{"id":2821,"date":"2016-05-16T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=2821"},"modified":"2017-12-06T14:05:06","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T19:05:06","slug":"music-arrangement-basics-level-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Arrangement Basics: Level of Activity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this six week series on arranging, we aim to help break down arrangement to six\u00a0simple elements that we hope you can apply to your productions. These blogposts are meant to be short, simple and easy to digest with an average reading time of 5 minutes or less for the average producer who has not had any formal music education.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the topics that we are going to cover over the next 6 weeks:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-pitch\/\">Pitch<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-rhythm\/\">Rhythm<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-dynamics\/\">Dynamics<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-timbre\/\">Timbre<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-articulation\/\">Articulation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/\">Level of Activity<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Level of Activity<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><strong>What is activity in music?<\/strong><\/strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2903 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/percussion.jpeg\" alt=\"percussion\" width=\"803\" height=\"562\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 803px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 803\/562;\" \/>\n<ul>\n<li>We would like to assign different sounds \/ instruments a certain level of activity in a music arrangement.<\/li>\n<li>We categorize activity levels into three types: <strong>low<\/strong>, <strong>medium<\/strong>, and <strong>high<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Levels of activity are essentially the <strong>rhythm<\/strong> that an instrument is playing.<\/li>\n<li>Think of activity as a <strong>big picture<\/strong> &#8211; ask yourself, what pulls your ear into your arrangement? The thing that sticks out the most, most likely has the highest level of activity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong><strong>Activity &amp; Music Arrangement<\/strong><\/strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2904 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pexels-photo-63703-large.jpeg\" alt=\"pexels-photo-63703-large\" width=\"890\" height=\"592\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pexels-photo-63703-large.jpeg 890w, https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pexels-photo-63703-large-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pexels-photo-63703-large-768x511.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pexels-photo-63703-large-345x230.jpeg 345w, https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pexels-photo-63703-large-752x500.jpeg 752w, https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pexels-photo-63703-large-250x165.jpeg 250w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 890px) 100vw, 890px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 890px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 890\/592;\" \/>\n<ul>\n<li>Instruments like pads have a low level of activity. There isn&#8217;t much &#8220;movement&#8221; to attract attention and is meant more of a foundation.<\/li>\n<li>However, certain synth lines or arpeggiated synths have\u00a0<strong>high<\/strong> level of activity that often than not attract the listener&#8217;s attention.<\/li>\n<li>Level of activity and\u00a0<strong>tone<\/strong> also go together. If you have a lead line that has a lot of movement, but has a dark tone in the mix, it is just going to create a lot of unnecessary confusion in your arrangement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Practical Applications<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>When starting out an arrangement, think of your musical form and which instrument or part should take the highest level of activity.<\/li>\n<li>Should that be the melody? hook? a cool synth part?<\/li>\n<li>Bring instruments \/ parts forward or backward by giving them different levels of activity. Control what you want your listener to hear.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\">Splice offers <strong>unlimited backups<\/strong>, <strong>version control<\/strong>, and a whole community of producers sharing their work for <strong>free<\/strong>. We support Logic X, Garageband, FL Studio and Ableton Live. To get started, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/accounts\/sign_up\">sign up here<\/a><\/strong>!<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this six week series on arranging, we aim to help break down arrangement to six\u00a0simple elements that we hope you can apply to your productions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":2902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1696],"tags":[488,1643,1638,1633],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Music Arrangement Basics: Level of Activity - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this six week series on arranging, we aim to help break down arrangement to six\u00a0simple elements that we hope you can apply to your productions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Music Arrangement Basics: Level of Activity - Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this six week series on arranging, we aim to help break down arrangement to six\u00a0simple elements that we hope you can apply to your productions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-16T19:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-06T19:05:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/level-of-activity.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Reuben Raman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Reuben Raman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Reuben Raman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5b95047d3e22c858ac5fb737a6e350b8\"},\"headline\":\"Music Arrangement Basics: Level of Activity\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-16T19:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-06T19:05:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/level-of-activity.png\",\"keywords\":[\"arrangement\",\"arrangement basics\",\"beginner\",\"composition\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Tips &amp; Tutorials\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/music-arrangement-basics-level-activity\/\",\"name\":\"Music Arrangement Basics: Level of Activity - 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