Tone Deaf

I always find it interesting when I read about how other artists do their jobs, whether it be music, art, comics, whatever. I like to see how people work and how they get to the end product. Here is how I compose an original marching band show for a high school band. We will go from absolutely nothing to what I consider a pretty darn cool show (in my opinion at least).

A couple of notes before we begin:

1. I don’t claim to be doing anything original here with the process. I just want to show you how I work and maybe give some beginning arrangers some ideas of how to organize their process.
2. The show I will be using is called Bent and is an original marching band composition by myself. 
3. The whole process of writing a show is a constant collaboration. It is never one-sided, or should I say- it should never be one-sided. David Swift of Sycamore HS in Cincinnati, OH and Clif Walker- Percussion Writer- had a lot of say in this show.
4. There are going to be some of my sketches of ideas throughout this article. These are the pages that I used to write down all of my ideas that helped contribute to the show, even if some of the stuff was never used.

So let’s get started!

Once we have a show concept I need to know the talent level of the group I am writing for. Since I usually am in another state than the bands I write for I use different ways to collect this information:

• Good ole conversation with the director.
• Marching forms that I have the director fill out: Instrumentation Sheet and the Questionnaire Sheet.
• Videos or sound recordings of past years.
• Knowledge from previous years of working with them.

For me, knowing the groups talent level and strengths/weaknesses is crucial before I even start thinking about the design of the show, even the form. If I write the coolest thing ever but the group can’t play it then it doesn’t matter. It won’t sound good.

Ballad notes 1

Each band is going to be unique with their instrumentation and strengths and weaknesses. One strength that this band had this particular year was an excellent saxophone player, so we used him like heck. Since the show was called Bent we wanted to try to make his solo stuff fit the show theme. What we did was (and by the way, this was all the director’s idea- not mine) have him play his solos using a wind controller that we could bend up to 6 octaves! So not only could we rely on his great solo playing, we added a level of pitch bend to it. Then on top of that we could set his sound to about 500 sound possibilities that we wanted. Llisten for his solos throughout the show. There are a lot.

Once I know what I am working with in terms of talent level- and since this is an original composition- I now come up with musical themes, motifs, motivic rhythms, interval motifs, harmonies, scales to use, unique chords, etc throughout the show. This actually takes 3-6 days to do since a lot of it is sitting at the keyboard and tinkering around with ideas; making sure that one idea fits well with the rest of the show and can perhaps be juxtaposed with the other themes.

Main Theme

So for Bent I came up with essentially 2 themes:

1. The ‘Main’ Theme that is used at the beginning at the show, and
2. The ‘Opener’ Theme (cool names, huh?).

These two themes are used for essentially most of the rest of the material, in one form or another. From these two themes I take motives from them and break them down throughout the show and try to come up with new ideas based off of those. The main theme  contains a lower neighbor tone that I use throughout and a minor third at the end of each motif. Those are two motives that are used throughout the show just based off of one measure of the main theme. The opener theme is actually based off the minor third at the end of the main theme, except now it is going up! So for the opener theme it is actually just in thirds, most of them being minor. Throughout the rest of the show, then, you will hear the minor third interval a lot. A…lot!

Waltz Theme

The main theme is actually only used once in the manner that you heard before- sweet and simple. For the rest of the show it is then transfigured into the ‘Waltz’ Theme. This is the darker form that will be more prevalent and is actually the very first impact of the show.

All of this work so far has been just jotting down ideas on paper (the image files found throughout this article). Nothing has been put into a computer yet. I try to come up with more ideas than I will actually use. I think that part is very important when I work. I don’t want to be caught with my pants down when I start to sketch out the form of the show. That means a lot of material will never make it to the show. But this way, I know I am selecting the best material and not just using a theme just because I wrote it down.

Once I get all of my ideas I construct a form to the show. I never start writing a show

Opener Material

without doing this. This is my blueprint of what I want to do, where I want to go, how I want to get there, and what effects are important. Pacing is very crucial in this stage as well. For Bent the show was essentially one long 7 1/2 minute composition with 3 different sections- very similar to a concert band piece. So I came up with the overall form of the show- what I wanted to happen overall and where the entire piece was headed towards- but I then had to go back and construct the forms of the individual 3 movements. So while the overall show was headed somewhere the individual movements had their effects and impact points.

Now I can actually start to write the music! I start with a Rough Draft of the music on a 10 stave system where it is just 6 treble staves and 4 bass staves with no instrument designation (and then an added 2 staves for pit parts…but I still like to just call it 10 stave system anyway). I actually used to only use a 4-stave system but it started to get complicated; so slowly but surely it expanded up to 10.

The reason why I start with a 10 stave system is because I just want to write music and then go back later and orchestrate it out. It gives me more freedom and I can write faster not having to think about transposition (but I am

Ballad notes 2

keeping in the back of my head the instrumentation ranges and registers and good keys while I do this so it isn’t just inappropriate for the band when I do orchestrate it). I can write faster this way because of all the work I did before the rough draft. I know what the music is thematically and I know the form of the music. It really helps speed this step up tremendously which in turns allows me to be more creative.

My first rough draft is very basic. Usually it is just melody and harmony going from beginning to end. This way I know what the music is doing and where it is going. The 2nd rough draft is where the music starts to really come alive. I go back to the very beginning and I analyze the piece to make absolutely sure that it is written in the best possible key. It has to work for the instruments! It has to.

After I establish the correct key, I start at the beginning and voice out the music correctly. I make sure the chords are stacked correctly, the music is in good registers for the instruments, there aren’t awkward fingerings, etc. I also add counterlines and counterpoint during this time and try to make the bass parts more interesting if they are accompaniment. This step also involves starting to really designate who will be playing what. Even though I am still working with homogeneous

Closer notes 1

staves I start to put music where it will end up being played. Such as if the flute is going to be playing the music then the music will be pasted into staff 1. If it is going to be the mellophones then it will go in staff 6. This way when I do go to orchestrate out the music all I have to do (with some tweaks) is just copy and paste this rough draft into the band’s instrumentation template. I am essentially orchestrating the parts without the orchestra yet.

The next step is articulations and dynamic markings. Once I get the 2nd draft completed I go back to the beginning one more time and add in these expressive marks. This way, again, when I copy and paste it into the template they will be there and done. This is the most tedious and tiresome part of the process as I know what markings I want to use, I just have to do it.

Closer Notes 2

After we finish the rough drafts and add the expressive markings then all there is to do is orchestrate it out. For me, that is just copying and pasting it into the band’s template that I had set up for them at the very beginning. Once the music is in the score I check out the instrumentation again and see if there are more opportunities to vary the orchestration, whether it be dropping parts, adding parts, making a section a homogeneous texture or a contrapuntal texture, or moving an entire section of music to the pit and battery, etc.

Then I add rehearsal letters and add the title and that’s basically it. It seems like a lot of steps but I have found, for me, I can work quite fast with this process (as I have been doing it this way for a while). More importantly though (than being fast) is that I think the way the steps are laid out for me it really allows me to be more creative. This is probably due to the fact that I don’t have to worry about everything at once and I can hone my thoughts to one aspect of the arrangements at a time, without being overwhelmed with responsibilities.

If you would like to hear each movement please visit my marching band page and you can listen to each movement of Bent by skipping ahead in the flash player.

Thanks for reading and please let me know if you have any question whatsoever. Please be sure to check out my other marching band music. Thanks again!