Any arranger who wants to take the quality of his work to the next level must be a tough self-critic, he must constantly evaluate his skills, comparing the goals with the results obtained.
Is the arrangement of the instruments as sounding as you wanted it to sound? How logical is the arrangement as a whole? You should always ask yourself these and other questions, to understand your mistakes and avoid them in the next works.
Of course, once the arrangement is complete, it’s too late to correct anything, but you can still study the score and compare it with the recording, determine for yourself its value, and consider places that sound far from what you planned.
Understanding whether or not an arrangement works is not enough. The main thing is to know why. You’re lucky if you have a teacher who can help, but arrangers don’t usually have such teachers. You need to learn how to evaluate your arrangement by relying on your ears, not your eyes.
In addition, an arranger must constantly improve his or her technique, supplementing his or her knowledge by listening to as many musical compositions of all styles as possible.
This way, you can always keep up with new trends and fresh vibes. Understanding what the modern music world is full of will help you avoid creative stagnation.
You should also pay proper attention to learning piano, drums, guitar, strings, and various musical instruments in general. Consult musicians and read books on instrument studies.
We all collect musical experiences from musicians we know or leaders in the field. The closest of these influences enter us to then combine in our subconscious or conscious mind into a variety of combinations to produce a unique and distinctive musical style.
Every musical personality contains recognizable influences that have contributed to the emergence of a “new” sound, which is essentially just a combination of old sounds in a slightly different ratio.
Finally, I would like to consider one more aspect. All famous artists have their own handwriting – easily recognized sound. What is the point here? The answer is simple – a lot to do with the arrangement.
Arranging is not pointless clay molding of incomprehensible objects at the elementary school, but a serious and incredibly responsible work.
An arranger must constantly enrich his or her knowledge and collect useful information from all possible sources, remembering that everything has, so to speak, an expiration date. Arranging is not about recipes or schemes. It requires one’s own initiative and effort to succeed.