Family valuesThe first things to consider arethe instruments which typicallycomprise a regular horn section,and your choice of instrumentswill depend on the tonal colouryou are seeking as well as anybudget you may be working to.Budgets have to get a mentionhere as saxophone playersoften play more than just thesax, making them moreaffordable from a personnelpoint of view.

The saxophone is oftendescribed as a sexy instrument,used to great effect in manyfilms and TV shows, but thesaxophone family is very large. Itincludes many instrumentsranging in both size and pitch,but for our purposes, there areonly four saxophones that arecommonly used, and of those,only two are almost alwayspresent. Ascending in size theygo from soprano to alto throughtenor to baritone – predictably,the bigger the instrument, thelower its pitch. ■1

The most commonly usedsaxophones tend to be thetenor and alto and these twoinstruments will go part way to forming the most basic ofhorn sections, which wouldconsist of three musicians. The third instrument to beadded to our essential horn trio would be the trumpet. Thetrumpet has a fantastic tonalquality that contrasts well with the mellower tone of the saxophones.

This trio of instruments actas the foundation on which anyother sections are built. You canadd a soprano or baritone sax(or further instruments), but thebasic three-part construct willact as the bedrock for most ofyour arrangements. The tenortrombone may also get theoccasional outing and isconsidered similar in range to

the tenor sax, so often appearsinstead. It has a mellower tonethan a trumpet but, again, workswell in combination.

Pitch correctionIf you ask an alto player to playthe note C on his saxophone,you may be rather confused tofind that when you approachyour keyboard, his C will be

There’s nothing like alive horn section formaking a track reallygroove or adding that extra timbre togive a chorus a lift.

And scoring a horn arrangementis easier than it may initiallyseem – think of horns asmusical seasoning on the most delicious track you’ve ever written.

Adding a horn section to a track can make a dramatic difference to its impact and overall groove. Composer Dave Gale shows you how...

Arranging for horns

TEN MINUTE MASTER No55

36 May 2005 MusicTech MAGAZINE

Some players may be able to exceedthese ranges, but that is dependenton the ability of the player.

Soprano sax (concert pitch)

Alto sax (concert pitch)

Tenor sax (concert pitch)

Baritone sax (concert pitch)

Trombone (concert pitch)

Trumpet in B� (concert pitch)

1

2

RANGES OFINSTRUMENTS

Alto sax (concert pitch)

Tenor sax (concert pitch)

Baritone sax (concert pitch)

Trombone (concert pitch)

Trumpet in B� (concert pitch)

Soprano sax (tranposed)

Alto sax (tranposed)

Tenor sax (tranposed)

Baritone sax (tranposed)

Trombone (tranposed)

Trumpet in B� (tranposed)

Note how the key signature also transposes by the same amount for eachinstrument, so be sure to enter the correct, transposed key signature.

HOW THE HORNSTRANSPOSE

Soprano sax (concert pitch)

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different from yours. This isbecause all of the saxophonesthat we have mentioned arewhat are known as ‘transposing’instruments. So, to get the altoplayer to play the note youwant, you have to transpose theactual note first.

It is at this point that youmay hear the term ‘concertpitch’ as this always refers tothe ‘actual’ note that you wantto be played. So, if you want amiddle C, you want it atconcert pitch. If you then workyour transposing calculation,you should end up with the

note you want.So, what are these

mysterious transposingcalculations? For an altosaxophone, if you want the notemiddle C in concert pitch to beproduced, you will need tocount up nine semitones, givingyou the note A. Ask them to playan A above middle C and youwill hear a middle C.

For a tenor saxophone, youwill need to count up 14semitones (or an octave and twosemitones), which will give youthe note D. Ask them to play a Dan octave above middle C andyou will hear middle C.

For a soprano saxophone,you will need to count up twosemitones, giving you the noteD. Ask them to play a D abovemiddle C and you will hearmiddle C.

For baritone saxophones,you will need to count up 21semitones (or an octave andnine semitones), which will give

you the note A. Ask them to playan A over an octave abovemiddle C, and you will hear amiddle C. ■2

Practice makes perfectThe most common type oftrumpet that you will find in hornsections is the trumpet in B�.This instrument transposes justlike the soprano sax, so performthe same calculation.

If you do end up using atrombone, you will be delightedto hear that it is the oneinstrument in our line-up whichdoesn’t transpose. So, when you

ask for a C, that’s what you’ll get.Don’t be surprised if all

of this technical musical stuff is worrying you – it can bedaunting when you first start trying to work it out. But,as with everything in music, alittle practice goes a long way. However, you do have two helpful friends when tryingto ensure you get the rightnotes. Firstly, many of the major scoring softwarepackages such as Logic Proand Sibelius have the ability toperform transposition for you,so you choose the instrumentyou want your line to be played on and it will transposeitself accordingly.

Secondly, you won’t be thefirst person that your saxophoneplayer has met who doesn’thave a strong grasp oftransposition, so most saxplayers will be used to talking toyou in concert pitch and doingthe maths themselves.

In the early days of the bandMadness, their sax player didn’tknow that his instrumenttransposed, which is why manyof their early recordings have avery out-of-tune sax on them.He tried to detune hisinstrument far enough to get tothe correct pitch!

The arrangementSo, you’ve got your tuneorganised and you want to addthe horns. Remember, though:don’t overuse them. Save themfor the second verse or chorus,when you need more impact.

You will also have toconsider the ranges of theinstruments at this point. Unlikekeyboards, horns can play only within a certain range ofnotes – and even then, only onenote at a time. They will dovetail nicely as you movethrough the instruments wehave mentioned thus far, but donot exceed the note ranges ofthe instruments.

You also have two basicchoices: do you get them toplay the same notes (or inunison, as it’s known), or do youget them to play chords? Bothare highly effective. If you wantthe horns to follow the harmonicstructure of your song, get thetrumpet to play the top part, thealto to play the middle part andthe tenor to play the bottompart. You can see a basicexample of this in the diagramentitled, Three-part harmonisedhorn example. ■3

Adding extrasOnce you’ve got the basic idea,you can start to embellish theparts and add other devices. Acommon device is called a ‘fall’and is often added at a placewhere you would like toemphasise a beat or chord. As

its name suggests, the playerswill play a note and then fall offit, normally downwards,although they can sometimesgo up as well. Falls are writtenon the score in a very literal andgraphic way, so for an exampleof this within a unison phrase,see the diagram entitled Unisonpart writing. ■4

One particularly successfulBritish arranger said that whenasked to do some hornarranging, he would first listento tracks by Earth, Wind & Fire.This is a great way to get a feelfor what works and soundsgreat. Arranging for horns isgreat fun, highly rewarding anda great skill to have. Thatmoment when you hear yourmusic played back for the firsttime by a real section, is amoment to cherish. MTM

MusicTech MAGAZINE May 2005 37

MUSIC TO LISTEN TO■ Michael Jackson, Off The Wall■ Earth, Wind & Fire, Greatest Hits■ Al Jarreau, Jarreau■ Donald Fagen, The Nightfly■ Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue■ Tower of Power, any track

BOOKS■ Rock, Jazz & Pop Arranging,

Daryl Runswick

FURTHER INFO

Tech terms■ Horns Generic name for a section ofsaxes, trumpets and trombones.■ UnisonWhere all instruments play thesame phrase, using the samenote pitches.■ Tutti (pronounced ‘too-tee’) Where all instruments play thesame phrase but harmonised.■ Concert pitchDescription of notes as theywould be heard on a piano or keyboard.■ RiffShort melodic phrase which tends to be repeated.

A single line arranged for all threeparts. Note that in this example thetenor sax plays an octave lower thanthe trumpet and alto.

THREE-PART HARMONISED HORN EXAMPLE

Starting with the three parts aschords, voice out the parts into their transposed versions for each instrument.

Trumpet in B�

Alto in E�

Tenor in B�

Trumpet in B�

Alto in E�

Tenor in B�

Horns in unison (concert pitch)Full horns (concert pitch)

3 UNISON PARTWRITING4

Arranging for horns is greatfun, highly rewarding and a great skill to have.

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