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Yet another lackluster community band experience

Merlin

Content Expert/Moderator
Staff member
CE/Moderator
I went to a band last night that had one of the most awkward seating setups I've ever played in.

The trumpets were right behind the clarinets. Possibly the worst configuration ever.

The brass section as a whole was one big arc behind the woodwinds, with the first trumpet at the far left, and the tuba at the opposite end of the group. Predictably, time was just a mythical concept for this group.
 
Yah. When I've set up orchestra/bands, I generally put the brass out in the parking lot.

You think I'm kidding.

OK, in reality, I try to set up bands/orchestras in such a way that the sections that should be heard for whatever piece(s) can be heard. Or to accentuate sections that are important, but thin. This generally meant that I could shove my clarinets and violins to one side, with flutes/oboe/picc in front of 'em (left, as you're conducting), T-bones/low brass/bass/bassoon in the middle, saxophones/French horns on the right (FH bell points "out" toward the audience a bit, in this setup), trumpets as far back on the right and percussion far back on the left as I can shove 'em.

The church I worked for the longest did have a nicely wide "pit", but it wasn't insanely deep. And I eventually had to push ALL folks to one side or the other because they built stairs in the middle.

If I had the space, I'd probably put percussion in the back, middle. That way everyone could get an idea of the rhythm. Also makes it easier to throw your baton at the slacking snare drummer. Not that I ever threw things at my orchestra/choir members.

Jazz ensembles were easier. Everyone on risers. Percussion off to one side, piano/keyboard off on the other.
 
The WCB uses a rather standard set up modified as space concerns demand. And we have, truth be known, too many trumpets. So it's:

rhythm section in the back where we tend to have more instruments than players
trumpets, baritones, and tubas
saxes, french horns, tbones
3rd clarinets, oboe, bassoon, flutes
clarinets, effer/alto clarinet (that would be SuzySax on this forum) and flutes

In the Pacific Cascade Big Band, an adjunct band of the WCB, we have what I consider to be a standard setup:

drums, trumpet X 4
vocalist, bass, and bones X 4
1 tenor, 2 alto, 1 alto, 2 tenor, bari sax

The WJE, another adjunct jazz band of the WCB sets up the same way but you add a guitarist instead of a singer.
 
If your typical symphonic operation can set up so that the majority of the "fiddle holes" on the violas (an instrument already sonically challenged with an undersized sound box for the given string length that it has) are facing off to the side or away from the audience, someone shuffling the trumpets around like that shouldn't come as a surprise...
 
in front of the trumpets

I've sat in front of the trumpets before, could hardly hear it thunder when rehearsal was over. I told/asked the director to move the saxes a bit or we'd be deaf before the concert was played, that or we'd all get ear plugs & never hear a word he said. Seriously, that could damage your hearing, I think I already have reduced hearing in my right ear from it.
 
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