Funk Horn Arrangements

[tootintune]

Any body have any of these arrangements, or are they all called on the spot by the section leader and played by ear? anyone have any idea? Bands like Earth wind & Fire, Parliment, Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, James Browns Band, Ohio Players.....Are there basic patterns, stabs and such like - or a book, i've searched alot and founfd absolutely zip FA

 

[Pete Thomas]

You can get Average White band "Pick Up The Pieces" at:

http://www.averagewhiteband.com/_musos/musos.html

(free)

 

[therudest]

WOW! I need this stuff so hard now too =D I'm so sick of thinkin' how to play this or that...

 

[alan_]

I just wanted to reactivate this thread - it is really hard to find any horn section arrangements for funk. Can anyone help tootintune, TheRudest and me? Also can anyone point to any material that helps with the structure and construction of funk horn section harmonies and riffs. The horn sections of Tower of Power, Antibalas and JB horns are simply mind blowing. Of course it is all about extremely tight rhythmic control to make the section sound like one incredibly smooth machine - but where to find help on this and does anyone supply or have the section arrangements for any classics? Maybe by getting our section to run through a few of these, can we hope to improve our composition. We are really only providing accents to the core band at the moment, we would like to be more involved in the sound.
Help!

 

[Semiquaver]

The link below may help. They are not arrangements in the strict sense but there are riffs and stuff from many popular songs.

Unfortunatley they are not writen on a stave but you can't have everything.

Hope it helps.

http://www.ease.com.au/sax/

 

[spike]

I don't know if this is any use at all !!! but check out ben tompsett's website - btompsett.com - he has a book out called "funk grooves". I know it's not about funk arrangements but some of the sample grooves that I've heard are extremely funky and may just be of some use to yooze funky guys.

Another possibility is to download midi files of this kind of stuff to get at the horn parts, the new 2008 Notepad version will convert midi to dots.

Books on "how-to" and even "funky arrangements" appear to be thin on the ground, I would think a market opportunity for someone, I've seen requests like these on various forums.

gruss - spike

 

[alan_]

Great! I have downloaded the Average White Band arrangement (as Pete Suggested, I have ordered the Ultimate Funk Grooves (as Spike Suggested) and checked out the ease.com site (as Semiquaver suggested - some fun little numbers on there). Thanks for your help - any more ideas?
Cheers - Al

 

[Semiquaver]

Hey, that's not bad. I have only been a member 2 days and already I have helped someone.


Doesn't seem to be a yellow face thingy for smug b******d.

 

[alan_]

I found this site - http://www.charts.bluesbroads.com/ - there are lots of horn section arrangements including Tower of Power, AWB, and James Brown. It costs money though and I haven't had a chance to look at the results yet.
Al

 

[Simon]

Hi

No there isn't much around commercially for funk arrangements or 'how to' books on funk arranging, I think mostly because:

* there are relatively few funk horn sections around and those into this will be workin on orginals OR transcribing their own
* most of the rules of arranging apply to funk / pop anyway

The key thing is the way it's played not so much what. Check out this article by Mike Ossman, a weekend warrior who pretty much sums it up:
Mike's Article

Simon

PS To the guy who recommended www.charts.bluesbroads.com
please be aware that this guy (and in fact any site) that sells classic arrangements that are less than 70 years (ie in copyright) are ILLEGAL, especially as pdfs. His disclaimer at the bottom is laughable, attempting to shift the blame onto the purchaser. Unless it clearly states copyright information, it'll be fake.

 

[alan_]

OK guys here is a real revelation from Spike. There are loads and loads of midi files available on the net...not to mention about 30 funk tunes that I have already downloaded. Now if you download the Finale Notepad 2008 software (for free), you can open a midi file and it will give you the complete score, with all different instruments including each member of the horn section. This can then be saved, printed, speeded up, slowed down etc. etc. Try it out with this.
Download Finale Notepad 2008 here http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/
now download a midi file of your choice - here's a good one
Average White Band - Pick up the Pieces or Cut The Cake
http://members.tripod.com/~Xylomaster/average.html
Now open the downloaded midi in Finale NotePad and hey presto - the complete score with all instrument parts.
Wow - I love it. Thanks alot Spike.
Alan

 

[alan_]

OK guys here is a real revelation from Spike. There are loads and loads of midi files available on the net...not to mention about 30 funk tunes that I have already downloaded. Now if you download the Finale Notepad 2008 software (for free), you can open a midi file and it will give you the complete score, with all different instruments including each member of the horn section. This can then be saved, printed, speeded up, slowed down etc. etc. Try it out with this.
Download Finale Notepad 2008 here http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/
now download a midi file of your choice - here's a good one
Average White Band - Pick up the Pieces or Cut The Cake
http://members.tripod.com/~Xylomaster/average.html
Now open the downloaded midi in Finale NotePad and hey presto - the complete score with all instrument parts.
Wow - I love it. Thanks alot Spike.
Alan

 

[alan_]

Simon - thanks for the advice. Rest assured it is not me with the bluesbroads site, I just stumbled across it on the net. Alan