For Orchestra #25: The Roots ‘Seed 2.0′
“I would name her Rock-N-Roll”
I love hip hop, and always wanted to arrange a song from that genre for a while now. I met Questlove outside of a party I was asked to attended a few weeks ago. As we were talking, he seemed interested in ‘For Orchestra’ and replied “Do any song, I’ll leave it up to you”. So I asked all of you, in which Seed 2.0 was the winner – so here it is:
Preview!
Buy It!As you all may know, I grew up in Philadelphia – and similar to my Bon Jovi arrangement, doing another local group, like The Roots, is always fun! I really enjoy this song’s melody and simplicity – yet wanted to grow upon that when done for orchestra. The Roots have grown a lot, and there were a ton of other songs I would like to do. I saw them a few weeks ago with David Chaitt as the house band for The Jimmy Fallon Show, and was amazed as always. The show was cool too!
The beginning chord progression was the perfect setup for the flutes, and the staccato trumpets were used for the punctured and sharp attacks by Black Thought’s style. This song also has an appearance by Cody ChesnuTT for the prechorus – in which his style is more relaxed, so I felt the violins would be great for that. I added a lot of counter melodies underneath the piece, which created a sense of crescendo and tension throughout.
My favorite part is at 2:40 – I drop everything out and only leave the flutes exposed. Having sections play alone are the most powerful part of music – because there is power in silence, and the chorus was a great place to achieve that. To finish the piece, I made a loud crescendo with everything playing in order to contrast the ‘light’ introduction that started. I hope I made it Rock and Roll.
Feel free to check out my music, or at least spreading it on Twitter, Facebook, or email.You can suggest songs via Twitter using Hashtag #ForOrchestra
Thanks for the support! Feel free to join the Awesome List!. You all rock (and roll!)
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