Addison Road

Things I keep forgetting when arranging for brass, as a keyboardist:

1. On a keyboard, the higher the notes go, the softer they sound. On a brass instrument (depending on the instrument), the opposite is true. I have to keep mentally reordering the power of the stack based on range of the instrument voicing it.
2. Pro players will bend the pitch of the notes based on their harmonic position against the other players. Voicings that sound awful on piano and with brass samples will sometimes be the perfect choice with live players, and good ears.
3. Trombones don’t do step-wise glissando rips. If I want that Tower of Power rip sound, I have to put the gliss on the whole section EXCEPT the trombone. One bad slide-glide can pull all the goodness out of a soli gliss.
4. Unisons sound HAWT. I avoid them because it feels like lazy arranging, but man, the people wants to hear them some blow-and-go brass unison lines.
5. Endurance. Must remember lip endurance. Cannot keep lead trumpet up in the “awesome” range for 64 bars straight.
6. I have a bad habit of setting the roadmap (repeats, DS al Coda, etc.) based on the structure of the song for the vocalists and rhythm section, instead of thinking about the aux. instruments. Nothing says reading fun like a chart full of tacit 2nd time, play only 1st time on D.S., play first three notes at pitch then drop everything 8vb for 6 measures. That’s straight pro, baby.

Thanks, Phil, for the arranging gig. Don’t worry too much about your reputation - I’m having students do most of the actual creative work, and they’re much sharper than I am at this stuff. If any of you end up at the Somebody Love You crusade at the LA Convention Center this June, keep an ear on the brass. Especially that lead trumpet. Man, that guy is gonna HATE me!