song arrangement

You have to have a beat laid out... intro.. verse..chorus..verse...etc.. or its unusable... right?


However you get there is your own beast.




ronJ

You have to have a beat laid out... intro.. verse..chorus..verse...etc.. or its unusable... right?

depends on the music you're making and the vocalist you're working with, really

it really doesn't need to be that predictable does it? make it how you like it, not by some "rule".

that's what i do, and i have a feeling that's why i'm not working with some of the emcees i talk with on the regular. they all feel my stuff but get daunted by rapping over samething like say Made Flesh or John's Basement.

i think i could continue making songs the way i do - but i'd need to construct them with the emcee as he's writing, you know? so it's a co-arrangement rather than my typical organic kind of like scatterbrained sh!t

i hear you, not sayin it had to be scatterbrained, but you also don't have to stick to the normal arrangement pattern.

i always do, whether i sample or not, i always have definite hooks, verses. usually intro + (8 bar hook + 16 bar verse)x3 and have a double hook ending fade out or unless if the beat allows it, i end it on by taking some instruments out for the last 4 bars and end on a hit.

When I work with MC's i usually give them a dumbed down version of the beat. Maybe just a couple of loops or just beats, nothing more. Give them enough to work with but dont freak em out. Then you can add what you want to fit the vocal later.

the trouble with you, nym, is you set out to make a track in it's own right. what i'd do if i were you (and i've never worked with a vocalist, rapper or otherwise, so my opinion probably means sheeyat) is make a basic beat, no more than a basic loop with a couple of changeups to give them a bit of variety, enough for them to 'feel' the track, and then get them to record their vocals on that. then, and here's the clever part, using your standard track-making procedure, you work the basic blocks you made originally AND the vocals into a track in its own right at the same time. that way they should mould effortlessly into one artwork (hopefully) and both you and the emcee get what they want. plus you give them a little surprise in that they'll hear a much better track than the one they rapped to. this may make them spread the word about our lord antonym h. christ (reffering to the other thread about thew da vinci doo doo, where you said you hope you weren't related to jesus) or they might just pee a little.

hope this helps.

bobby design i just wrote what you wrote, sorry about that, must read better in future.

depends on the played style....
...but usually i work my beats on 2 parts. then it's just feeling when and how to make changes. instruments combination, bridges, breaks, etc.