I know this guy who is an arranger. Y'know, the one like David Foster, or Erwin Gutawa, or.. Err.. You can wiki the rest :p This guy works with my dad. My dad usually compose the songs and then he will be the one who settle the music arrangements, mastering, and other stuff.
He is pretty cool. He can create a very rich kind of accompaniment by using only software and keyboard. Well, I can't really describe his music with words because it is complexly beautiful. Let's put it this way, he can make my dad's songs sound like being accompanied by an orchestra and a huge choir by only using software, and less than 6 additional singers. N0ne of them s0unds fake.
Towards the end of my holiday, he came to my house to work with my dad as usual and that night when I was watching TV my dad said "You haven't listen to my songs have you? Let's go upstairs and check 'em out." So I went upstairs and this guy was there. He let me listen to the stuff they are working on, and afterward I got to talk with him about a lot of stuff for several hours while my dad entertain grandma and grandpa who came halfway . He taught me a lot of things as well. Last time he did music for a living and he was a band leader for over 10 years.
He told me that if we play as a band in a cafe, we need to play with the audience's emotions. It will be wise if we play songs with major chords as starters so that the audience's mood will boost a bit. Towards the middle, we can play minor songs and then end with major stuff. We gotta differentiate between major fast, major slow, minor fast and minor slow.
He doesn't really like copy paste as well. I mean, playing a song exactly like the original. He said that he likes to rearrange it, add some stuff or sometimes he turn it into different beat. But he said that we gotta be careful not to add too much or change too much because the audience might think that we play it wrong or simply don't like it. His band usually medley top 40 songs with the traditional ones. It was pretty funny I think. He said it was pretty ridiculous but the audience liked it because it was unexpected.
He added that being an arranger, you gotta have a good taste of music. Somehow your music preferences will be reflected in your music arrangements. He told me about one of his friend who likes live music that all the music that he created for his clients are all sounds like being played in live performances. Then I was like, oh snap. I like metal. So how about that? He said "Don't. You gotta listen to David Foster... You're gonna have to listen to many kinds of music, don't stick to just one."
That dude is very talkative, so he told me a lot of stuff and I really regret it that my phone wasn't with me because if it was, I would've recorded every single thing he said. Well, towards the end of our talk, he told me a number of important lessons.
1. Don't be stingy. Share your knowledge to everybody, and help those who need help. One day you might need help from them.
2. Don't be judgmental and looking down on others. When you see people playing on stage, don't start criticizing them by getting all "oh man. It'll be better if they play like this and like that..." or "dude, they suck" or anything because there must be something they can do in which you can't.
3. Be humble. No one will get along with pig head no matter how great the skill is. People will be pleased to work with you if you maintain good attitude. No cocky pig heads will be successful.
4. Be active in the community. Befriends everyone especially musicians. You can learn a lot from each other.
A couple of hours well wasted :)
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