*** Proof of Product ***
Exploring the Essential Features of “Arranging Contemporary Musical Theatre: Storytelling with Music – Brian Usifer”
Learn how to discover musical ideas that support and enhance the storytelling in the song. In this class, Brian Usifer takes you through his process of arranging contemporary musical theatre songs from the perspective of storytelling while combining modern pop production techniques. Follow along as he takes two songs from the composer’s demo to fully produced, story-driven arrangements.
What’s included:
- In-depth video lessons (8h 40m)
- Step-by-step curriculum
Taught by
Brian Usifer
Broadway musician from A Beautiful Noise: the Neil Diamond Musical, Disney’s Frozen, and Tony and Grammy Award winning The Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots.
What you’ll learn
- Dramatically Analyze Songs To Understand Story Of the Song and Goals Of the CharactersÂ
- Map Out Basic Piano Arrangements
- Choosing the Best Sounds That Support the Story
- Layering Sounds To Create Texture and Builds
- Writing Keyboard, Bass, Guitar, Drum Parts
- Taking Notes From the Composer
- Vocal Production and Editing
- MIDI Editing and Cleanup
- EQ, Compression, Reverb
- Mixing
- Polishing and Finalizing Tracks
Class Overview
Become a better storyteller with your arrangements
Brian Usifer is an Arranger, Orchestrator and Music Director from Broadway musicals such as A Beautiful Noise: the Neil Diamond Musical, Disney’s Frozen and Tony and Grammy Award winning musicals The Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots. He’s created new musicals with Huey Lewis, The Avett Brothers, Florida Georgia Line, Lamont Dozier and many more. In this class, he’s going to teach you how he approaches arranging contemporary musical theatre songs by using musical ideas to enhance and clarify the storytelling. He’ll show you how he analyzes a song dramatically and figure out what the story is and how it can be supported musically. He’ll then apply that analysis to real decisions about build, texture, and instrumentation. During the class, Brian brings you into the studio and shares his entire creative process from start to finish. You’ll follow along as he arranges two songs in Logic, starting from a composer’s demo, all the way through a fully arranged and produced track. Along the way, he explains everything that he is doing. His thought processes, his techniques, the exact sounds and plugins he’s using. He’ll explain every idea, decision, and tool that he uses. With this approach, your arrangements will not only be more effective at storytelling, but they will sound more like actual pop songs than if you had used traditional arranging techniques. By the end of the class, you’ll know everything you need to be a better musical storyteller as an Arranger, Orchestrator, or Music Director.
Lessons (15)
1. Welcome Video
2. Lesson 1: “You Got This” Plot, Characters & Story
3. Lesson 2: “You Got This” Basic Piano Arrangement
4. Lesson 3: “You Got This” Choosing a Palate
5. Lesson 4: “You Got This” Piano, Bass, Drums
6. Lesson 5: “You Got This” Guitars and Keyboards
7. Lesson 6: “You Got This” Cleanup and Notes
8. Lesson 7: “You Got This” Mix and Export
9. Lesson 8: “Off the Map” Plot, Characters & Story
10. Lesson 9: “Off the Map” Basic Piano Arrangement
11. Lesson 10: “Off the Map” Choosing a Palate
12. Lesson 11: “Off the Map” Drums, Bass, Lead Guitar
13. Lesson 12: “Off the Map” Strings
14. Lesson 13: “Off the Map” Cleanup & Notes
15. Lesson 14: “Off the Map” Mix & Export
Apply what you learn
Follow Brian Usifer’s proven process, step by step
In the class, Brian Usifer breaks down his contemporary musical theatre arranging process into clear, actionable steps. Follow along with Brian’s process step-by-step and arrange your own songs. You can also watch his process in full first and then bring the ideas, tools, and techniques into your own projects.
Who’s this class for?
1. Arrangers and Orchestrators looking to explore how storytelling can influence and enhance your writing, and how working in a DAW using pop production techniques can make your work sound more modern and contemporary.
2. Music Directors looking to get insight into how to dramatically analyze a song and how that analysis can carry into the arrangement and orchestration.
3. Musicians who are interested in how songs are arranged and how a modern production approach can influence the parts they are asked to play.
Meet your instructor
Brian Usifer
Brian Usifer is a New York City based Arranger, Orchestrator, Music Director, Pianist, Producer and Composer. As an orchestrator and arranger, Brian’s projects have included A Beautiful Noise: the Neil Diamond Musical on Broadway, The Heart of Rock and Roll with music by Huey Lewis at the Old Globe, Swept Away with music by the Avett Brothers at Berkeley Rep, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money with music by Motown legend Lamont Dozier at The Atlantic Theatre, May We All featuring the music of Florida Georgia Line and other country stars, Afterwords at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Into the Wild by Niko Tsakalakos and Janet Allard, A View From The River by Will Van Dyke and Jeff Talbott, Fantasy Football: the Musical?, by David Ingber, Pool Boy by Niko Tsakalakos and Janet Allard, The UnCivil War by Rick Kunzi, Barnstormer by Douglas Cohen and The First Snow by Niko Tsakalakos. Additional shows in development include Galileo featuring music by Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak with a book by Danny Strong, and Hearts Beat Loud by Ngozi Anyanwu and Niko Tsakalakos. He was the Music Director of Disney’s Frozen on Broadway and he is currently the Associate Music Supervisor of The Book of Mormon on Broadway. Prior to that he was the Music Director of Kinky Boots on Broadway, which won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Orchestrations. The cast recording won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album and the West End production won an Olivier Award for Best Musical. He was the Associate Music Supervisor as well for Kinky Boots on Tour, London and in Toronto. Brian has played in the Broadway and off-Broadway orchestras of …Spelling Bee, Avenue Q, Altar Boyz, Bloodsong of Love: A Rock & Roll Spaghetti Western, and The Book of Mormon. Other theatre credits also include Chess at the Kennedy Center and more than 5 years of regional theatre including Follies at Barrington Stage Co. Concerts include Bobby and Kristen Lopez: American Songbook at Lincoln Center, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, and Clay Aiken “Tried and True,” for PBS. On TV, he wrote additional orchestrations for NBC’s Annie Live, The Wiz Live, and can be heard as a pianist on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon. As a music producer, his credits include a songwriting collaboration with Colin Donnell called The Nineteen Twenty. Their album, Chaos + Cocktails. Other albums include The First Snow (Niko Tsakalakos), Archetype (Jonathan Reid Gealt), Reflect (Tom Kitt), A View From the River (Will Van Dyke) upcoming May We All, and many more. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from SUNY Fredonia, and a Masters degree in Collaborative Piano from NYU, with a Specialist Certificate in Orchestration from Berklee Online, and is currently a professor at Berklee NYC.
A better kind of online class
- Apprenticeship-Style Learning ™
In Studio Classes, creators take you into their studios and teach you everything they actually do behind the scenes. Learn by observing the real process like an apprentice. - The Start-To-Finish Process
Instead of watching surface level tutorials, watch the entire start-to-finish process of a creator to uncover every idea, decision, tool, and technique used throughout their journey. - Learn Insider Secrets
On Studio, accessing the world’s guarded knowledge has never been easier. Creators share their secrets, tips and tricks that are impossible to find elsewhere.Â
Please see the full list of alternative group-buy courses available here: https://lunacourse.com/shop/
