Form - Big Band Arranging SECRETS REVEALED 

Good idea. I’ll have to think about that.

Everyone “should” do this

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you Chris! Thanks for keeping up with them!

Thank you Joe. That’s a great story. And thank you for reinforcing my point!

Hi Joe! I just wanted to say thanks for this little tidbit of info about Bob Rozario! He studied with Lyle "Spud" Murphy, right? I'm studying a course called the Equal Interval System (devised by Murphy). In the course, the discussion of musical form and knowing what form you'll use is prominent. I remember seeing some of Bob's work displayed as examples in the course too, so imagine stumbling upon your post while trying to learn more about big band arranging, and randomly hearing about someone whom my teacher said was a phenomenal musician - he always said, when we came across Bob's work in the course, that he was an absolute monster of a pianist. You must have been so happy to have him as your arranger! Wish I could have met him. I'd have so many questions to ask.

@@AshleyKampta2 Hi, Ashley. What a nice comment to read. I have a box of cassette tapes of Bob's lessons with Spud. I believe he drove from Vegas to L.A. once a week for those lessons. This was well after he was established, too. He never stopped learning. He practiced every day until he died. I have a folder of exercises he wrote out somewhere, and tons of arrangements. I kept all his fake books and he would make improvements to the chords in pencil. It's great. I don't play an instrument. I'm a singer, but he taught me so much. I'm happy to share anything I have with you. If you'd like to hear my album and his brilliant work I'll gladly send it to you or if you'd like to see any of his lead sheets. Just let me know.

@@joedinunzio1200 That's a very gracious offer, Joe. I would love to take you up on it. How would I be able to get in touch with you through other means? Do you have a website where I can find your contact details?

@@AshleyKampta2 My replies keep vanishing. I sent you a friend request on that Zuckerberg site.

Great idea. I’ll put that on my list.

That's a great idea! I'm actually a trumpeter... but I play a tiny bit of piano, enough to try out chord substitutions. I definitely recommend that anyone getting into arranging should get a keyboard and learn to quickly play all of the 7 chords. That helps a TON. With regular practice, you can master all of the 7 chords in a week or 2 (root position). Regarding "Write an intro"... check out my later video "Writing a chart, pt 1". I am writing an arrangement. In part 2 or 3 I will write an intro.

I am using the term ‘development’ loosely to mean material that is different from the melody and solo sections. ‘Development,’ in the classical music theory sense, doesn’t usually apply to big band music.

@@PandemoniumBigBand I would definitely like to sit down with a pot of coffee with you and pick your brain for entirely too long.

Do you live in LA? Are you vaccinated? Otherwise Zoom. Shoot me an email.

I will have to look that up. But from the sound of it, I bet I’ll have lots of thoughts!

Yes I have! But I don’t have a mastery of clave in the same way that a musician fully steeped in those genres has. That said, I love Latin big band.

Yes! Smash it!!!

Yes it should! Very observant. I had to rewatch that segment and think about it. You are absolutely correct.