def parse_component(component):
    """Parse the component coming from the .yaml file.

    Args:
        component (str or dict): Can be either a str, or a dictionary.
            Comes from the .yaml config file. If it is a string,
            simply return, since its the component name without arguments.
            Otherwise, parse.

    Returns:
        tuple: tuple containing:
            str: name of the method to be called from sound.Waveform
            dict: arguments to be unpacked. None if no arguments to
                compute.
    """
    if isinstance(component, str):
        return component, None
    elif isinstance(component, dict):
        component_name = list(component.keys())[0]
        # component[component_name] is a dictionary of arguments.
        arguments = component[component_name]
        return component_name, arguments
    else:
        raise ValueError("Argument to the parse_component function must be str or dict.")