An array of different musical instruments are pictured, showcasing which ones you might use if you are arranging a song.

What is Arranging in Music? 8 Courses to Help You Get Started

Before you learn how to write a musical arrangement—and start to figure out what kind of arranging course you might want to take—you must first understand what arranging is. Here is a primer!

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A group of five strings musicians performing at night on the sidewalk next to a police car and "do not cross" tape.

Autumn Maria Reed Fights Gun Violence with Music

Berklee Online alum Autumn Maria Reed shares about her experience as a first-responder musician for the Black String Triage Ensemble in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Person practicing orchestration by writing on sheet music with piano in the background

Orchestration: How to Write for an Orchestra

“It is assumed that, if you can write for orchestra, you can write for anything.” An agent once told me that, and I took it to heart so much that I wrote two courses to help you get where you need to be with orchestration. Here is an excerpt.

A violinist playing a music arrangement in an orchestra.

Melodic Shapes in Music Arranging

Music arranger Jerry Gates explains how to create music arrangements for linear, circular, and square melodic shapes in this excerpt from his course “Arranging: Woodwinds and Strings.”

Budapest Scoring Orchestra Brings Life to Student Film Scores from Across the Ocean

Behind the scenes with four Berklee Online Film Scoring grad students, who recently got to serve as music directors while an orchestra in Budapest performed scores the students had written.

How Student Shelbie Rassler Created the Viral “What the World Needs Now” Video

Shelbie Rassler, a senior composition student at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and a Berklee Online student, orchestrated a video of 75 of her peers performing “What the World Needs Now.” She shares how she did it.

Soul Rebels on New Orleans, Collaborations, and Challenging What it Means to be a Brass Band

Lumar LeBlanc, Julian Gosin, and Marcus Hubbard, three generations of the New Orleans band Soul Rebels discuss hometown sounds, what it’s like to keep a band together for 30 years, and backing up the likes of Katy Perry, Nas, and Metallica.

5 Skills You Need to Become a Music Arranger

Berklee Online music arrangement course instructor and author Jerry Gates shares five tips to help you become a music arranger.

Pedro Osuna conducting at Berklee College of Music.

Pedro Osuna’s Berklee Journey Began with a Free Video

Pedro Osuna, a graduate of Berklee College of Music’s Film Scoring program, began his Berklee journey as a teenager in Granada, Spain with Berklee Online’s massive open online courses.

Jon Kull on Orchestrating Some of Hollywood’s Biggest Blockbuster Movies

You know who Jon Kull is, even if you don’t know that you know who he is. You’ve heard his orchestrations in films like all of the “Hunger Games” movies, “King Kong,” “Avatar,” “Black Panther,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” and so many more.