Arranging Music for Band

Some of our students have an elective module which leads to making an arrangement for big band.  Can the library help with that?

Well, yes! If you search on arranging and band, a handful of suitable books come up.  But we bet you we could find more resources by using Catalogue Plus to find electronic resources.

Not only that, we'll have plenty of books about instruments, their ranges and what they are capable of.  (Never trust a trombone ...) So, do drop in and see us if you need any extra help before you do your arrangement.  We draw the line at that!

Arranging Folksongs (As You Do!)

Karen has been musing about folksong arrangements.  Hardly surprising - her research has focused on other peoples' arrangements for long enough!!

Read her thoughts here.

Can I Make Arrangements of Original Music without Breaking Copyright?

 It's so tempting, isn't it?  You find a great piece of music and want to arrange it for your instrument or ensemble. But can you do it legally?  It depends ...

The Music Publishers Association Code of Fair Practice, agreed between composers, publishers and users of printed music, is the place to check for questions like this.

These are two links you should save:-

• MPA Online Code of Fair Practice
• MPA FAQs

Arranging Music, and Arranging Jazz

Watch this space.  Karen will be posting suggestions of some great titles to help you get started with your musical arrangements.  (Just wait until she's done a bit more cataloguing ...)

Opening the Oyster's Shell: better ways of searching the catalogue

Better ways of searching for library materials

Try for yourself - or ask a librarian!

Suppose you want a book about arranging tunes.  Entering 'arranging' in the search box may not be the best approach - you get too many results!

Try clicking the more search options link under the search button.  You can now refine your search with all or any of these choices:-

• Specify words that MUST be in your search
• Specify words that must NOT be in your search
• Specify a range of words, any of which might be relevant
• Specify the kind of material you want, eg a recording, a book, or a score

Here's an example.  Searching on 'arranging' yields far too many results.  Same for 'arrangement'.  And if you particularly want jazz materials, you're in luck - but maybe you don't want this.

• A better way of searching, using the more search options link, would be to enter 'arrangement arrange arranging' in the AT LEAST ONE OF THE WORDS search box. 
• Enter 'jazz' in the NONE OF THESE WORDS box. 
• Select Music book from the options in the COLLECTIONS box.

Do ask any of the Library staff if you need help constructing a search.  We've got years of experience between us!