Making an Arranged Beat

We are now at a point where we are ready to start arranging beats. This is important for numerous reasons. The beats we have been making lately have just been loops, meaning all we hear is the same thing repeat over and over again. We haven't been able to decide when we want to hear a certain sound. Maybe you want to drop a certain melody out for a verse in the song, or you only want one instrument to play during the intro. All of these can be achieved by arranging a beat. Another word for the "arrangement" is the "sequence", as it is the order that events happen in the beat.

INTRO 1-9
CHORUS 9-17
VERSE 17-33
CHORUS 33-41
VERSE 41-57
CHORUS 57-65
VERSE 65-81
CHORUS 81-89
OUTRO 89-97

There are many different styles of Intros. Here are a few different styles that I came up with that you can think about when creating your intro.


1. "The Build Up"
A common why to start a song is to introduce one intrument at a time and build up the intensity of the song.
Example of building up intensity one instrument at time:




2. "The Drum drop" OR Starting with only the Drums
This is when the song begins with other instruments(piano, guitar, etc.) before the drums kick in.  It is also very common to do the opposite -start with only the drums and then have all the other instruments drop in together.
Ex 1- drums drop in 


Ex 2- Drums start then instruments drop in

 
3. "Attention getter" This is an exciting way to demand your audience's attention.  This can be done in a variety of ways, here is one way to do it:

 
4. "Sound Fx, Synthesizer and Pads" A great way to intrigue your audience is to start with unique and interesting sounds.  Pads are a type of Synthesizer patch that can add a lot of character to your song.  When you play a pad on your keyboard the sound transforms as you hold the note. This will add interesting texture and create a unique atmosphere in your song.  On the Synthesizer instruments in Reason you can find a folder called Pads and one called FX.  Please explore these sounds and feel free to add them to your song!

 

1. Open Reason.
2. Open your beat you made on Tuesday.
   
3. Make sure you have all your parts Copied To Track.
4. Highlight all your parts.
5. Go to the Edit Window, Select Copy.
6. Go to the Edit Window, Select Paste.
7. Move the Right Loop Point to 33.
8. Paste your parts until you get to the Right Loop Point.
9. Save your beat.
10. Now focus on the INTRO, 1-9. Your intro is the first impression people get when they hear your song. It's like when you meet someone for the very first time, you can't tell the person your life story in a sentence, but you can give them an idea about you and your personality in the way that you greet them.
    
    The best intros make the listener want to hear more, the worst make the listener skip to the next song. The intro usually drops one of the parts from the beat. If you drop the drums or the bass line, it can cause some tension, and bring the listener in.
11. Focus on the Intro from 1-9.
12. Delete a part such as the drums or bass line to "Introduce" your beat.
13. Save your beat.
14. Now we can work on the Verse.
15. Remember, from yesterday, the verse is the part of the song that tells the story and is different every time.
16. We want to create space for a vocalist in our verse.
17. From 17-33, delete the melody from your song.
18. Now, we have 3 sections. The Intro from 1-9, the Chorus from 9-17, and the Verse from 17-33.
19. Highlight all the parts between 9-33.
20. In the Edit window, select Copy.
21. In the Edit window, select Paste two times.
22. Now Highlight all the parts between 9-17.
23. In the Edit window, select Copy.
24. Move your cursor to 81.
25. In the Edit window, select Paste.
26. From 81-89 Create an Outro by deleting all the parts except for your melody.
27. Save your beat! Save it as (Your name)_fullbeat

Congratulations, you've made your first full beat! Now let's take what you learned in this lesson to turn the rest of the beats that you made on Tuesday into full beats. You can also take this time to start on a new beat that you may even want to try to turn into a full beat today.