A Cappella Arranging (Music Pro Guides)

Since I’m learning to arrange acappella and a cappella. Insightful, practical, no time wasted, never dull. Assumes you can arrange SATB for grade 5 theory or thereabouts, but there’s still plenty of how as well as why.

If you want to dig into a Cappella arranging for groups of various types, sizes and vocal ranges, this is the book you need!

It is a amaizing work about Capella Music!A work done to delight the desires of musicians.Deke was perfect and thorough as always.

A very comprehensive book on anyone wanting to dig in more into the world of A Capella singing which in my opinion is very useful especially when there are no accompanying musical instruments. This book is like a complete course in itself. Highly recommended.

What can be said. This book is the book I had been looking for throughout my entire time in college a cappella! I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in arranging for a cappella groups or even for people who are just participating in an a cappella group--the knowledge provided in this book is useful for either. Deke Sharon and Dylan Bell did a great job explaining the (sometimes) overwhelming process of arranging and giving their own personal insights into the creative process. Whether you are a beginning arranger or a seasoned composer looking to learn more about a new genre, this book is extremely helpful!The book starts with the 10 basic steps of arranging. This alone blew my mind a few times. Oftentimes, my peers and I would have an idea of a great song that we would want to arrange, but more often than not, we had no idea of where to begin. This lead to many frustrated potential arrangers and some pretty basic transcriptions of songs. The 10 basic steps provide another way of approaching arranging and working through the process, which is truly invaluable to the beginner arranger.They go on to explain the very basics of what arranging is and the different types of arrangements. They provide exercises to give the beginner arranger a way to start developing the skills needed such as simple voice leading, developing an inner ear, and outlining the basic ranges of the different voice types. Now these are not exhaustive lists and examples that one might find in a collegiate music textbook, but they are enough for someone who is just starting out. They are also a well-said, succinct overview for those who may have more musical training under their belt.Deke and Dylan then go on to expand upon the 10 Basic Steps by going into further detail for each step. All of which is broken up into easy-to-understand sections. In each chapter, they give exercises to help develop and implement these steps into the readers own work. They also provide their own personal processes by explaining their use of the 10 steps in their own arrangements. These arrangements are given in their entirety in the appendices of the book. This is truly an invaluable resource to have--being able to get into the mind of the composer/arranger is insanely helpful in understanding the process outlined in these chapters. I found myself flipping back and forth between the appendices and the chapters frequently!The book goes on the discuss various "Advanced Topics" such as arranging for other voice formats (TTBB, SSAA, etc.), Vocal Percussion, writing medleys, and even a "How-To" History of A Cappella, which goes through various styles and is, again, insanely helpful. These chapters can totally be used as a reference for the experienced composer or arranger who wants to get their hands dirty in A Cappella arranging.Though I am no longer in my collegiate a cappella group anymore, this book has informed my current work and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the subject. I will definitely be buying this for the music directors of my former group as an Enchiridion of sorts to be passed down from music director to music director.Thank you Deke and Dylan for this wonderful resource!