Music Arrangments
Gusty Garden Galaxy
This piece was my most successful attempt at writing for an orchestra. I chose this track specifically because of the heavy use of bowed instruments both in the melody and the bass as this was something I didn’t understand the inner workings of. I love this arrangement because it is able to perfectly capture the hectic and intense nature of the guitar strumming, the grandness of the brass and bowed strings, and the brisk flowing arpeggios of the harp. Through this song I had learned a lot about how to utilize the various orchestral instruments such as a timpani, bowed strings, brass, and woodwinds to create a grand feel you see in many orchestral songs.
Sing My Pleasure
This piece was my first successful attempt at understanding what it is the basic structure of a band song. I chose a JPOP piece as these are generally the most heavy with guitars and drums, two of my least comfortable instruments. The heavy use of drums forced me to go out of my way and look up many tutorials to make sense of this new instrument. Aside from this, the use of various guitars allowed me to understand the basic difference between many types from fretless bass to distortion. One huge takeaway from this song was the idea of viewing songs as layers of instruments fulfilling different roles, rather than a cluster of many different clashing roles. I started with a simple base model of the song and slowly kept improving it bit by bit, from replacing brass with synthesizers to changing up the types of guitars to better fit their specific roles. This new perspective of viewing music changed the way I look at music for a long time to come as you get a greater appreciation of the smaller details in a song rather than something more upfront like the main melody.
Route 1
This piece was my attempt at arranging a more atmospheric song. I remember it being notoriously hard to pick out different parts of the instruments such as the drums, or the bass guitar covered by all the other layers of sound, but that is what drew me to make this arrangement. I decided to add my own spin on this song by throwing in a flute to accompany an accordion and give it a spotlight in the section that is normally reserved for a guitar solo. The percussion I used in this song is very original and distinct as I originally could not find the right percussion or rhythm for the song. This is especially apparent in the end where I go all out with the percussion, trying to make something unique and different from normal percussion which I am used to. This arrangement is important for me in general because it forces me to do my own thing with a song to a far greater extent than I had with any song previously and stands as a staple of the idea that limitation creates innovation.