Parts and Sections
Stop thinking of a song as one big unit. Teach your band to learn it as a stack of small sections — even half-sections — and decide what to play in each. It's the fastest way to make an arrangement interesting.
Start thinking about songs not as whole units, but as a bunch of smaller sections put together. When you teach your band, don’t have them learn the song as one giant block — have them learn the specific sections and figure out exactly what they’re playing in each one.
Songs are a stack of small portions
When you understand that a song is just a bunch of little portions assembled together, the whole thing becomes far more musically interesting than strumming along the same way the entire time. Instead of one undifferentiated wash of sound, you’re deciding: what am I playing in section one, section two, section three, section four?
You can go even more granular than that — down to the first half and second half of a single verse.
A drummer’s example
Say you’re a drummer learning a new song. Ask yourself:
- First half of verse 1 — just the kick drum.
- Second half of verse 1 — add the hats to move the song forward.
- Chorus 1 — add the snare on the four to make it feel different.
- Verse 2 — how do I make this feel different from verse 1 but still keep its character? Maybe you play nothing new, but another instrument adds a layer on top — a shaker, or a tambourine on the two and four.
That’s how granular you want your musicians to get: what am I doing in this section, and this one, and this one — and how do all those parts move the song forward so it takes people on a journey?
It applies to everyone
This isn’t just for drummers. Walk every player through the same questions:
- Electric guitar — what’s your part in the first half of verse 1? The second half? Chorus 1?
- Singers — who’s singing verse 1? When do background vocals enter? Are they unison or harmony — two parts or all three? At what section do you open up to full three-part harmony?
- Acoustic guitar — how’s your strum in verse 1 versus chorus 1? How is your verse 2 strum slightly different from verse 1?
You get the idea — the point isn’t to march through every instrument, it’s the habit.
If you teach your musicians to approach each song in sections — and even sub-sections within those sections — it’s a very quick way to make your arrangements more intricate and interesting than playing full chords, full strum, for the entire song.
Application
- Pick a song and ask each player to write down what they play in each section — and at least one verse broken into halves. How much of the song were they playing identically all the way through?
- Where can you move a song forward by adding a single layer (a shaker, a hi-hat, a harmony) instead of changing everyone’s part?
- Are your repeated sections still recognizable — does verse 2 keep the character of verse 1 while feeling a little more interesting?