AboutPhil Kelly Expertise I`m a semi-retired professional music arranger with over thirty five years in all phases of the commercial music production business. I can try to answer questions regarding music arranging, theory, orchestration , and/or composition for most acoustic ensembles .( jazz band or orchestral ) I can try to offer suggestions about studio music recording procedures and some basic MIDI applications , too. In the course of my career I`ve worked with such artists as Doc Severinsen and the old Tonight Show Band, Bill Watrous, Buddy Greco, John Gary, Mel Torme, Julius LaRosa, as well as the Pop programs of the Fort Worth, Dallas, North Carolina, and Houston Symphonies, as well as library music material for ABC, ESPN, and NFL Films.
Question Hello, I want to ask what knowledge needs to be applied to get arranger keyboard's style to be considered professional? Do I have to know proper voice leading and is there something else, and what?
Much appreciated,
Kerry
Answer G'day Kerry!
I'm not sure what you mean by an "arrangers keyboard style " unless you're thinking in live performance terms.
Actually in practice, the goal of an arranger is to rely as little as possible on the keyboard and internalize the necessary principles
( such as the voice leading you mentioned , the ability to construct effective counter melodies and effective linear writing parts for the internal voices, devising interesting instrumental colors , etc ) in
such a manner that you can write effectively at a desk AWAY from the piano.
Personally, I'm a rotten keyboard player so early on ,I forced myself to learn to work without one, because if I relied only on what I could PLAY as opposed to what I could THINK ,I wouldn't be much of an arranger today!
All this is not to imply that I still do occasionally check out a very dense voicing or progression on a keyboard , because I do. I just try to keep it to a minimum. Also in these days of notation programs that
require MIDI entry, the keyboard has replaced the pencil and scorepad
most of the time.
