Band with Trumpet, C flute, Oboe (+piano, guitar)

[gekkewiebel]

Hi everyone,

 

For a one-time event we've created a band for a wedding (so one-time play).

We've scheduled two practice sessions.

 

Me myself is the pianist, and as I'm the oldest i'm sort of the leader.

So our band consists of the follwing instruments:

- Piano

- Guitar

- Trumpet

- C flute

- Oboe

- (Singer)

 

We don't really have the knowledge nor the time to write out an entire arrangement, so that's not really an option. Yet i have my doubt's on playing all of these instruments at the same time. Letting them play the melody -besides the intro/extro etc- is out of the question i think, for we have a singer, and playing the same would require a high amount of synchronisation (and we don't have percussion).

 

Are there any ideas on letting these instruments sound nice together? E.g. what instruments can play on the same time?

 

Maybe my question is not really obvious, that's because I just don't really know what to do with a band with all these 'air'-instruments, if you know what i mean.

 

Any help, any, would be really appreciated in regards to this!!

 

Thank you very much in advance.

[sunburstbasser]

Guitar will act as an accompaniment, essentially doing the same thing that you do on piano. You can figure out beforehand whether you'd like one or the other to lay back a bit at certain points.

 

The wind players can get by playing long tones behind the singer. Just make sure they know when to change their notes. Flutes also sound nice doing flourishes and the like, so you could have the flautist "decorate" what the singer is doing. Oboe can do it as well but I think flute sounds better.

 

Trumpet makes a good punch and accent instrument, to bring parts of the singer's melody out better.

 

Unless the players are REALLY young, like high school or younger, they should have some idea of what they can do to make good music.

[gekkewiebel]

Thank you for your response sunburstbasser!

And yes, they are high school players so that doesn´t make me any more certain either. Though i don't know their exact backgrounds i don't think they've played in band-related stuff before.

 

I will be trying to figure out whether or not the flutist can make these kind of flourishes, that would be nice if possible:thu:

And so i guess trumpet is good for stuff like (going to the) chorus etc? Thanks!

[sunburstbasser]

I would approach it sort of the way Tower of Power does it, as far as trumpet. Listen to this tune; notice that the trumpets are basically only playing a few little short phrases and repeating them. The phrases start and end in such a way that they fill the space between vocal parts. I don't expect your players to be anywhere near Tower of Power level (very few are), but this should give you some ideas for simple arranging for a trumpet.

 

[YOUTUBE]Zf5yEsu1Yas[/YOUTUBE]