Arranging for Pit/Battery

[Brad T.]

So far, for the first movement of the concert piece, the pit stuff actually fell into place on its own. The only places the voicing got a little hairy is where the woodwinds were playing an important part that did not seem feasible to put in the brass, as their part was just as important. As such I took a page from high school band arrangements that put flute/piccolo/oboe/bells on one score and I wound up throwing the flute/piccolo part on xylophone. Only seems to add up to three notes (low octave, high octave, and one chordal interval). The same goes with some of the clarinet and alto sax parts that were not doubled in the trumpets or horns. Everything else seemed to line up. Suddenly the over-powerful pit sounds, well, nice. And if I wind up throwing out the concert snare part entirely (first movement is about 50/50 playing vs. not, 2nd movement is tacet, and 3rd movement is similar to a march so it's playing almost the entire time), I can start removing staves.

Thanks for everyone's help and opinions so far. I figure when it comes to battery, I'm going to have to defer to someone else to show me the ropes at the computer/practice pad. I tried writing a battery part for a pep band arrangement of 42nd Street I tried to make from an SATB + Piano score. Aside from bass drums on beats 1 and 2 and crash cymbals on the "ands" (Cut time, btw), the snare part sounds... not good, and the quad part... well... I've heard misfiring car engines with more rhythmic structure!