#000449
Arranging Songs: How to Put the Parts Together
Rikky Rooksby
*Arranging Songs* tackles the stage of music-making that too many how-to books skip: once you have a song, how do you actually build it into a finished recording? Rikky Rooksby—a prolific British writer of songwriting and guitar guides—walks through the essentials of arrangement, from grouping instruments effectively and layering parts to using multitrack recording, achieving a good mix, and coaxing unusual results out of ordinary techniques. It's aimed at the home-studio songwriter as much as the band, and it comes with a CD demonstrating the techniques so you can hear, not just read about, the difference an arrangement makes. Rooksby writes clearly and unpretentiously, with the practical bent of someone who has spent a lot of time with a guitar and a recording setup. For anyone whose demos sound thin or cluttered and who wants to understand why, it's a focused, genuinely helpful guide.
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The author
Rikky Rooksby is a British guitarist, composer, and prolific writer on popular music, author of a long shelf of practical books—on songwriting, chord technique, and the craft of specific artists—alongside countless tutor books and articles. He writes for the working amateur and semi-professional musician, with an emphasis on getting real results.
The book
Published by Backbeat Books (2007), Arranging Songs: How to Put the Parts Together is a manual for turning a written song into a satisfying recording. It covers arranging essentials: grouping instruments effectively, layering parts artfully, using multitrack recording, achieving a good mix, and creating unusual arrangements from common techniques. An accompanying CD lets the reader hear each technique in action.
How to use it
This is a hands-on reference for the home-studio era, best read with an instrument and recording software close by. Its strength is filling the gap between "I've written a song" and "I've made a record"—the arranging decisions that separate a flat demo from a finished track. Practical and clearly organized, it rewards experimentation more than passive reading.
For more context
It complements Rooksby's own songwriting guides and general books on home recording and mixing.
Sources - Internet Archive - Boosey & Hawkes
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Rikky Rooksby
- Publisher
- Backbeat Books
- Year
- 2007
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado