How to Write for Big Band: Texture

[@MuriloArranger]

i love your videos, i'm brazilian and in a way my writing for big bands is already advanced, but i love to see the vision of someone from the united states on the subject, because that's where the “big bands” came from, thanks for the videos of such quality bro

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you 😄. I actually live in New Zealand 🇳🇿. But all the examples are from American bands and composers/arrangers

[@Qermaq]

I have written a lot of big band charts too, but I always get inspired looking at good videos like this. Even if I know everything covered, I love being reminded of it, having it reinforced.

[@JBergmansson]

Thanks for this brilliant video!

[@jonmagill1328]

Love your work Alex !! I really like your colour bars and their use in outlining the texture. Is this something you use when analysing charts? (maybe in a slightly different format?)

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you! I don’t use the colour bars myself, but it is an attempt to put into pictures the way I think about the textures/sections when analysing music.

[@gabrielgabriel4921]

Wow thank you sooo much !

[@patricioboettcher]

Amazing video as always!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thanks Patricio 😀

[@julienmarocco]

Thanks !!!

[@gilevansinsideout]

You're welcome!

[@Jordu7]

Nice and very organized presentation. Thank you, Alex. One thing, though: The examples could be a little longer here and there. Often, you don't even play all the displayed notes. And where is the Gil example😉?

[@gilevansinsideout]

You are welcome. Yes I agree on the example length. I can’t play much of the music, as then it gets flagged for copyright by YT. Yes I felt bad not having a Gil example 😃. But not a lot of his music fits into the traditional examples!

[@johannesbettag766]

It's always amazing how beautiful a jazz ensemble chart can sound, even though it's not arranged by Gil Evans!😊

[@gilevansinsideout]

😅

[@markscountlessbarks]

Dreamsville!!

[@AndewMole]

is 1:28 missing an octave melody below?

[@gilevansinsideout]

In this case it isn’t. There are 4 saxes playing. One alto is waiting to solo

[@kaidoitel]

hey, sounding great! I have a question: when arranging, do you ever pay attention to interweaving parts? I have heard that when arranging, it is important to make sure that parts do not "pass each other." For example, if trombone 1 is above trumpet 4, one would maintain that, preventing trombone 1 from going below trumpet 4. Or is it not necessarily so? ;) - thank you!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Hey! Good question. I do not worry about this ‘rule’ at all. As long as you dont have parts jumping up and down randomly you’ll be fine. More importantly in my opinion, is to make sure the trombones are in a suitable range. The trombone section is the most powerful so they need to be voiced correctly for the desired sound. If the 1st trombone has to stay below the 4 th trumpet then this wouldn’t always be possible. Hope that helps 😃

[@kaidoitel]

@ thank you so much for the response! Very very good to know 🙂

[@santiagoa98]

Do you have a KZbin or Spotify Big Band Playlist to share with us? It would be great!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Hey there. No I don’t sadly! I have a ‘Gil Evans Inside Out’ playlist though 😀. What would you want to see in the playlist? Big band classics or Gil Evans special moments?

[@santiagoa98]

@@gilevansinsideout​​⁠I would love to see big band classics to learn from and to start picking up more repertoire. I know you should have a very special collection of pieces from different styles , bands and arrangements

[@DallasCrane]

It’s funny you mentioned no John Williams charts, I have two charts by John Williams from the 60s that I transcribed a while ago. Let me know if you ever want to do a chat.

[@gilevansinsideout]

John Williams Big Band charts!? Wow yeah I’m curious. Alex v d broek (at) gmail . Com

[@DallasCrane]

@@gilevansinsideout He was prolific!!