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Thoughts on Arranging Music - My Personal Process Part 2: What is the final result you want?

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To continue where I left off in part 1 of this series on arranging music, I wanted to talk about what the eventual goals of the piece you are trying to arrange are. Why would having goals for your piece be important?  This helps you keep focused on what your final outcome will be.  If you don't maintain this focus, what you can end up with is a result that feels like lots of great parts that could sound good independently, but which collectively don't match very well. How can we go about defining these goals?  While I usually don't write out the goals for my arrangement, I have always taken the time to think about what my goal for the final result is.  Here are some questions I go about asking: -What can I expect the players in my group to be able to do well with as far as key signatures, time signatures, etc.? (see " Thoughts on Arranging Music - My Personal Process Part 1: Who are you writing for? ") -What do I want this arrangement to sound like?  L