Jazz Band Template

• Jul 12, 2011 - 03:04

Hello, new user and first time poster. However, thought I'd add something that might be worthwhile to you. I couldn't find a jazz band template anywhere on the site, so I made one - 5 saxes (AATTB), 4 Trumpets, 4 Trombones, 4 Rhythm (Guitar, Piano, Bass, Drums). The template is spaced for landscape-oriented letter-size paper, but that can easily be changed.

Attachment Size
Jazz Band.mscx 69.73 KB

Comments

In reply to by Anonymous

Where in North America? All the ones I've seen over here in Michigan have just a set player. :P And as for the bass trombone, that's true, but that also depends on the orchestra. Some use the bari for the foundation and use the trombones in close voicing as a section. I guess that's personal preference.

In reply to by Anonymous

That's true. I just use the bari as the bottom voice in my own arranging, so I'm a bit prejudiced ;)

In all of the jazz band scores I've *ever* studied, though (except for ones with optional expanded instrumentation like tuba and French horn), there's been only one percussion part. I could see an auxiliary percussion part for latin or rock tunes, but that's far from the norm, at least from what I've seen.

That's one of the pros of MuseScore though - its flexibility. It's easy to add second percussion parts if need be and change the format of the page. Definitely easier, formatting-wise, than Finale.

These are nice! But before you spend any more time doing others or building a lot of scores based on these, you might want to hold off until 1.1 comes out ("real soon now"), as there will be some new stuff that I think you'll want to incorporate. In particular, we've fleshed out the "MuseJazz" font to allow it to be used for more than just chord symbols, plus we've updated the chord symbol description files.

BTW, regarding the number of percussionists in a jazz band, in my experience, most professional big bands have just the single drummer on set, although many school bands will also have a second percussionist if for no other reason than the fact that a bunch of drummers usually sign up. But the available scores almost invariably have just the one drum set part unless it's specifically a "Latin jazz" chart.

And while the 4th trumbone part is indeed often played by a bass trombonist if someone happens to own one, it's also pretty common for the 4th trombonist not to own an actual bass trombone, and to play instead a normal tenor trombone with F attachment. So most of the charts I see say "4th Trombone / Bass Trombone" or something to that effect.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.