This Arrangement Rule Will Change Your Music

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[maroonblood]

The reason heavy repetition works in genres such as house music or rap is because a good producer is constantly bringing in or taking out elements in the mix so that the listener stays engaged.

[markyp]

Introduce a theme, use it just twice. Add another theme. Reintroduce the initial theme later, with a twist / bigger….it’s just natural. It works.

[thestevenjaywaymusic]

I have just seen this video and you for the first time. (Liked and subscribed). I am British and my father, Lewis Warburton, was an arranger in the pop industry in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was actually the top arranger in the UK during that time and if you look up his list of songs he worked on it was massive. He told me about the rule of three decades ago, so you are correct. I hope you read this. Cheers.

[realdiole]

When I started producing, I made super complex melodies without any repetitions, then I learned about making simpler melodies which I then repeated too much, now I naturally do what you point out in this video. After 2 repetitions I naturally feel like something different must follow.

[blacks.e.a.]

Repeating ideas can be beneficial if the context around it is changes. I feel like trap, hip hop, and Jazz all utilize repetition in one area ( drums, bass line, chord progressions) but with the improvisation over these repetitive elements helps to make a nice balance of both

[Glandulf]

Been using this for a long time without knowing it ! But one day, one of my teachers in college gave a whole 3 hours class about how repetition was perceived in music from the 17th century to nowadays. He started the class playing the first bar of Mozart's 16th sonata for piano in C major on repeat for five litteral minutes. He didn't even say a word and just looked at us with an absurdly wide smile the whole time. After 5 minutes, he stood up and said "Let's talk about repetition". Absolute genius.

And most of the class was about that rule 👌

[richardstartin]

I think there's a 3rd option which is in arrangement. Chords and melody can remain the same so long as you're dropping in a new beat/texture/harmony etc.

[elsyver]

Actually never thought hard about this, but almost subcontiously i always change up the third round, and have the 4th go back to the same as 1 and 2. Its a really neat and beautiful "trick"

[lameerjhontv]

I do this subconsciously. With my melodies, I find myself wanting to change the third time cause it just feels right. But thank you for analyzing it for me and allowing me to understand the science behind this!

[ralphnelson-tucker]

The rule of three is everywhere and so powerful. Public speaking, framing a picture, decorating, the preacher's three-point sermon, poetry... No wonder it applies in music! Thanks Nathan for bringing it to our attention in this context.

[heartshinemusic]

Hey Nathan, I've been pointing this rule out so many times, it's almost the golden secret of songwriting success. Mozart did this a lot BTW. In Eric Beall's book "The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing sings that sell." I found this interview with Tor Erik Hermansen (part of STARGATE) where he talks about a quote from George Martin (the legendary producer of the Beatles.) I'm gonna copy this small part of the book here because it's a gold nugget. On page 196 TOR says: "Melodies that work have a lot in common. I saw an interview once with Sir George Martin. He was saying that, for some reason, all of the best pop songs have two repetitive lines in the beginning of the chorus, then a climax, then a resolution. I was like, "You gotta be crazy." Then I started to listen to different, big songs, and I realized, "He's right." You could easily find a lot of exceptions. But I looked at the songs we (Stargate) did that worked, and it dawned on me that they had the same formula." End fragment of the book. Keep up the great video's!

[mageprometheus]

Cool stuff. Musical psychology. Another I like is introducing a partial theme, sound or motif in the intro to pre-register it with the listener. I like the way the news is formatted. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Now tell them. Finally, tell them what you told them.

[rockonileva]

The key word there is Intention, as you said. If it's your intention, over-repeat. IMO, the main goal in a songwriting is to give purpose to the elements, not just stacking musical ideas.

[CalebPaulHumphries]

I've been writing like this since I was a teenager, and just didn't know what it was called. Music is so amazingly universal.

[dannywarnock]

This is great. The 2/3 pattern is sort of the same format as a typical joke. The first 2 times set up a pattern and expectation. Your brain thinks it's got it figured out. But the third breaks the expectation in an expected clever way. And this can cause physical laughter when done well. Great video!

[JKGuitarPro]

I like how this concept can apply to literally anything in life. For example, there is a guy I work with that likes to tell stories…you get where this is going? So naturally after so many times of hearing his same stories over and over again, we all just tune him out.

[IAmSegfault]

I was listening to the Starcraft 1 song Terran 3 earlier tonight; I realized the buildup part with the guitar that plays a pedal point follows this rule to the letter!

[sanehumanbeing]

I started writing my first songs in the 1980s on my MIDI sequencer and synth. With a sequencer or computer, it's very easy to fall into the trap of repeating something four times before moving on to something new, or composing by repeating something and then layering more parts on it after a couple of repeats to make the song build. And composing that way works for some genres, but it's not good rock or pop songwriting.
The next step is writing a melody, and usually you come up with a call and response, so you have A and B. You want four lines for a verse so you repeat that and have ABAB. That worked in "Peaceful Easy Feeling" but if you write every song that way, they can be monotonous. ABCA or ABCB or ABAC melodies, which is essentially what's being shown here, are much more effective. I totally agree that good songwriting is not some instinct or some mystery that only gifted people can grasp. It's putting good. often not very complicated writing techniques to use.

[codyperkinsmusic]

That ‘changing the idea slightly on the third repetition’ idea is GENIUS! There is so much flexibility there and it really gets my songwriting wheels turning. Thanks for the great video as always!

[mmacak]

You are right. Thank you for sharing with us. Also, I would add that people like hearing themes/topics. Like in classical music, as we listened in highschool, I noticed it applies to other genres. Basically, you are listening to a melody, that's a theme/topic "a", then when the melody changes, that's a theme/topic "b". Then when you add, for example, a bridge, you are creating the theme/topic "c". So, the song can basically be: a, b, a, b, c, b. That is: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. By changing themes/topics, you "tease" the listeners attention and they are continuing to be intrigued by what you are offering musically, but also, they feel connected with the melody that they heard already, or that you even slightly modified (the second and third time the same chorus). So cool, right?! 🙂