Tim Allen’s Music Library

Tim’s arrangements are all about letting the song shine. For well-known pop and rock tracks, this means “getting out of the way” and just letting the song speak for itself – trying to keep rhythms and vocal inflections as close to the original as possible, whilst making them work for a collection of singers rather than a soloist. For simpler, more traditional songs, some additional “flair” is added to bring new life and a new dimension to well-worn favourites. Tim cares deeply about the “singability” of each line – in fact, after writing the first draft of each arrangement, he will go through and sing each line from start to finish, and if there’s anything that feels awkward to sing, he’ll revise it until it’s a pleasing, musical line. This doesn’t mean his arrangements are simplistic – his philosophy is that if we have high expectations of our singers, and provide the necessary support, they can soar. The vocal ranges he writes for are reasonably wide, but achievable by a community choir with good vocal training (sopranos to high G, occasional G#, altos from low F# or so to C or occasional C#, tenors from around C to high G, basses low F to high D – some arrangements split sopranos and/or altos, to avoid extremes of range for the whole section). Some of Tim’s arrangements work equally well with piano accompaniment or backing track, and some are designed for backing track only (backing tracks are available for these arrangements).