Small Marching Band Arranging: The Opening Hit 

what we came for: writing music what we actually got: campfire turorial

lol this is an arrangement of the lick

Adding a drumline break right before the repeated motif at the end would definitely sell this

boy did I need this video. I couldn't find ANYTHING good on youtube for arranging for marching band, as I'm just a percussionist with a minimal understanding of the workings of wind instruments (all I've amounted to is a Bb concert scale on a trumpet and a clarinet). I feel like this helped me have some guidelines of how to write and expand upon ideas, thank you so much!

I hope you keep making more of these! I've done a fair share of arranging and I learned a lot from this! I really like your approach to going from skeleton to finished orchestration! Side note, I programmed "A Child's Dream of a Star" with my band last spring and they loved it!

Finally, a good music writing tutorial.

You are a complete godsend

is it possible to get get the full sheet? also the drumline? thanks, great job!

This content is very useful to me. Keep doing Wait to see EP:2 😊

A thought, from a frequent marching band arranger - that fast D# to C# motion for the alto sax in m. 10 will be difficult for a young player, especially in terms of getting all nine fingers down at the same time and back up again one triplet eighth note later, and again two beats later in the same measure. And then having three young players do it flawlessly in unison. Sax players' pinky dexterity is generally much lower than clarinets, or especially flutes. One thing that grinds my gears in commercially published arrangements is when a piece is arranged at a solid 1.5-2 level throughout, but then has a random difficulty spike for one or two instruments up to like 4 level for a bar or two. Even occasionally from the biggest names in band arranging. I'm left thinking, "how did the editor allow this?!" The difficulty is at the perfect level for my students, but then there's one bar they totally struggle over. Sometime I just rewrite that bar. Just one of those things I guess, but it's the first thing I thought of when I saw that measure in your arrangement.

Please continue to make these. This is absolutely amazing! As surprising as it is, there are virtually zero resources outside of written text that teach marching band arrangement. Keep it up!!!

So incredibly helpful! Thank you!

this metaphor is crazy. i love this

Wow, you're a total Badass with the arranging and harmony! I've taken four semesters of traditional harmony and took private lesson to help me expand my chord choices and it was a big help. So understood most of what you were doing, but I would not be able to do it. It was so interesting and fun to watch and your finished piece sounded awesome. Nice touch using the manuscript paper that was yellowing on the sides hahaha!

dude, this has helped me so much, thank you!

I'm trying to expand from just writing drumline cadences and this is super helpful!

Anyone watching this video would be able to tell you're very experienced and knowledgeable just by how you deliver the information - Great stuff! Very educational and pedagogical.

Great arrangement I’m a music major as well very inspiring to keep going

This is so helpful! Thank you so much! Please make more if you can :)))

Not joking when I say even just the first two minutes of this are very helpful! I'm trying to write some virtual marching band music with VSTs, and coming from an orchestral background it's surprisingly hard to get that "band" sound.

I teach showstyle band and this was still very useful! 🔥🔥🔥 Good stuff!

it is so good thanks

Very nice!

Useful for my potential new small band

Make more of these videos please!

Cool!

Didn't see that Tinder joke coming haha. Great vid, you saved me. Thank you very much!

Could you make a video on how to write the closer? I'm really struggling with that part and you did an amazing job with this video.

Thanks found this helpful. Also the band director chose the licccc

Do you think you could do a big band arranging tutorial, please?

3:30 the lick returns

thanx

I really wanna learn music theory. Seems fun.

Wow

I'm currently a freshman and in marching band. I've been spending my time in quarantine to start a piece of music to hopefully finish by senior year so my marching band can play it. I have lots of time and I need to start somewhere and this video was great help. I was wondering if you could make a video on writing melodies, which is something I struggle with?

👌 exsalent sir. put basic rules of arranging mucic sir thank you

no licking allowed in band

Please tell me this is an actual show I love it😭😭

Will there be a part 2?

I need your guidance on how I will orchestra for band sir

What app is this I need it for my band

The lick

Hey Michael Cotten, I'm a young composer(14-year-old Freshman) and I want to try to compose a little marching show for my HS marching band(Colonial Heights Marching Colonials, roughly 58 marchers for the 2019 season). Can you make a video about medium/large marching band composing for winds and composing for the front ensemble w/ the winds?? I'm fairly new to front ensemble composing and a little tutorial will really help expand my ideas and thoughts about the lonely people at the front of the field. I really want to make my band director proud and show him a Freshman can do a music major's work without a music degree!

Could you tell me what sound plugin you use for your wind instruments?

wait its just the lick? always has been

What sound software do you use that makes it sound more realistic?

Bro made the lick into an opener

Does anyone know what he used to write the music, like is it a website or?

I know it's been a while but can you please do a tutorial on ballads

Bro I would literally give anything for a continuation video

WHY IS THE MOTIF THE LICCC IM ROLLING

why is it the lick

Is that tHe LicC??

1:07 i dont know of any alto saxophones that can hit a low g lmao

Some good ideas here. The countermelody line in m. 2 doesn't work very well, as it is just a decoration of the main melodic idea there. It's awkward for the countermelody to pass in and out of unison and close proximity of the main melody line on the concert A and concert F. The 9th of the Gm chord would work much better in m. 3 if you had a 5th in that chord. A 9th is really a 5th of the 5th and the chord would sound better with the 5th there. The F# in m. 11 really needs to sustain into the downbeat. Even if it's executed well, it's going to sound like they just died off before the final impact. If you put a rest on beat 4 of m. 9 for the instruments playing the countermelody, they should easily be able to make it for two bars without a breath and then stagger breathe for the rest of the impact. This is somewhat of a personal preference, but from my study of wind band literature I think the tied 8th note to indicate playing to a certain beat is on its way out. It makes it impossible to notate an and count release, if you ever wanted to do that, and it reinforces the idea that notes don't really need to be held for their full value. I think you'd be much better off just writing the rhythms you want played and then including a performance note if needed for the director to understand that notes need to be held for the printed durations.

Bro arranged the lick for 16 minutes

Arranging or composing? Orchestrating when limited ranges are necessary is easier if you're also composing the music, rather than honoring the melodic, harmonic, or voice-leadings that define a given work. Take "For Good" from Wicked as an example. The modulation in the middle of the piece goes down a major third. An arranger needs to figure out how to get that relationship accessible to the scholastic marching band. F to Db? Probably not. Bb to Gb, definitely not. Your best bet is C to Ab. I don't mean to take away from this presentation; it's excellent as a compositional effort. But it's not really arranging. it's composing.