HankTheSpankTankJankerson

No disrespect whatsoever to @timaeus222 but the opposite is true for me - when I am not feeling "inspired" about an arrangement or a composition, I put it down. That being said, I've heard that Chuck Close is credited with saying "Inspiration is for amateurs," which I disagree with especially because I think his stuff is (on the surface) the same thing over and over again. I recently finished 10 or so tracks for an indie game, and I flat out DIDN'T meet deadlines because I wasn't feeling inspired about some of the tracks. They weren't saying what I wanted them to say! So @DarkEco to your original question, I would advise you to first master your primary instrument, and I mean strive for professional level playing. Most of the composers I have played have had a big impact on me and my arranging. We are all of us product of our influences. Cement to yourself who you want to emulate, because everyone emulates someone. Bach got his hands on some of Vivaldi's orchestral scores and came up with the Brandenburg Concerti because he took apart Vivaldi's introductory phrase structure and reconfigured it like legos into something he loved even more. He walked many many miles round trip so he could go listen to Buxtehude play organ, which impacted the rest of his fugal composition. If your influences are your contemporaries, that's perfectly fine too! Rush cites Led Zeppelin as a HUGE influence, and they were playing/touring at the same time. I think Neil Peart said in an interview that for a couple years in Rush's early performing, they sounded like a Led Zep ripoff band. They found their own voice eventually, of course. Led Zep, their biggest influence was blues form! If you aren't a formally trained musician, that's perfectly fine. Just cover the music that you love - don't play the same stuff all the time, and internalize the components that you love. Have no fear in incorporating your influences into your compositions. It creates meaning. Jazzers are advised and taught to transcribe solos from the greats on their instruments (and NOT their instruments).

WIP coming soon, baby. Its ready for a bounce.

Sign me up!

I will be there.

Unfortunate that PS Online episodes 1 & 2 would not be covered, as the music is... pretty compelling...

Yeah dude. Sent you one. If you need more examples of my work, let me know - it is mostly on my band's soundcloud, though.

Bumping - please feel free to contact me if you need any instrumental work done on your tracks!

Well, that only pertains to my arrangement of Meteo for the album. HOWEVER, in the original, the "da-ga-da, DA" accents happen on beat three of each measure (all 3/4 meter), which threw me off. It took me a couple listens to figure it out, so I decided to play on it, which gave birth to the current WIP that you have. In my WIP, which I can't really link here (very sorry), I keep the A sections in 4+3, with the final bars of it in 5. The B section is in 5+6 (so I actually compressed the melody by 1 beat). I have nearly decided that the C section will be in straight, easy 4/4. Soooo thats a rough metric breakdown of my WIP, I guess. Its both easier and harder to arrange source material that has static harmony throughout whole sections. I like playing with time and groove, but it takes a lot for me to inject more creativity on top of that, which unfortunately shows my hand in terms of arranging. In terms of key changes - I was INCORRECT in my last post What actually happens is, lets say the tune starts out in E minor. It modulates to EITHER Eb Major, OR Ab Lydian (those two have the same collection of pitches). If it goes to Eb Major, then the chord changes during the B section are ||: IV - V - IV - V :|| or "AbMajor - BbMajor" If it goes to Ab Lydian (has a raised 4th scale degree), then the chord changes are ||: I - II - I - II :|| or "AbMajor - BbMajor" In either case, the chords are completely diatonic which is pretty cool. And truth be told, I REALLY would like a second opinion on that analysis.

Yo man, in my arranging of Meteo, check this out - the B section modulates to a Lydian bII key signature. So the tonic moves up a half-step and raises the new 4th scale degree.

This shit has 12 pages of content to read through...............................

As a multiple woodwind specialist, I know I can't be amazing at everything unless I practice everything right in a row. So, I need to be able to play Flute, then Sax, then Clarinet all in a row and IN TUNE dear god help me. In a recording environment, I just want to go for one at a time if it aint too much trouble, then work out kinks from there. Also, I tend to write stuff that avoids my secondaries if possible. I do enjoy playing flute and clarinet, but let me tell you, you can't master everything. Actually, I can say that my woodwind playing has suffered from my brass playing. AND my classical playing suffers from playing jazz - the reverse is true as well. Strange stuff. What HAS formed a symbiotic relationship is my guitar playing and bass playing combined with my wind instruments. Playing bass has enhanced everything. Its amazing. Let me say, as well, that I think multi-instrumentalist stuff is for the birds, subjectively speaking. We should write for what is on hand and available. According to the world at large, it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert at anything, and even though I have long passed that 10,000 hour mark, I still do not feel like an expert on my primary instrument. Sad truth. I even know my teacher in grad school felt the same way about his playing. There is always something more to perfect. Moral of the story is there is someone out there willing to play *expertly* the thing that you write, and they can let you know if its possible or not. There should be no shame in collaborating with someone.

Anybody got that WIP Spreadsheet link? I want to hear some tracks! Did anyone get a chance to listen to and criticize the construction of my take on Meteo yet? It has to get recorded, but gimme some criticism on form and harmony and melody and pacing and anything else you want!

I have to say, I just learned the McRib is made out of yoga mats, but I don't care, I still want to try it.

I had no idea...

Name your price. JK just message me and we can help one another.

Yo dude, thanks for the compliment though! Our album is out now, too, on Overclocked Records

Hello, all. I would like to throw my name in the hat for helping to direct this thing. As I told @pu_freak and @Bahamut in a message, if you look at my profile, you won't find very much, I know. HOWEVER, I am very familiar in coordinating many moving parts at the same time being a full time middle school music teacher. I have been in the OCR community for a while, but got WAY back into it three years ago when my band Lonboxofchocolate formed in its current iteration - I linked our soundcloud page for reference if you want to hear how we sound. We have, since then, published our own Undertale album on Overclocked Records (its almost posted), had multiple submissions accepted and posted by OCR, and have kept a regular arranging and recording schedule in addition to all of us having our varying adult responsibilities. I love helping and seeing things through, so if I can help this thing get traction again, I would very much enjoy getting to know everyone's work so far and seeing where it needs to go from there! Peace and love - Hank "The Spank Tank" Jankerson -

@TheChargingRhino I am in fact in a band. We drastically rearrange all of our tracks to include as much originality as we can get away with while staying within throwing distance of the source material. My rework of Meteo as posted above is an example of such. @LongBoxofChocolate is the founder of our trio, and we are about to come out with our first album on the Overclocked Records label. Does that clear up what I was trying to say earlier? @The Nikanoru is right in that most of the time (if its intended) arrangements will sound better if they are recorded by acoustic instruments, but if you are working with some ass-whooping sample libraries in a good DAW then you are probably set. In other words, I am not going to write everything in general midi and ship it that way. I am going to import the thing into Pro Tools then set the pads and record everything possible on top of that. That is only Lonboxofchocolate's process, though. It does not work for everyone.

Welcome to the site! Out of curiosity, what do you think defines your style? In other words, what about this rendition of Ruins would you say is your biggest change from the original?

I'm a fan.

Yeah we live record the synths too. We are fortunate enough to have a fully functional studio. We usually select our own digital synths and pads, after that, we determine what needs to be recorded (pads really dont need any humanization) and then lay down saxes and drum set and bass guitar. It really depends on the importance of the part. Like if its just groove drum set, then we can record it last, but if the fills are really involved (which they usually are) then it will get bumped up in priority. HOORAY INSTRUMENTS

Yeah dude, we are going to record every single part. It can't function otherwise. This was meant to be heard with live instruments.

Posting this as personal motivation! Here is the conceptual bit for my rearrangement of Meteo - mixed meter, fusion. I came up with it over the course of several hot showers. If you like it and think you need some help with your track, let me know and I would be glad to take a listen to what you have done. https://www.dropbox.com/s/nbay03rhf5d74hh/Meteo - Arranging.mid?dl=0 Cheers, y'all. Here's to getting this album done.

Dang, sorry.

My work computer won't open a midi file, so I have to ask: is THIS it?