Feature | House Arrangements
Learn how to structure a great house track with our 6-step guide
A AND B SECTIONS
1 Houseas a genre is a little more ‘song’ focused than loop-focused techno or DnB, which puts a lot of emphasis on builds and drops. While your track doesn’t necessarily need full verses and choruses, before tackling an arrangement for your house track it’s worth developing at least two distinct sections, labelled A and B.
These should be variations on one another, giving you two versions of your main hook to switch between to keep the listener interested. If the main emphasis is a sampled vocal, try using two different looped lines or phrases to make different sections. If your track is built around a distinctive riff or progression, try swapping the instrument in the second section or inverting its direction so the notes progress down the scale rather than up (or vice versa).
SUBTRACTING
2 Anyarrangement tutorial will mention the ‘subtractive’ method of turning an eightor 16-bar loop into a full track. To recap, you simply lay all of your elements out across your arrange page for the requisite number of minutes – in this case your full A and B sections – then delete parts until you’re left with a typical dance track structure. The idea is that it’s far easier to chip away from something instead of staring at a blank canvas, which is certainly true.
It’s a tantalisingly simple approach, but while it does work, you still have to ‘patch up’ transitions to fill in gaps between sections, otherwise you can be left with a somewhat generic, eJay-style ‘block-based’ arrangement. What this approach also misses is that sometimes there’s a lot of mileage in
keeping your arrangement interesting by swapping like-for-like elements, rather than simply removing them. For example, switching an open hi-hat for a ride cymbal playing the same pattern, or trading piano chords for a synth pad.
BASIC STRUCTURE
3 Whatshould your house arrangement look like? There are no hard and fast rules, and you should defer to what feels right, rather than try to force your ideas to fit a specific template. That said, the following format makes a good starting point: Intro section > build-up > first breakdown > main A/B sections > second breakdown > main A/B sections > outro
Let’s look at this piece-by-piece. The intro (discussed below) is a stripped-back section making it easy for DJs to mix into your track. The build-up is an evolution of this, introducing elements such as percussion and bass, without revealing the full impact of the track.
The first breakdown is generally shorter than the second. It’s a moment to pull things back to create extra impact when your main ‘A’ section is introduced. You might choose to cut the kick and/or bass here, and insert an element that leads into your main section, lik
