you don't have to. That being said, there's also a beauty in creating unique things in your track that maybe don't repeat. This might be certain vocal shouts of certain points. This also might be transitions and drops. I see this a lot with drum fills. Maybe there's one part that you want to drop into a big hook. Do you have a unique drum filled happens? Just a that point. Maybe it's a voice memo. Maybe it's a certain effect of bird sound, a snare clap, a nif effect that you have just at one point your track just to create a unique moment that can really create an engaging and interesting track as well. But you don't want the entire track to be novel because then you'll have anything to latch onto is a lesson. And last but not least, I say this in so many of my courses. This is something I cannot talk about. Enough. You all need to steal. Start stealing mawr. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Keep it simple. Find an arrangement that you like, steal it, dragged it into your dog. Try to recreate the executive arrangement or find tracks that you gravitate toward. Listen to what they're doing. Their arrangement do the same thing. They're dropping their drums out before their hug. Tractor drums that before your hook. If you find that every time they're coming into pre chorus or adding some extra base and they're voicing it differently, try adding some basic added, voicing it differently. It doesn't have to be so complicated. You really will find the beauty. There's a beauty in simplicity. If it's done poorly, can be corny. I would have done well. That is the magic of creating a good beat. You think for a lot of Drake beats, they are done very well. There are a zillion different things going on, but there are enough that they create the feeling that you want while still allowing room for the vocalist to do that. So if that all makes sense, remember those three things are huge when it comes to arrangement. 13. Final Tips & What's Next: I hope that you've got something out of this course. If you did, please leave a review, good or bad. If you didn't enjoy the course, please let me know. What can I do better? If you didn't join the course, please smash that five star. But in let people know that I'll be dropping these tips, Tricks and tactics annual every single month on different course platforms. This is what I do. I love making beats. I love making music, and I love teaching you all how to do the same. If there's anything in this course that you found especially interesting or meaningful chances, are you confined on my website at Keio Ryan dot com slash resource is my entire movement is to make it easier for music producers to get better faster. It took me almost 10 years. People learn how to master this craft and have taken me 1/4 of that time even less If I'd known what I was doing, if it had, the right resource is so please check out. The different resource is I have. If you are interested in leveling up quickly, I have MPC style downloads were able to and I have my able to template. I have free guides. I have other free courses. All of that is either at www dot producer downloads dot com. That's the site that I run to help producers level up. Or you can find on my personal Web site at Keio Ryan dot com slash resource is in please. I'm everywhere at Keio Ryan on the Internet. You can find me slide in the d m. Tell me what you think and please tell me what else would like to learn. I am so past about creating courses that right now, whatever you want to learn, I could make it happen. Reach out, Leave, Review. If you dig it, download some stuff to help you level up quickly. And I cannot wait to see what you come up with. Don't forget to put this to practice. Drop those songs below. In the course project files appreciate you tune in. As always, Kill Ryan already know what it is. I'll check you in a minute. Thank you for tuning in peace