FRED STICKLEY MUSIC

JAZZ & ROCK & ROLL HORNSA simple approach to arranging horns for your jazz or rock&roll band

I know there are many of you who would love to add horns to your band or original music, and would like a simple, straight forward approach. After looking around on the web for any information or tutorials on writing for spe-cifically a horn section, I found very little, and what I did find was in bits and pieces. Having a horn section in your rock, r&b, or jazz group can really enhance your music, and add to your l ive per formance. How many times have I heard, I love horns when folks in the crowd see my trumpet and sax player setting up their gear.

This tutorial wil l start with writing a part arrangement for trumpet and tenor sax or flugelhorn and flute. We will then move on to 3 part writing for trum-pet, tenor sax, and trombone, and eventually 4 and 5 part writing. As we move along, it wil l be necessary for us to get into a little more advanced harmony.

We will also cover chart prepa-ration. How to transpose for the different instruments and the best way to lay out your chart. In addition we will cover dynam-ic markings, articulations, DSs, Codas, and rehearsal marks. These are all very important ele-ments so that your arrangement will get played properly without wasting precious rehearsal or studio time. Some knowledge of chords and harmony will be helpful and there are some web-sites out there that can help you with this.

ABC studio, New York, NY

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.

JAZZ & ROCK & ROLL HORNS

3WRITING FOR PART HORNS

I currently have two horns in my jazz group, trumpet and tenor sax, and would like to start there. Writing for horns is much different then writing for 3, 4, or 5 horns and not for the obvious reasons. In some respects larger groups are easier to write for depending on style. Your ideas for your arrangement will be determined by how many horns you are writing for.

Before you start writing your arrangement, have your chord changes set on what you want. The chords for your song will dictate your voicings. You will first write the trumpet part since it is typically the top note of your voicing for most situations. When writing for any combination of brass or wind instru-ments you always want to voice from the top down.

In many situations you will write for trumpet and tenor sax in octaves, par-ticularly when the trumpet is playing in its higher register above the staff. If you were to write a 3rd interval specifically with the tenor sax, it wil l sound thin.

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 bet-ter.

The Sean+Fred Show Sextet at Ivories Jazz Lounge, Portland OR 2013

Octaves 4ths

4ths

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EXAMPLE #. An arrangement I did for Green Dolphin Street using 5ths. Notice in the last bars it breaks into octaves for the quick 8th notes. This arrangment plays at about 140 bpm.

EXAMPLE #1. This is a 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.

SUGAR

GREEN DOLPHIN ST.

5nd Street NYC, July 1948

5EXAMPLE #3. With quick 8ths and the trumpet above the staff, octaves work nicely. The last bars could work in 6ths, but I decided on Octaves. Either idea would work.

EXAMPLE #4. This idea is per fect for octaves with the trumpet popping those double high C. This idea plays after the DS and fi l ls around the vocal in the last A section. An idea like this creates excitement.

GREEN DOLPHIN ST.

GREEN DOLPHIN ST.

NOTE: you will find the audio companion to these example on the FSM website at: http://fredstickleymusic.com/music-tutorials/

6EXAMPLE #5. A combination of octaves and intervals throughout this example of SUGAR with chord changes on every bar with the horns fi l ing around the vocal.

Chicago Horns 2006

SUGAR

Lovely Day

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My trumpet player doubles on flugelhorn and my sax player doubles on flute. Flute and flugelhorn work well together and will give you a whole new color to use in your group.

First I write out what my flute will play since its usually the top voice in this scenario and will write the flugelhorn under the flute in octaves or intervals. Since the flute and flugelhorn both have higher ranges than a tenor sax, you could write 3rd and 6th interval a lot higher in the staff. Also, prime unison and 3rds in the staff sound very nice with these instruments.

Try mixing your unisons and octaves with intervals. Weve all heard this done many times where the horns play a line in octaves or unison and then at the end of the phrase they will play a held note which is then voiced in 3rds, a 6th or a 5th. Mixing things up like this is very effective and sounds fantastic with 4 and 5 horns bursting into a big fat voicing.

EXAMPLE #6. Heres an example of Flute and Flugel Horn on LOVELY DAY playing in prime unison.

8WRITING FOR 3 PART HORNS

Just adding an 3rd horn to your l ineup opens up a whole new world of possibil it ies.

You can now have triads instead of intervals, using closed and open voicing. You can divide the horn section into groups, working your tenor instruments against your trumpet, or, while one of you horns is solo-ing, the other two can comp in intervals.

The Tower of Power Saxes. Oregon Zoo, 2007

With 3 horns you can mix up your orchestration a number of ways if you start incorporating any of the rhythm section. Group your guitar or keyboard with one of your horns as one section and have your other horns as the other section. Then have the sections counter or play against each other.

Dont forget that all 3 horns dont always have to be playing. Your 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 incor-porate. This can be a little bit more involved and well have some examples of that too.

If youre writing a jazz arrangement with extended harmony, 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.

9EXAMPLE #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 lower voices. All three play the single note at the start of each phrase.

EXAMPLE #8. With 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 fl ip the sax and bone parts, depending on the sound you want.

THE ODD COUPLE

THE ODD COUPLE ending/coda

Twilight Club 1956Pensacola, Florida

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EXAMPLE #9. Three Time Blueser #1This is an example of 3 voices that I transcribed from a big band album by composer, Elmer Bernstein. On his original version the treble line was played by trumpet and trombone and the bass clef was played by the tenor and baritone saxes. When I was putting my sextet book together for 3 horns and piano trio, I copied the orchestration of the original version with just one instrument on each note instead of the 4 or 5 in a typical big band. Currently we are doing this tune with only trumpet and sax so I had them play the treble line and the rhythm section plays the bass l ine. You can actually orchestrate this example a multiple of ways.

EXAMPLE #10. Heres a bluesy thing in 3/4 where the trumpet and sax play a slightly varied idea in the treble staff with a little contrary motion. In the bass clef the trombone is playing a 1 bar pattern with the rhythm section. For a different color you could fl ip the sax and trombone parts and it would sti l l work.

3 Time Bluser, Elmer Bernstein

3 Time Bluser, cont

Passing - Cmin7

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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 nd beats of bars 1 & . They are not in a Bbmaj7 chord, but are in a Cmin7 chord, the chord in the key of Bb major. Using the minor chord for your voicing is known as a Passing chord.

Toms Tavern club at Gonzalez & Railroad St. Pensacola, Florida.1956.

Bluesette, Toots Thieleman

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WRITING FOR 4 & 5 PART HORNS

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. altos, 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 #1. Block or Closed voicing. All Of Me

Drop C Voicing

Passing

Bluestte

EXAMPLE #13. Five part voicing.

You can open your voicing to various degrees. Depending on how high your top voice goes, wil l depend on how much you open the voicing.

The smallest degree of open would be to drop the nd 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 or A voicing.

In bar 5 there is an A or Drop voicing. The Bb moves down an octave, and your bari sax will now blend much nicer. I did the same in bar with the Cmin or the 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 mov-ing, make sure the lower instruments are moving as well and arent repeat-ing notes. There are exceptions to this rule, as with most.

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Drop & 4

#

C or Open

Block or Closed Voicing Drop Voicing Drop -4 Voicing C or Open Voicing

This next technique is l ike the Drop , but now we are going to drop the nd and 4th notes from the top down an octave. This technique is known as a Drop -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 -4 and C voicing.

EXAMPLE #15 Here is a quick review of our voic-ings simply laid out. Block or Closed, Drop , Drop &$, Open or C voicing.

Around For the Fall, by FS

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The Passing Chord

G minor Passing

Diminish Passing

G minor Passing

Diminish Passing

There are a handful of tech-niques you can use for pass-ing 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 harmonize this D?

EXAMPLE #17 Another passing chord is the Diminished Passing. The main drawback is that diminished chords are a-tonal and dont define a key-center. They are ambiguous, but they work fine if theyre surrounded by chords that do define the key center.

BLUSETTE

PASSING CHORDS

Riverboat on the Hudson, N.Y., ca. July 1947

Compared to What

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EXAMPLE #16 You could use a Bbmaj9 chord, but your voice leading may be-come 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 chord. In this case a Cmin7 chord.

B7 C7 B7 C7 C7 B6 C6

Gb7 G7 Gb7 G7 Gb7 G7

F9 E7 F6 E7 F7 E7 F7

Yendi Brass Band. Instructions to a vil lage brass band. Yendi, Togoland 1953

EXAMPLE #18 Half Step Slide.is just what it implies. You move your voicing a half step up or down de-pending. This works great for blues as in this example.

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Root & 6th

Root & 13th

Free Lead

EXAMPLE #19 Free LeadThis is an example of a Free Lead where the top voice plays the melody while the lower voices comp the changes. This works great when there are quick 8th or 16th note triplets that would be too heavy to voice for the whole section. In this example we are just playing 8ths. Notice how its close voicing in bar 1 and goes to a C voicing or open voicing in bars & 4.

DOLPHIN DANCE

EXAMPLE #0. Six For Major 7thWhen your root is in the melody and the chord is a Major 7th or 1 chord, your nd voice from the top would not play the major 7 because of the 1/ step between the root and the major 7th. You would have your nd voice play the 6th. For a dominant 7th chord this would be the 6th or 13th instead of flat seven (b7).

ALL OF ME

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Repeats

DS

Rehearsal Letters or Marks

Coda

1st & nd EndingsRepeats

Double Bar

DS al Coda

Repeats

1st & nd Endings Fermata (birds eye)the big note at the end :)

I LOVE YOU MORE, by FS

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 mu-sical 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 nd 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 sec-tions.

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 work-ing 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 nd 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 sections, each being 16 bars long. Letter C and letter D. Note the 1st and nd 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 nd 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 . Then follow the repeats and endings and finally to the Fer-mata 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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TRANSPOSING & PREPARING YOUR PARTSI would first suggest writing your arrangement in concert pitch on a stave system, treble and bass clef. Like for piano. Most of your big composers and conductors l ike to use a transpose score, but for starters it might be easier for you to see and learn what youre doing if you write out your arrange-ment in concert pitch. Most brass and wind instruments are not written in Concert. When someone speaks of Concert pitch, thats the actual note we hear. First, make sure to write out all your chord symbols above the bar so you can see what youre voicing to.

Key Signature.When copying your charts, the first thing you need to do when transposing your parts is to change the key signature. For example, if youre transposing for the Alto Sax and the key of your arrangement in is C (no sharps or flats) you would first write the key signature for A major, which is 3 sharps and up a 6th interval. Everything now should work out beautifully. If there are acci-dentals on the arrangement there will be on the transposed parts.

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1902, Lraeytaraflag Reykjavkur framan vi Barnasklann vi Tjrnina.

TrumpetPractically 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.

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# #

Total Range

Most Effective Range

Written

Sounds/Concert

Written

Sounds/Concert Most Effective Range

Total Range

FlugelhornLike 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.

# #

Total Range

Written

Sounds/Concert Most Effective Range

Tromboneis in Concert pitch. No transposing, and is written in the bass clef.

Flute.is in Concert. No transposing, and is written in the treble staff.

Written

Sounds/Concert

# #

Most Effective Range

Total Range

Written

Sounds/Concert

Soprano Saxophone.Is in Bb, so you transpose up 1 whole step and in the treble staff.

# #

Written

Sounds/Concert

Total Range

Most Effective Range

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#Written

Sounds/ConcertMost Effective Range

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.

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.

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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.

##

#

Total Range

Most Effective Range

Written

Sounds/Concert

The SEAN+FRED Show Sextet 2013

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Staccato = played short

Tenuto = played long - its full value. Martellato = with an accent, played short

Marcato = with an accent, played long

Crescendo = gradually increase volume

Decreascendo = gradually decrease volume Legato = smooth and connected

Glissando = glide from one pitch to another.

Fall = a Jazz articulation meaning to play a note and then a random selection of notes descending in pitch.

Fermata: held beyond the written value at the discretion of the performer.

Forzando: loud accent followed by a soft to loud crescendo.

Dynamics and Articulations.If you just write a few notes on the page, this only tells the player the pitch and the rhythm of the phrase. In addition, they need to know how loud the note is played. Is it played short or long or accented, with a cresendo? Tell-ing the musician how to play the notes is important and will make all the difference in your music. Nuance is everything.

This handful of articulations are what I use 99% of the time and there are many more.

At a session or rehearsal, articulations are easy to play around with and your horn players can help you with this. Tweaking is cool, just l ike with your rhythm section. In a rehearsal I wil l make minor adjustments to the score. Tak-ing notes out, changing a short note for a long note. These kinds of adjust-ments are quick because you are using charts with rehearsal marks.

Dynamic Marking = degrees of volume

I hope what youve learned in this tutorial wil l be useful. These are only techniques. The challenge is to make music. Keep in mind to not OVER-WRITE and is so easy to do. Most of my charts take a few tweaks after the first run through with real play-ers and I mostly take out notes. Hardly do I ever add, unless Ive changed the idea or concept.

I would try not to first write your chart to a midi track before hearing it with real play-ers. Midi tracks can deceive you when writ-ing your arrangement. You will never get the nuance of real players, playing real horns. Midi can give you a general idea, but some parts that work, or dont for midi, may, or may not work with real horns. Expression, dynamics, and nuance count for a lot in weather an idea you have works.

Without picking up an instrument, think about where and how the horns would work in your song. Would you have the horns on the chorus for a nice build, and maybe add something small to the nd or 3rd verse? If I add horns to the bridge should it contrast the horns on the chorus? This is the kind of stuff I think about when I walk my dogs. I dont know the exact notes, but I Know the sound I want, and that will tell me the range the horn will be played. Low and droning, or high a spicy?

This is the kind of thing you can get good at with practice, and theres noth-ing wrong with re-writing your chart. I think Mozart and maybe one other Russia dude could get it right the first time. Beethoven re-wrote a ton. If youre consistently working with a couple horn players it can be a lot of fun. Try different combinations. Remember the band, WAR? Their horn section was harmonica and alto sax. What a great sound that was!

Please be in touch and let me know whats going on with you or any feed-back you may have.

Ok, lets make music.

FSFRED STICKLEY MUSIC

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