Ways of working on arranging a song when you can't be in the same place at the same time. This is for figuring out the arrangement - and a demo as a guide for rehearsal - not as a way of coming up with the official recording.
This presumes that a lead sheet (LS) has been created (which has lyrics, melody, and chord chart) and that the arrangement is done to support live playing.
Two Methods
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Round Robin (RR)
- Starting with one person - they write, play, and record their part all the way through (doesn’t have to be the final version - can be a placeholder, see later)
- If the person also sings while they play - they can treat that part as another turn/person - either immediately after their instrument turn or later (might be more fun to hear other parts before putting their voice on.
- Put your part on a track - and put that “stem” in a shared folder.
- Then let the next person know it’s their turn. - They pull down the current stems and add their part to the recording.
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Parallel Processing (PP)
Similar process as above - but instead of starting with one person and then going to the next. Everyone starts at the same time - using only the Lead Sheet and a predetermined tempo - write, play and record a part.
For Both Methods:
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When all the parts are done - the arrangement is put together and listened to as a group and discussed -
- Do any parts need to change?
- Do we want to add sections?
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If a new section is desired
- A Lead Sheet Addendum is made to say what the chords (And melody if not improvised) are to be in the new section(s)
- It's submitted to PP.
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If no new sections are needed and just parts just need updating
- repeat the process with either RR or PP until Musical Director (MD) says it's good enough to be used for rehearsal.