The book deals with various techniques that may be used to jet the jazz composer out of the block-chorded four-to-the-bar convention. It has served us well and, hopefully, will continue to do so but there’s more to life than that. There’s an extended look at form and the serial development of rhythmic patterns; the capabilities […]
Month: February 2013
Quartet arrangements
Lately, I’ve been looking at some of my scores to investigate the possibility of adapting them to brass and saxophone quartets. It’s far easier to sell such arrangements if they’re part of a collection or series. Some are adapting easily but others require considerable rewriting. The tendency for small band parts to switch suddenly from […]
Score layout: instrumental parts
There’s a vast store of information on every subject readily available out there on the WWW. Added to this, colleges and universities have risen to the challenge of preparing the next generation for the bitterly fought battles of contemporary life. These blogs are drawn from years of (sometimes painful) experience and are intended to supplement […]
Beefing up on the trombone
The trombone, in one form or another, already gets a good look over in the book, not out of favouritism (I’m a bass trombonist) but because the instrument is unique in its construction and is often misunderstood, even by experienced arrangers. Arrangements often call for impossible slide ‘smears’. (Trombonists often call them ‘glisses’.) Smears are […]
