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Question: Why would a brass section need a score!?
I have no time to prepare a score for the brass section, and its only a simple tune we need to play, which the rest of the band play by ear!.
Is it that the brass is very difficult
am i missing something here
its not mozart its rock and roll tune, 5 notes,
please dont take offence if you are a brass player
i have a lot to learn and want to play with brass sections
i do read but surely its not aways needed is it!?
or was it that the guys were not so good, even though they have the certificates from school!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
kab and joe gave you very good advice!.

why not just write the lick out for guitar, tell the trumpets to play one step up, if you are using trombones, write it for bass-they'll be able to read that!.
5 notes would take me 5 minutes,!.!.!.no prob!
transposing is not hard, once you get the hang of it,!.!.

you are now experiencing the exact reason why having training in written music is so important!. think of it like this; what if our society had no written language, no books (or computers)-how would we convey and remember all the important data!? stories!? anything complex!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Good to see you have cooled!.
Let me make a comparison!.
Lester Holt was in China for the Olympics!.
He got lost and needed to get back to his Hotel!.
He did not speak Chinese!. They did not speak English!. It took hours to find someone to communicate what he wanted!.
Now tell me who was wrong!? What you are missing here is, It is another language and you can't fault the other person because you can not get your point across!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

1 - Figure out their notes for the lick (i!.e!. trumpets are in Bb therefore Concert Bb=their written C, trombones and tubas concert pitch, french horns or mellophones are in F therefore Concert F=their written C)
2 - Once they know what the 5 notes are, play it for them on piano or any other instrument for that matter!.
3 - Ask them to sing it back to you (might not seem like it helps but it does)
4 - Try and get them to play it back to you!. If they still can't get it right, get them to play the whole rhythm back to you on one note, then add 1 note to the lick each time until you have the whole thing!.
5 - If you have a chalkboard you could skip the singing back rhythm and just write out the rhythm so that they can read it!.
6 - If all else fails you can give the brass section a big fat whole rest!.

It has become less and less common for students that play wind instruments to learn how to improvise in their private lessons!. They take the classical approach!. It's more common for teachers of guitar and piano(depends on your teacher) how to get off the page and improvise!.
So keep that in mind when you're frustrated that a brass section can't get 5 notes, they may be able to sight read an entire piece without ever seeing it before!. I understand your frustration though, I learned from both sides of that spectrum!. It's just a matter of how they were trained musically!.

also if you want to learn to play with brass sections it is very worth it to learn how to write out music for them!. What if the next lick you want to teach them has more than 5 notes and harder rhythms!? Writing out music is the medium to get those ideas across without any confusion!. Best of luck!.Www@QuestionHome@Com