Composing / Arranging - Importance of playing through your music

I'm writing this post in response to several people who have wrote things in their respective notation software that sound great in the program, but would not work out in real life. I'm not writing this at all to slam anyone nor will name names.

Everyone has been guilty of this one time or another including myself! I want to give you a few things to think about when you place notes in the computer and hope that will help you with a better product. It will present challenges for you when you start thinking along these lines, but it will be well worth it in the end ESPECIALLY if your end goal is to become well known and make a living writing.

Who are you writing for:

First you need to decide who you are writing for. Middle School Band, High School, The middle ground between MS / HS, your top HS Band that can play low end college music, Professionals? If you don't know the answer to this stop what you are writing and assess what you have done and make a decision on what level. If you are not sure what level your piece is look at other concert band works, orchestral, etc... and figure out what its similar. That can help but not be the end result.

Physical Pacing / Limitations:

Think about if you were playing your music. If you have piece that is 5 minutes long and you don't have a single rest in the whole song try playing it, or have a friend who plays that instrument play through it. I'm certain they won't make it.

Trumpets can NOT Wail the entire time. Not even college, drum corps, top level high school, etc can have their trumpets above the staff 24-7 when playing. It doesn't work. The Drum Corps when they play high they pace everything so that they a) lead up to the high note, and b) they aren't off the staff immediately on a power chord. Not saying you can't write it, but write it when the music calls for it. If its a big moment, go for it, but don't keep them up their forever.

Woodwinds can NOT play 32nd not runs at a moderate - fast tempo forever. If you want to write varying rhythms, dove tail (so that it sounds like running 32nd notes but a part might play 8 3nd notes then an 8th note that is short, and another part will play the same thing just offset by an 8th note). Also check the register, and see where the runs lie on the instrument. If you don't know if its a bad range or not ask someone who plays the instrument to look at it, or have them play it.

I play through everything on the piano. I usually write in concert pitch, and play each part (recorded) into the keyboard and listen to play back. This a) lets me mark my scores and make corrections bc I see the individual part, and b) allows me to hear it by a different playback method. It has some issues compared to finale, but also fixes some things that I can't hear in finale that I know through experience will be there in real life.

You will learn a lot about voice leading, part writing, if its a fun part, etc... by playing through your own music. Its extremely important and is a great use of quality control.

Stay humble, write with emotion, stay self critical, and smart about what you write and you will go far. I plan everything out on paper (sections, form, keys, who's playing what where) before I put notes into the computer or down on paper. I know my music in my head inside and out before I write on the computer. Sometimes what I have planned doesn't work out, but the more I plan ahead the faster I get a product out with higher quality and I'm getting more accurate with it. Its my system, it works for me, but the planning stage is the common ground for all great writers.

Plan ahead, but the music dictates what is right. Hope this helps!

Out of curiousity, does this create a more highly pianistic style to your melodies and harmonies, a la Beethoven? Or are there ways to strip the method from the result?

Oh no no no it doesn't create Beethoven like piano harmonies. The harmonies are what you make of it. The goal of playing everything into the piano is to check part writing, and the individual parts to make sure they are correct. You can find missing dynamic markings, articulations, wrong notes, missing accidentals, etc.... from that plus you can (in some cases) see how your orchestration is and maybe adjust the chord for a better purpose (more /less powerful). Harmonies are what you should get from playing notes on the keyboard, not from this method of checking your parts.

If you go to my soundcloud page: http://soundcloud.com/john-brennan, you can hear at least in the first 4 tracks tunes I have wrote for marching band. I played through every part in the piano to check it, and you can definitely tell its a marching band arrangement and not beethoven like.

The more you plan off the page, the better the product, and the greater chance of success you will have.

Not sure if I follow your, "Or are there ways to strip the method from the result?" comment/question.

I hope this answers your question!

I'm writing this post in response to several people who have wrote things in their respective notation software that sound great in the program, but would not work out in real life. I'm not writing this at all to slam anyone nor will name names.

:sweat:

Everyone has been guilty of this one time or another including myself! I want to give you a few things to think about when you place notes in the computer and hope that will help you with a better product. It will present challenges for you when you start thinking along these lines, but it will be well worth it in the end ESPECIALLY if your end goal is to become well known and make a living writing.

Extremely true. Once you get the hand of it, you don't do it so much (I don't usually have this issue all that often)

Who are you writing for:

First you need to decide who you are writing for. Middle School Band, High School, The middle ground between MS / HS, your top HS Band that can play low end college music, Professionals? If you don't know the answer to this stop what you are writing and assess what you have done and make a decision on what level. If you are not sure what level your piece is look at other concert band works, orchestral, etc... and figure out what its similar. That can help but not be the end result..

...so it doesn't sound like crap :P I've had this issue too many times, as a composer and performer. I've also had to work around this....for example in my string quartet, our cellist is not...great. He always plays out of tune. SO he gets open strings! Woohoo!

Physical Pacing / Limitations:

Think about if you were playing your music. If you have piece that is 5 minutes long and you don't have a single rest in the whole song try playing it, or have a friend who plays that instrument play through it. I'm certain they won't make it.

Heyo! I'm playing a piece by Vaughn Williams about that length all in 16th notes at 140 to the dotted quarter, with random odd shifts and not one rest. The rests are the spots where you repeat one note or play a trill or something. Admittedly, it's a viola piece, not an oboe piece, but STILL it can be done with careful planning.

Trumpets can NOT Wail the entire time. Not even college, drum corps, top level high school, etc can have their trumpets above the staff 24-7 when playing. It doesn't work. The Drum Corps when they play high they pace everything so that they a) lead up to the high note, and b) they aren't off the staff immediately on a power chord. Not saying you can't write it, but write it when the music calls for it. If its a big moment, go for it, but don't keep them up their forever.

Tell that to a trumpet player I know from AZ who was in my father's baroque orchestra. Ben Gordon (I called him Gordy :P) always thought loud was better. ppp was fff and fff was fff too!

Woodwinds can NOT play 32nd not runs at a moderate - fast tempo forever. If you want to write varying rhythms, dove tail (so that it sounds like running 32nd notes but a part might play 8 3nd notes then an 8th note that is short, and another part will play the same thing just offset by an 8th note). Also check the register, and see where the runs lie on the instrument. If you don't know if its a bad range or not ask someone who plays the instrument to look at it, or have them play it.

So true. I have a spot like that (but 16th notes) in this piece I'm writing now, and I had flute one and piccolo one play the first part of the bar, then flute two and piccolo two play the second.

I play through everything on the piano. I usually write in concert pitch, and play each part (recorded) into the keyboard and listen to play back. This a) lets me mark my scores and make corrections bc I see the individual part, and b) allows me to hear it by a different playback method. It has some issues compared to finale, but also fixes some things that I can't hear in finale that I know through experience will be there in real life.

Now you see, there's 2 issues with this: range and playability. Sometimes everyone is all over the place and such, and unless you're writing a very easy orchestral score, it's gonna be hard to get a really accurate reading of an orchestral/non-piano chamber piece.

You will learn a lot about voice leading, part writing, if its a fun part, etc... by playing through your own music. Its extremely important and is a great use of quality control.

SO true. Everyone should play through their own music in some way or another (I'm not contradicting my last part!)

Stay humble, write with emotion, stay self critical, and smart about what you write and you will go far. I plan everything out on paper (sections, form, keys, who's playing what where) before I put notes into the computer or down on paper. I know my music in my head inside and out before I write on the computer. Sometimes what I have planned doesn't work out, but the more I plan ahead the faster I get a product out with higher quality and I'm getting more accurate with it. Its my system, it works for me, but the planning stage is the common ground for all great writers.

Plan ahead, but the music dictates what is right. Hope this helps!

Very helpful indeed, for me and everyone else I think too :) Good work!

Piano play thru is useful for checking for accidentals and notation of rhythms. But the best way and most difficult is to look at the page and hear it internally and sing it and conduct it.

Here is when it gets difficult - what do you do for a piece that is simply a set of directions - eg from Miles Davis to present stuff where you are given a few pitches or a rhythm and general instruction for entrances and exits?

Overall I agree and this has been written about often. We had some very experienced former members who were great at reading a score and pointing out potential problems.

Well it would be difficult if you were to use this technique for a Miles Davis type setting. I however won't have that issue because I do not write jazz. I have arranged it for marching band, and know some of the jazz theory, but as for big band that is not my area of focus. I focus on the concert band, marching band, and drum corps mediums. I don't think that this technique that I suggest for band would work in a jazz setting where its more free. Might be good to test it, but with jazz there is so much openness and creativity from the individual it would be virtually impossible to get anything close to accurate on how the performance would go.

... I don't think that this technique that I suggest for band would work in a jazz setting where its more free.

Saves me having to say that.... :whistling:

That said, even for ensemble parts of any style, I fail to see how me trying to play something will shed any insight onto whether it's playable / recommended.

:dunno:

Saves me having to say that.... :whistling:

That said, even for ensemble parts of any style, I fail to see how me trying to play something will shed any insight onto whether it's playable / recommended.

:dunno:

Clearly you haven't tried playing what you wrote on your instrument. Trust me it works. It'll stop you from making stupid mistakes, and you'll understand from the players perspective what they will go through playing your music. You know the piece inside and out, they don't. Most performers could careless outside of playing their part accurately. If their part is ridiculous, say for example you write any of the saxophones playing 16th notes at the bottom of the instrument going from Bb to B to C# to C, and repeating.... You will be lucky if they tell you nicely thats not manageable. On paper, anything looks great. Need to take care of your performers. You look out for them, they'll look out for you.

Clearly you haven't tried playing what you wrote on your instrument. Trust me it works.

I play trombone. Trust me, it won't work. ;)

I play trombone. Trust me, it won't work. ;)

So I'll expect your clarinet writing to be perfect :)

robinjessome, just to be clear. I'm talking about playing the individual parts you wrote on the piano, not on their respective instruments. I don't expect someone who plays trombone to be able to play a grade 5 piece (if thats what you wrote hypothetically) on clarinet. You might not get whats tough and whats not out of the piano, but everything else can get fixed. Whats tough/ not playable / rough spots will be fixed when a) you have an actual player play it, or b) ask for their personal input.

...I'm talking about playing the individual parts you wrote on the piano, not on their respective instruments.

But I'm a terrible piano player!

And even so, I expect there's a ton of things that I can play easily on piano that would be excruciatingly difficult on the part's respective instrument... I'm just not sure that there's much to be gleaned from your exercise.

That said, I don't think it's a bad idea - especially being aware of an instrument's limitations and playability of parts. Your approach just isn't for me...

I usually just look at the parts individually. I also PRINT the score. It helps me catch more mistakes than looking at a screen!