Vocal Arranging

By Tijs Krammer

"You know the range of the voices, you know the song you want to arrange and you know who will get to sing the lead. What will be your next step now? Will the arrangement be homophonic? What options you have to write that catchy guitar riff? How do you really make the bass really groove? Arranging is a big challenge. Even if you're familiar with music theory, you'll encounter many dilemmas in writing for voices. Arranging is a craft. The good news is: you can learn this trade. Tijs Krammer helps you by sharing his lifelong experience and showing the possibilities with practical examples."

Whether you are inexperienced as an arranger and don't know where to start, or are already advanced and don't know how to proceed, you will be inspired by Vocal Arranging.

The book contains the following chapters:
1 Voice Types and Voicings

2 Rhythm

3 Chord Symbols

4 Writing Harmonies

5 Arranging in Layers

6 Accompanying Parts and the Bass Part

7 The Structure of an Arrangement

8 Notation

This book is aimed at people with a lot of musical experience. It is intended for conservatory student and graduate musicians, but also for advanced amateurs who are not afraid of music theory and chords. We assume that the reader is fluent in reading music, in both treble and F clef. We also assume that they can play the piano and know their way around chord symbols.

This book will help you write for voices. Maybe you've never written an arrangement before and you want to give it a try. Or maybe you've reworked a few pieces but know that you're missing some skills. Or maybe you've written a lot for instruments and you're looking for knowledge about voices. In all these cases you can be inspired by this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tijs Krammer
• Release date: Jul 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9789083351445

Tijs Krammer

A singer, conductor and arranger, Tijs Krammer is best known for his singing association with the internationally famed vocal group Montezuma's Revenge. Having studied singing at the Utrecht Conservatory in The Netherlands, Tijs pursued his musical education with Jos van Veldhoven at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, studying choral conducting, supplemented by a private course of arranging with Bob Zimmerman in The Netherlands and with Phil Mattson and Michele Weir in the us.TijsFounder and conductor of the Utrecht group Leeuwenhart, Tijs won the first prize at the Dutch Choral Festival, a major two-yearly a cappella festival in The Netherlands, with this group. In 2008 Tijs is interim conductor with the prize-winning jazz choir Dekoor. Until recently he was conductor of the vocal group Vocalicious. Currently he conducts the youth vocal group The Jump and the vocal world music ensemble Pangaea. With the latter he won in 2013 the Balk Top Festival, in recent years the most important Dutch festival on vocal pop and jazz music.Tijs is professor at the Conservatories of Rotterdam and Amsterdam teaching Conductor Vocal Pop & Jazz and he is one of the professors at the conductors course The Ward Swingle Cursus. Having written arrangements for internationally renowned groups including Femmage, Intermezzo, The Gents, Frommermann and Montezuma's Revenge, he has regularly been teaching courses in arranging, most of these organized by Balk.Tijs' arrangements are partly privately published and partly published by Music Shop Europe, Molenaar, ChorusOnline, Ferrimontana, ZoecMusic and Humm A Cappella. For any questions concerning any of these arrangements or for any arrangement orders, please send an email to [e-mail].

Book preview

English books of Tijs Krammer published by Alfred Music Publishing:

Harmonic Warm-Ups

Choral Conducting Technique

Apps for iOS and Android by Tijs Krammer:

Playing Piano Chords

Maestro – Conducting

Tijs Krammer

Vocal Arranging

ISBN 9789083351445

© Copyright 2023 Humm Publishing

Sartreweg 166, 3573 PP Utrecht, The Netherlands

www.hummpublishing.nl

Table of Contents

Introduction

1   Voice Types and Voicings

Clefs

The Range of the Voice Types

Voicings

The Lead

One Part for All Men

2   Rhythm

The Idea of Swing Feel

Swing Feel in Practice

Four-Four Time and the Backbeat

Six-Eight Time

Three-Four Time

Choosing the Right Time Signature

Precise Rhythms

3   Chord Symbols

Triads

Additions

Four-Note Chords

Slash Chords

Five-Note Chords

Finding the Chords of a Song

4   Writing Harmonies

Close and Open Voicings

The Right Chords

The Number of Additions

Five-Note Chords With Four Voices

Chord Progressions

Parallel Octaves and Fifths

Parallels in the Middle Voices

Singable Parts

Alternating Singing in Unison and in Harmony

5   Arranging in Layers

Homophonic

Possible Textures

One Layer

Two Layers, with the Melody in a Separate Layer

Two Layers, with the Bass in a Separate Layer

Three Layers

Layers are Perceived Separately

Four or More Layers

6   The Accompanying Parts and the Bass Part

Notation of Sounds

Commonly Used Sounds

Horns

Accompanying Parts on Lyrics

Chords in Accompanying Parts

Arpeggios

The Upper Accompanying Part

The Range of the Bass Part

Sounds for the Bass Part

Simple Bass Techniques

Walking Bass and Latin Bass

7   The Structure of an Arrangement

The Structure of a Jazz Standard

The Structure of a Vocal Jazz Arrangement

Jazz Endings

The Structure of a Pop Arrangement

Pop Endings

Choose Your Best Ideas

Small Variations are Hard to Memorize

8   Notation

The Layout of a Vocal Score

Keys and Accidentals

Intelligible Harmonies

Beams and Syncopations

Notation of Swing Feel

Lyrics

Jazz Articulations

Glossary

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Vocal arranging means reworking an existing song for choir or for vocal group. In most cases you write three to five voice parts and there may also be instrumental parts, for example for piano or band.

Why would you want to write an arrangement yourself? Well, there are many reasons. One may be that you cannot find the right arrangement of a particular song you want to perform with your group. This could be because your group’s voicing is less common and existing arrangements cannot be used. Or perhaps you want to perform a unique vocal version of the song.

Arranging is fascinating. When I was twenty, I sang for the first time with a vocal group and I was immediately captivated by it. The idea that you can determine exactly where all notes will be placed! I remember that during the second rehearsal I’d already decided that I would write something. The song choice was easy, it had to be Night and Day by Cole Porter. I worked on it every day for three months. It was a brain teaser, but I had to get it done.

Arranging is wonderful. it’s a reason to dive into a song you admire. You get the chance to be musically creative. And it’s so satisfying when it is actually sung. During the day you feverishly write the notes and at night you sing it with your group. And when it works out well, you get such an incredible kick.

Who is this book for?

This book is aimed at people with a lot of musical experience. It is intended for conservatory students and graduate musicians, but also for advanced amateurs who are not afraid of music theory and chords. We assume that the reader is fluent in reading music, in both treble and bass clef. We also assume that they can play the piano and know their way around chord symbols.

This book will help you write for voices. Maybe you’ve never written an arrangement before and you want to give it a try. Or maybe you’ve reworked a few pieces but know that you’re missing some skills. Or maybe you’ve done a lot of instrumental arrangements, but now you want to write for voices. In all these cases this book will inspire you.

Subjects

Each section of this book deals with a particular topic of arranging. Therefore, the book can be used as a course, but also as a reference. You can read it from front to back and absorb all the ideas. Or maybe you’ll just play the musical examples for inspiration. Or you can look up a specific topic when you get stuck writing.

This book is designed to take you by the hand in your first steps in arranging. Instead, what it provides is a structured approach to the topics that occur when writing musical/choral arrangements. Integrating these ideas into your existing knowledge is left up to you.

To write good arrangements, you need a lot of theoretical knowledge, but also skill. These are developed through regular practice. Learning new skills therefore requires active participation. Play the musical examples on the piano and sing the vocal parts. Think of exercises to do and connect what you are learning in this book to the arrangements you are working on.

Examples

Songs by George Gershwin and by The Beatles are used as musical examples throughout. This is because we are assuming that they are familiar to the reader. It is much easier to understand an arrangement if you can compare it to the original. The Gershwin songs include Summertime, I Got Rhythm, Embraceable You, They Can’t Take That Away From Me and A Foggy Day. While The Beatles songs include Yesterday, Let It