 The Ethnic Clarinet
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Author: David
Date: 2001-07-24 10:39
So I want to get a few folks together to play. I have friends who play Oboe/Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Trumpet, Drums, Piano, Bass Guitar, Tuba and Violin.
If I were to assemble this group, (folks in and out as their schedules permit) where would I get sheet music to get off the ground? Neither I nor any of my colleagues are musicians primarily, and so scoring our own arrangements is out of the question.
David
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2001-07-24 18:44
I ran into a similar "problem" myself recently, needed to make an arrangement of "Kolomeike".
If the tune is in the Kammen books, you can buy a book for each instrument; i.e., not just one for Bb, one for Eb and one for C, but literally one for each instrument. They have, for example, separate ones for violin and piano. But they don't have them for all the instruments you mention. And there are no chord symbols on the tunes, so you can't figure out what to do yourself. IMHO, this is dorky.
This is an excellent opportunity to start becoming a musician. First of all, the bass guitar will know what to do. I can't imagine a bass guitarist who can't read a chord chart or figure out by ear what to play against your melody. The tuba works with the bass guitar and plays "oomps', adding bass runs (marching up the chord, or chromatically) for variety and interest.
The melody instruments play in unison, in harmony, and take solos. For harmony, you make up a line within the chord. This is not necessarily playing a third or fifth above or below the melody; it's playing within the chord. Sometimes, playing outside of the chord sounds great, however. Sometimes it does not. The harmony line can match note for note, or be a countermelody, or a drone, or combinations. One or more of the melody instruments can play a descant, a high dixieland style harmony, wailing above the others. You may try writing things out, then find yourself deviating to something you like better. You may be able to pick some things up by ear from recordings and try them.
Hope this helps.
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2001-07-25 01:39
But, you should still get the Kammen books (folios 1 and 9) for clarinet / tenor sax because they do have second part treble clef harmonies (countermelodies) which at first I didn't care for, but as our little band got better at it, I found kind of cool. Then, you need to find other tunebooks with chord symbols for the same tunes. Then you transpose everything for everybody. I got lucky with Kolomeike and happened to find a concert key book that had it one step down from the Kammen version, only minor differences in the melody, and it had the chords, so no transposing was necessary on our part. This allowed our accordion player to play both rhythm (chordal accompaniment) and melody by reading (he had a good ear anyway).
Rely heavily on your guitar and piano players for "musicianship"; this is what they know how to do, generally, in my experience...unless they are strictly classically trained or rank beginners.
Steve
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The Clarinet Pages
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