When arranging music... (question too long for topic)

[NickTheBassoonist]

There's usually a main treble and main bass for piano- but if there's more than those two voices, what do I do with them? Just ignore them?

[The-Real-Link]

Can you explain your problem in a little more detail. Do you mean when a song has more than two parts. (As in a violin, flute, piano, harp, etc.) or when you need to add multi-voicing to one line. (As in a C-D eigth note progression all while holding down a quarter note G?)

[NickTheBassoonist]

What I mean is, There is sometimes a main part and a rhythm part, using the same instrument. In my case, piano. What I'm asking is, if there are two important parts, do I ignore the lesser of the two? The files of sheet music I found on the site are sometimes just parts of a full song. Do I pick out the 'lead' sounding part and use that?

[Davey]

In my opinion, you should try to incorporate the rhythm parts in the left hand, situationally. It really depends on the sheet. Maybe you can tell us what you are trying to arrange and show us what you have so far?

[The-Real-Link]

When you are arranging a song the most important part is the melody. The melody is the series of notes that when put together form the basis of the song. When you whistle the Zelda Theme the part that you are whistling is the melody. The bass and the harmony parts come next. These are what you described as a rythem part. When arranging a song for piano you can't always just copy down what in an MIDI. For example. The song "Cosmo Canyon" from Final Fantasy 7. We could copy down the melody (The flute part.) and then add the bass (The picked bass part.) This would leave out the beating of the bass drum. This would be an arrangement of the song, but would be incredibly boring. You would thus want to elaborate on the song. Make some of the melody line into chords or octaves. Change the bass line around a little bit. Maybe double the melody over to the bass every once in a while. Repeat it an octave higher in the melody, with the bass playing octaves or chords. There is so much you can do with a song. Arranging takes practice. All of us will be glad to help you if you're having any problems.

[NickTheBassoonist]

So, when arranging for this site, you're gonna want to incorporate everything you can into a solo piano part, using both bass and treble clefs, yes?

[KefkaticFanatic]

http://www.all-about-beethoven.com/pdf/beethoven/pathetique.pdf

Skip to page 9

This is how you do it.

[The-Real-Link]

@Nick: Yes. You want to incorporate as much of the original as you can, but feel free to change things or add things. This will make your arrangement more personal, and a lot of times, much better.

@Gamer: Ahhh....who doesn't love the Pathetique? Good sonata. Moonlight is good too. Have you ever heard the piece "Gertrude's Dream Waltz" by Beethoven. I've got the music to it. It's interesting.

[NickTheBassoonist]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone =D