Which is more difficult, composing music or arranging music?

For a long time, under the topic of pop music, there has been a debate about which is more important, composition or arrangement.

"I think composing music is very important. Whether a song is good or not, whether it can be circulated or not, plays a decisive role in composition. "

"I think this arrangement is very important. No matter how good the safflower is, it needs green leaves to line it. No matter how beautiful the melody is, it is incomplete without arrangement. "

"Composition needs inspiration, and arrangement depends more on technology. Arranging can be improved by learning the day after tomorrow, but how to make a nice song can't be written by learning a lot of skills. "

"Arranging needs to know all kinds of musical instruments and have some experience. Without a certain foundation, it is impossible. "

……

First of all, I give my conclusion: for music works, which one is more prominent will add more colors to the works, and which one is more difficult depends on the works and the angle.

Next, I will talk about the role of composition and arrangement in music works from different angles.

What is composition and arrangement in pop music?

In order to understand the respective meanings of composition and arrangement, we must first understand what composition and arrangement are in pop music.

In your traditional impression, you may think that composing music is a particularly mysterious and technical thing. However, in recent years, with the broadcast of many music festivals and the popularity of music technical analysis posts on major websites, the true face of composition has gradually been restored to the public.

Simply put, composition in pop music refers to song writing, that is, vocal melody writing of a song. Yes, just writing a vocal melody can be called composing music. How's it going? Do you suddenly feel that composing music is far from being as unattainable as you think?

Some friends may question: No? I have seen artists improvise, so don't lie to me. Isn't it necessary to play/sing the melody while playing the accompaniment of musical instruments?

According to the truth, it is like this. Creators with a certain musical literacy will mostly use musical instruments to create, and besides the main theme of human voice, they will also add some basic chords, harmonies, orchestration and so on. This is the basic completion of the composition part of a work.

However, the reality is that many artists who don't even know the interval relationship between 1 and 2 compose music in a random way.

They probably don't know anything about harmony, and there are no rules for humming. They can hum wherever they want. Then directly throw a dry melody that is not even fixed in pitch to the producer. The rest are producers and arrangers.

Although we all think this kind of behavior is very low-level, we must admit that writing a human voice theme is the minimum requirement for composition in pop music. How's it going? Do you suddenly feel that composing music is not as high as everyone thinks?

After the composition is finished, let's talk about the arrangement.

Composition refers to writing the main theme of human voice. Arranging is the instrumental part of the song around this theme. In short, arranger is the accompaniment of a song.

Generally speaking, in pop music, the four standard musical instruments used for arrangement are: piano, guitar, drum set and bass. These four musical instruments are involved in most popular music works we hear on the market now.

In addition, different music works will add some other orchestration as embellishment according to the differences of their composition styles, and finally present various styles.

If you write a tune with a little Chinese style in pentatonic scale, you can add some China national musical instruments to the arrangement; If it is a melody with a strong sense of rhythm, you can emphasize the rhythm of the drum and make the work r &；; B, hip-hop style; If it is a passionate song, you can highlight the existence of electric guitar, make up a brainwashing riff and make the whole rock; If there are some exotic tunes, you can add some exotic instruments to make it more psychedelic; ……

And so on.

To put it simply, arranger is a piece of music made for the creator, with appropriate musical instruments, so that the whole work presents a certain style.

The relationship between composition and arrangement is like the relationship between people and clothes. Different people wear clothes that suit them and show their beauty and temperament.

What are the difficulties in composing and arranging music?

After knowing what composition and arrangement are, we can talk about their difficulty.

As I said just now, the minimum requirement for composing pop music now refers to writing the main theme for a song.

So, is it difficult to just write the main theme of a human voice? From the point of view of doing it, I don't think it is difficult. Many people actually have the ability to hum melodies, which is not very technical in itself.

However, the interesting thing about composing music is that its lower limit can be very low, but its upper limit can also be very high. It is not difficult to do; But doing it well is not easy.

It is also the main theme of writing human voices. Why do some people write so smoothly, sweetly and happily, while others write so crudely, stereotyped and ugly?

Personally, I think that composing music is, to some extent, a reflection of the composer's personal comprehensive quality of music. This kind of musical accomplishment includes the understanding of modes, chords, rhythms, styles, tonality and composition techniques.

We might as well imagine what would happen if two creators at different levels were allowed to create for the same theme?

Creators with high musical literacy can often quickly and accurately match the musical elements that match the theme, then extract the material from it and apply it to their own creation, and finally write a beautiful and fashionable music. For example, those high-quality musicians we are all familiar with.

Creators who can only hum melodies can only hum in such a chaotic way with their own feelings. In this case, whether music can be completely "written" requires a huge question mark. Even if written, it is likely to be a large-scale repetition of the tunes that have been widely used by predecessors, which is the so-called "divertimento". Those online celebrity songs that are often spit out by people are mostly representatives of this kind. How can such a work sound good?

Therefore, although it seems to be the main theme of writing human voices, it actually implies the assessment of the composer's musical literacy.

In addition to the accumulation of daily music literacy, composing music is more difficult because it is not a kind of perfect positive correlation's ability with the efforts made the day after tomorrow.

I mentioned in the article "Analysis of the Characteristics of Steve Chou's Composition" (Steve Chou, the heritage of Steve Chou's music, how many songs can you write? I think composing music is a combination of innate inspiration and acquired technology.

Many skills in composition: modeling, reflection, inversion, stretching, modulation, out of tune, variation, etc. You can master it by learning the day after tomorrow. Learning how to use them can help you develop a motivation into a complete song.

However, there is no way to acquire the ability to generate pleasant motivation and develop more pleasant phrases in the process of developing this motivation. It's called innate inspiration.

Why do we listen to a lot of music now? It is smooth enough, and there is no problem with paragraph cohesion. It is layered, undulating and dynamic. Music itself has its own characteristics, but it just doesn't feel good enough and amazing enough. Because the creator can't think of a better motive. The final music is auditory, although complete, but not pleasing to the ear.

This is also the hardest part of composing music. It is not how many composing techniques you have learned and how much music knowledge you have accumulated that you will be able to write beautiful songs. If you can write good music through study and hard work, many people can become Jay Chou, JJ Lin, Pu Shu and Li Jian. However, this is impossible. Writing music still needs some natural inspiration.

Therefore, we can see that composing music is a matter with great fluctuation of upper and lower limits. Writing a piece of music is not difficult in itself. The difficult thing is how to make music sound good and complete, not unconventional, but also full of vitality.

In contrast, the lower limit of arrangement is higher than the lower limit of composition.

At present, the lowest quality arrangement in the market is a few so-called "folk songs" with only one acoustic guitar, which only play broken chords/sweep+clap, and basically have three chords. But even so, the player should at least have some guitar playing skills and master some pressing strings and fingering. Although it is very simple, the threshold is still higher than the "composition" that is casually humming.

In addition to the arrangement of these crane tails, most of the arrangement of pop music still depends on the basic configuration of the traditional four-piece+string group. In this arrangement system, even the simplest arrangement method, the arranger needs to be familiar with these instruments, and it is best to master one of them and have some playing experience in order to arrange a work.

In other words, arranging music, in most cases, still requires you to know at least one musical instrument to a certain extent before you can do it. And this process takes time to practice and accumulate. Therefore, the threshold of arranging music is higher than composing music.

So, is the upper limit of the arrangement positively related to the study effort the day after tomorrow? I don't think so.

In fact, in any subject, in the end, as long as you work hard enough the day after tomorrow, you will eventually strive for the so-called talent.

Some people are naturally savvy, learning the piano faster than others, and playing fast can be handy. This is talent. Conversely, people who learn the piano slowly may have a good sense of rhythm and learn the drum set quickly. This is that everyone has different talents and can achieve different things in various fields.

Specific to the arrangement, these talents may be reflected in the balance of understanding of various instruments, unique imagination, and the perfect combination of styles and so on. And what kind of arrangement can be called a good arrangement, there is no special uniform standard.

My personal understanding of a good arrangement is that it is suitable for this work and the content can accurately express the theme and artistic conception of the work, which is a good arrangement.

So as far as the upper limit is concerned, which is more difficult, composition or arrangement? To be honest, I personally think it is impossible to quantify. With enough technical study and accumulation the day after tomorrow, the requirements for talent and inspiration are very high in composition and arrangement. Who is taller ... sorry, it's impossible to quantify.

But as far as the lower limit is concerned, I think arranger is higher than composer.

Which is more prominent, composition or arrangement, depends on which angle you stand from.

After understanding the upper and lower limits of composition and arrangement, we can focus on today's theme: for a musical work, both composition and arrangement can add color to the work. As for who is more prominent, it depends on which angle you stand from.

To talk about this theme, we must talk about the production process of a pop music work.

Here is a documentary, which truly shows the birth process of a pop music. You can have a look:

The Secret of Music: The Birth of a Song www.bilibili.com

(Video from 囎囎囎 @ behind-the-scenes class)

Simply put, in most cases, there are words before songs; Then after the producer gets the lyrics, according to the lyrics, he contacts the arranger to arrange the music and find a musician to record the instrument; After the arrangement is completed, the singer enters the shed to record and sing; After recording, modify and mix the singer's dry voice; Finally, master the production.

From this process, it can be said that the arrangement is largely for composing music. How to compose the accompaniment of a song depends on the melody direction, chord direction, rhythm, speed, mode and so on, and constantly fills in the content around these, and finally presents a whole.

From this perspective, the significance of composing music is greater than arranging music. Composition is the first part of a song, which is in the core position, and the arrangement should be arranged around composition. Metaphorically speaking, composing music is like a person, and arranging music is clothes. No matter what style of clothes, people who wear clothes are always people and serve others.

But the same thing, let's look at it from another angle. If there is no arrangement, only humming melody, such a thin content, will the audience be willing to listen? From this perspective, is the significance of arranging music greater than composing music?

We can cite many such examples.

A high-quality golden song, even if it is sung by a singer without accompaniment, is also very nice. The melody quality of such works is excellent enough, which is the icing on the cake for the requirements of arrangement.

But for that kind of mediocre music, excellent arrangement can sometimes turn mediocrity into Excellence. At this time, the role of arranger can be said to be a timely help.

These examples just prove the point I made at the beginning of the article: which one can add more points to the work, composition or arrangement, depends on which angle you stand on.

In addition, which is more outstanding, composition or arrangement, can add color to the work, but also depends on the work itself.

Some songs are mainly composed of soothing melodies, and the composition will be more prominent at this time; There are also some works that pay more attention to the atmosphere and overall feeling. At this time, the arrangement is more prominent.

Composition and arrangement are two completely different systems in the process of music production. It is meaningless to compare the two simply and rudely across dimensions. Only by choosing the appropriate angle and the style characteristics of the work itself can we understand the respective meanings of composition and arrangement in the song.