Putting his earbuds in, Marching Band student senior Barron Lee presses play on pop singer-songwriter Bruno Mars’ “Versace on the Floor.” Dissecting the song meticulously from melodies to harmonies, he revises the song’s original composition on sheet music, developing his own arrangement.
Lee creates arrangements of music in his free time, a process of reimagining songs by adding new musical elements. He utilizes a music annotation website called “MuseScore” to produce his arrangements digitally and upload them online. In arrangements, the original score is adapted uniquely by the arranger, elevating the song as compared to the original. Playing it out, Lee strategically listens to figure out the chords, rhythm, melody and accompaniment of the song. For “Versace on the Floor,” Lee adapted the instruments in the original song to be accompanied by left hand piano. The chorus and second verse were portions of the song that implored more creativity from Lee which he fulfilled by adding new rhythms and arpeggiations into his arrangement. After re-listening to his draft and making final edits, his arrangement is ready for upload.
“Knowing what changes I want to make is both a feeling and also hearing it. I hear certain things in a song, and I’m like ‘Oh, I like that, it sounds interesting’ so I’ll keep that in. Or if there’s something I want to add, like extra notes to create harmony and I think it would sound good, I test it in the software and listen to it. I have the composition of what the original song is and I add on top of that with my ideas.” Lee said.
Lee’s music involvement started after his mom signed him up for piano lessons at 7 years old. His interest in music was only piqued further from there. As a member of both his middle school and high school band, Lee learned to play the Baritone and Euphonium. Lee’s involvement and interest in music are applied in other ways besides arranging, such as to his life.
“Arranging music has translated to my daily life. Listening carefully and examining things closely, being free to make changes and taking liberties without the fear of messing up,” Lee said. “Even joining a new club or going to volunteer, anything that’s new to me I have more confidence to do because of arrangements.”
AP Music Theory, a class Lee took his sophomore year, served as a stepping stone towards his hobby. The course teaches different facets of analyzing musical composition and teaches skills such as critical listening and musical notation which are vital to the process of arranging music. Lee also gathered some inspiration from others online who arrange music such as YouTuber, “Animenz.”
“Barron is a very talented musician. He has a strong understanding of all the musical concepts necessary to arrange music. Many of these skills take years or practice to develop. He is ambitious, determined and hardworking. I am very proud of the musician, performer and arranger that he is becoming,” AP Music Theory teacher and band director Katie Takahashi said.
Arranging music is a free flowing hobby with endless possibilities giving Lee a lot of creative freedom. With the liberty of selecting any genre song, making revisions and additions to his musical arrangements, Lee has the opportunity to try new things and have fun. Lee sees himself continuing his musical passion beyond high school and encourages those with the same passion for music to try it as well.
“I plan to continue [arranging] as a hobby, I think I’ll probably be busy with career related stuff, but it essentially will be my escape, to take a break, have fun, and just immerse myself in music,” Lee said. “Anybody can learn how to arrange, it’s all about having the passion for it. That’s the passion that really drives me to create arrangements in the first place. I do it because it’s fun.”
