Contemporary Vocal Arranging

In recording studios, sound stages, and rehearsal halls, singers need simple, straightforward, effective arrangements that they can grasp and perform quickly. Contemporary Vocal Arranging is designed specifically for students who want to write vocal charts for music industry professionals that are easy to understand, cleanly written, and musically satisfying.

Through guided study using video demonstrations, audio clips, and writing exercises, the course explores how to write for a variety of vocal ranges and timbres and how to create interest by utilizing numerous arranging tools. The course starts by introducing the basic concepts of vocal writing—how singers use their voices and what they need from writers, in addition to proper notation and setting of text to music. The course then explores how to create rich textures through 2-, 3-, and 4-part background harmonies, increasing in complexity. You will study a capella writing, stressing the importance of constantly changing texture to maintain interest. Each week, you will have the opportunity to rehearse and record your own arrangements, thereby hearing what you've created.

The course emphasizes how to organize and communicate creative ideas and present them in a clean, concise, professional format. It addresses vocal writing in a number of contemporary styles and idioms—everything from jazz and folk to pop and R&B—and discusses stylistic appropriateness with regards to harmony, rhythm, ornamentation, and interpretation. The course ends with the crafting, scoring, rehearsing, and recording of a multi-voice, instrumentally backed arrangement. The course is designed for anyone who likes to write music for vocalists in a contemporary or pop idiom, particularly for writers who want to learn how to create background vocal lines with harmonies that sound good and instrumental writers who are trying to demystify the craft of writing for vocals.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• understand the basics of vocal technique
• identify the appropriate ranges for all vocal parts
• optimize a singer's performance by selecting comfortable keys and writing accordingly
• organize arrangements in a clean, concise, professional manner
• harmonize vocals in 2-, 3-, and 4-parts to support the melody
• properly score an arrangement for vocals with basic instrumental accompaniment
• arrange vocals in an a cappella setting
• score, rehearse, and record a multi-voice, instrumentally-backed arrangement

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