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If youre just starting out with reading and notating music, your horn players
can also help you get through this hurdle. Most horn players are brought up
reading music, and by working together you can make it happen.
My goal is to keep these tutorials lean and to the point. We are going to only
cover material that is necessary for you to accomplish your goal as a band
leader or singer songwriter. My old teacher back in the day use to say, it
aint rocket science. And he was right, It aint.
As the trumpet line dips into the staff or its middle register, you then have
opportunities to write a 3rd or 6th interval with the tenor sax. If your trumpet,
for most of the arrangement is in the upper part of its range and you would
like to use intervals, switch your sax to an alto or a soprano.
Dont forget that 4th and 5th intervals can be very nice and have a specific
flavor and work well for both rock and jazz.
Trumpet and tenor sax can sound really fat in the staff playing octaves or
unison in the middle of their range. I heard a horn section that was trumpet,
trombone, and baritone sax, and the trumpet never played out of the staff.
With the bone and bari sax it sounded big and fat. High is not always better.
SUGAR
4ths
Octaves
4ths
EXAMPLE #1. This is a 2 part intro with Trumpet and Tenor Sax for the tune Sugar, and
is all over one chord, C7sus. With short burst, the trumpet in the staff, this is writen in
octaves, thirds and fourths . A very stark idea that woks well with this tune.
52nd Street NYC, July 1948
EXAMPLE #2. An arrangement I did for Green Dolphin Street using 5ths. Notice in
the last 2 bars it breaks into octaves for the quick 8th notes. This arrangment plays
at about 140 bpm.
EXAMPLE #3. With quick 8ths and the trumpet above the staff, octaves work nicely.
The last 2 bars could work in 6ths, but I decided on Octaves. Either idea would
work.
GREEN DOLPHIN ST.
EXAMPLE #4. This idea is per fect for octaves with the trumpet popping those double
high C. This idea plays after the DS and fills around the vocal in the last A section.
An idea like this creates excitement.
NOTE: you will find the audio companion to these example on the FSM
website at: http://fredstickleymusic.com/music-tutorials/
SUGAR
Lovely Day
EXAMPLE #6. Heres an example of Flute and Flugel Horn on LOVELY DAY playing in
prime unison.
With 3 horns you can mix up your orchestration a number of ways if you start
incorporating any of the r hythm section. Group your guitar or keyboard with
one of your horns as one section and have your other 2 horns as the other
section. Then have the 2 sections counter or play against each other.
Dont forget that all 3 horns dont always have to be playing. Your 2 tenor
instruments can be active while your trumpet is resting or tacit.
With 3 horns there are some nice linear or contrapuntal ideas you can incorporate. This can be a little bit more involved and well have some examples
of that too.
If youre writing a jazz arrangement with extended har mony, as in, A9(+11)
or A13, it can be more challenging with 3 horns than with 4 or 5. With 4 or 5
horns its obvious that you can cover more notes. This approach will be
easier to show using examples.
EXAMPLE #7. Three part writing with block or closed voicing for trumpet, tenor sax, and
trombone. With the trumpet (the top voice) being in the staff, this works well with two
tenor instruments playing the 2 lower voices. All three play the single note at the start of
each phrase.
EXAMPLE #8. With 2 part writing for 3 horns you can put the treble line in prime unison or
octaves with your trumpet and sax and the trombone playing the bass clef, or you could
flip the sax and bone parts, depending on the sound you want.
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2 Passing - Cmin7
EXAMPLE #11. Bluesette for 3 horns.
This example is a 3 part closed or block voicing. With the top note being the
melody, you just voice down fallowing the intervals of the chord. Notice
the melody notes, G & C on the 2nd beats of bars 1 & 2. They are not in a
Bbmaj7 chord, but are in a Cmin7 chord, the 2 chord in the key of Bb major.
Using the 2 minor chord for your voicing is known as a 2 Passing chord.
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I think the most fun is writing for 4 and 5 parts. Maybe its because when I
first learned how to do this, I wrote for 5 saxes with a piano trio. This would
be a typical sax section in a Big Band. 2 altos, 2 tenors, and a baritone.
One of the challenges in writing for 5 horns is to keep the lower instruments,
in this case, the baritone sax, in a good part of its range. If you always
wrote in a block or closed voicing, your section would start to sound thin
as your top voice played higher. Youll find that your voicing will open and
close slightly through out the phrase.
Lets first talk about a closed or block voicing. Simply put, its voiced from
the top (the melody) down without skipping any of the notes in the chord
like we did in the 3 part example. With 5 parts the top and bottom voice will
mostly be in octaves. So a Fmaj7 chord, with the melody being the A, the
notes following would be, F, E, C and A again. Easy.
EXAMPLE #12. Block or Closed voicing.
All Of Me
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You can open your voicing to various degrees. Depending on how high your
top voice goes, will depend on how much you open the voicing.
The smallest degree of open would be to drop the 2nd note from the top
down an octave and your lowest instrument will then play this note. In this
case our baritone sax. This technique is known as a Drop 2 or A voicing.
In bar 5 there is an A or Drop 2 voicing. The Bb moves down an octave,
and your bari sax will now blend much nicer. I did the same in bar 2 with the
Cmin or the 2 passing chord, dropping the G down an octave.
At bar 8 I used what we call a C Voicing. Since they are ending the phrase
with a held note, its an opportunity to open the voicing up with the lowest
voice playing the root of the chord. Here we have a nice voicing of a Bb13
chord. A great, contemporary sound with the 5th intervals in the voicing.
A good rule of thumb for good voice-leading, is when the melody is moving, make sure the lower instruments are moving as well and arent repeating notes. There are exceptions to this rule, as with most.
Drop 2
C Voicing
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This next technique is like the Drop 2, but now we are going to drop the
2nd and 4th notes from the top down an octave. This technique is known
as a Drop 2-4 or B voicing depending the school you went to. :)
A third technique is a C Voicing or Root Position. These work well on a
held note at the end of a phrase to give you a nice big open voicing with
the root on the bottom.
EXAMPLE #14 Drop 2-4 and C voicing.
#
Drop 2 & 4
C or Open
Drop 2 Voicing
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C or Open Voicing
PASSING CHORDS
There are a handful of techniques you can use for passing chords. You will use passing
chords when the note in the
melody your voicing is not in
the chord. For example, if the
chord is Cmaj7 (C, E, G, B,) and
the note you are voicing is a
D, what chord would you use to
har monize this D?
EXAMPLE #16 You could use a Bbmaj9 chord, but your voice leading may become a problem, which will become more apparent as you continue to move
along to the next voicing. The easiest approach would be to use the 2 chord.
In this case a Cmin7 chord.
BLUSETTE
EXAMPLE #17 Another passing chord is the Diminished Passing. The main
drawback is that diminished chords are a-tonal and dont define a keycenter. They are ambiguous, but they work fine if theyre surrounded by
chords that do define the key center.
Compared to What
G minor
2 Passing
G minor
2 Passing
Diminish
Passing
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Diminish
Passing
B7
C7
B7 C7 C7
F9
B6 C6
E7 F6 E7
F7
E7 F7
Yendi Brass Band. Instructions to a village brass band. Yendi, Togoland 1953
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DOLPHIN DANCE
ALL OF ME
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DS
Repeats
Coda
Double Bar
Repeats
DS al Coda
Repeats
C H A R T L AY O U T
Just as important as voicings, is the look & feel of the chart or music you will
hand the horn player at the session or rehearsal.
To start, a good rule of thumb is to have 4 bars to a stave with the beginning of
a musical section starting at the left end of the staff. Notice in this chart there
seems to be more than 4 bars in a lot of places. Thats because this tune has musical sections that are 6 bars long instead of 4 or 8 bars. You can see in the intro
there are 8 bars with a pickup bar at the beginning. 8 bars can work great if its
easy to read with not a zillion notes cramed together.
The 2nd thing are the rehearsal marks or letters. These are vital in a rehearsal or
studio setting. You can also number your bars, especially good for larger groups. I
think it works best when the rehearsal marks are at the beginning of muscial sections.
So lets read through this song. First we play the intro straight through, then were
on to Letter A where you see the Vocal In. This is very important when working with singers. Sometimes vocalist, because theyre focusing on doing a show,
may not come in at letter A. If they dont, you keep playing the intro until they
do. When the vocalist starts to sing, you are at letter A.
Letter A is the first verse and onto letter B for the chorus. We then see a repeat
at the end of the staff, so we GO BACK to letter A for the 2nd verse. Then when
we hit the repeat after B we continue on to the 4 bar interlude over an Amin7
chord.
Now weve arrive at letter C the bridge. The bridge is in 2 sections, each being
16 bars long. Letter C and letter D. Note the 1st and 2nd Ending at the bottom
of the page. The first time you play letter D, you take the 1st Ending, and the
second time you play letter D you take the 2nd Ending. You then move on to
letters E and F for the solo over Amin7 and the chorus.
The next sign post is the DS al Coda. This is short hand for something in Italian
that I cant remember right now. Anyway, you then skip back to the DS at letter
A for the last verse and chorus and proceed to the Coda, then jump to the
Coda on page 2. Then follow the repeats and endings and finally to the Fermata to end.
I picked this chart for this example because it had a lot of elements that youll
run into when writing a individual horn part.
Regarding the DS al Coda. You will also find alternatives to this sign post. DC will
mean, go to the top and there will be no symbol for this. Sometimes you will see
DC al Fine which means go back to the top and play to the end. There are at
times a double Coda. So there are a few variations to this sign.
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Trumpet
Practically all the trumpets youll be writing for are in the key of Bb. Meaning,
that when the trumpet plays C on the horn, we actually hear a Bb. So if you
want to hear a Bb note, you write a C on the trumpet part. For trumpet, write
everything up 1 whole step from the concert pitch and in the treble clef.
Written
#
#
Sounds/Concert
Total Range
Flugelhorn
Like the trumpet, the flugelhorn is in the key of Bb and their range is similar.
The strength of this instrument is in the staff. For flugelhorn, write everything
up 1 whole step from the concert pitch and in the treble clef.
Written
#
#
Sounds/Concert
Total Range
Trombone
Sounds/Concert
Total Range
Flute.
is in Concert. No transposing, and is written in the treble staff.
Written
Sounds/Concert
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Soprano Saxophone.
Is in Bb, so you transpose up 1 whole step and in the treble staff.
Written
Sounds/Concert
#
#
Total Range
Alto Saxophone
Is in the key of Eb. That would be a major 6th down from C. When an Alto
Sax plays a C, we hear Eb. You transpose the Alto Sax up a major 6th from
the concert pitch, in the treble staff.
##
#
Written
Sounds/Concert
Total Range
Tenor Saxophone.
Is also in the key of Bb. You transpose your tenor sax up a whole step, and
since the tenor is written in treble staff you also need to compensate for this
so an additional octave up is required. You transpose the Tenor Sax up a 9th
and in the treble clef.
#
#
Written
Sounds/Concert
Total Range
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Baritone Saxophone.
Like the Alto sax, the baritone sax is in the key of Eb and since it is written
in treble clef you need to compensate an octave. So a major 6th and an
octave is a 13th. Baritone is transpose up 13th in the treble clef. When you
write your arrangement in concert, the baritone will be written in the bass
clef. When you go to transpose that part, change the key signature and the
bass clef to a treble clef and youre automatically up a 13th.
Written
##
#
Sounds/Concert
Total Range
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