£200 to Spend on Youth Band Music

[Ray Woods]

Lucky old me has £200 to spend on Youth Band music. But before I splash the cash, I was wondering if any of you have found any Musical gems for learner bands. So what have you bought recently that really works for your Youth Band, what was good about it, and where can I get it from?

Also, we are planning a joint senior band/youth band concert. Has anybody any suggestions for pieces that both bands can play together with a mix of easier passages (that the Youth Band can play) and harder passages for the senior band?

Thanks for helping me out.
Ray

 

[Despot]

What are they playing now? About what standard are they?

 

[Di B]

It really depends on the standard of players you have, how old, how many, and what instumentation you have really......

I tend to use a lot of quartet/quintet arrangements personally which can be used for up to a dozen players... Kingfisher music do some fun ones for kids and is one of my own favourite publishers.

I would ask the band itself what sort of music they like..... and try and accomodate this. My feelings are that a training band will put much more effort into music if it is something they really enjoy playing! (The one that caused me many nights of attempting to arrange was My Heart Will Go On from 'Titanic' but the kids were over the moon with it!)

The other thing you can do (depending on your exact location) is that some of the big libraries have a selection of junior/training band music thay you can borrow if you belong to a musical organisation. Might be worth you seeing if one of your local libraries offer this service so you can check out pieces before you buy???

Just a few thoughts

 

[Mike Saville]

Hye Ray, MSBB must be feeling flush at the moment - must be all those great summer dates you've been doing :wink:

There's a lot of stuff by Jock McKenzie which seem adaptable for a variety of abilities.

Good Luck with it - I hope they're not mentally scarred after having Bladder!

 

[Pythagoras]

The training band at Dronfield play better when they play something where they know what its supposed to sound like. They've been playing a version of Indiana Jones by J.Williams and William Tell and Finlandia by Mark Vause.

They also seem to be better since they've been playing music with full band orchestration ie music with rep and flugel parts.