Guide · Wind bands
How do you organise a wind band’s parts?
By NoteStand · updated
In short
File each piece with its full score and all its parts, one per instrument and voice (clarinet 1, 2, 3…). For each concert, note who plays which part in each piece and spot the parts left without a player. Mark the conductor’s decisions on a reference version everyone shares, and keep track of where each edition comes from for the rights.
1. A full set per piece
A wind band often means twenty or thirty parts per piece: flutes, oboes, clarinets in several voices, saxophones, horns, trumpets, trombones, tubas, percussion. For each piece, bring together:
- the full score, for the conductor;
- one part per instrument and voice, named unambiguously (“Clarinet 2 in B♭”, not “clar.pdf”);
- the alternative parts the publisher provides (an E♭ horn for a tenor horn, for example);
- the edition’s origin: bought, hired, free.
2. Who plays what, concert by concert
Who plays changes from one piece to the next: two first clarinets on the march, one on the chorale, no bassoon on the overture. Keep it piece by piece and concert by concert, rather than in the conductor’s head. Cross it with attendance: an essential part without a player is spotted before the dress rehearsal, not during it.
3. Corrections, on every copy
A cut, a repeat, a dynamic decided in rehearsal must reach every musician concerned, absentees included. Mark it on a reference version of the part that everyone reads, rather than relying on each person’s pencil.
4. Turning pages without letting go of the instrument
In a wind band, hands are on the instrument when the page has to turn. On paper, prepare the turns (unfolded copies, pages taped together). On a tablet, a Bluetooth page-turn pedal turns the page hands-free.
5. Editions and their rights
Publishers’ parts are often protected: photocopying a published score is a matter for your reprographic rights body, and each concert that performs a protected work is declared to your country’s collecting society. Note for each edition whether it’s bought, hired or free, and how many originals the band owns.
With NoteStand
- Each document is linked to its part or parts; each musician picks their section and finds “My part” in every piece. The full score stays alongside, for the conductor.
- For each piece of the set list, the conductor assigns the parts to musicians; parts left without a player stand out at a glance, and the concert’s line-up follows this assignment.
- A cut marked once on the shared layer is with the whole section at the next rehearsal; a part changed after the concert is announced, NoteStand notifies the musicians concerned.
- In the run, the Bluetooth pedal turns the pages, hands on the instrument.
- Each score carries a rights status; the register lists the shared editions, with the number of originals against the number of readers.