Today I’m sharing 3 amazing arranging tactics from our Sax School Guest Session with Steve Parry, Arranger for The Voice UK.
Now, you might not think you’re ready to write for a sax section yet, but stick around.
Even if you’re not playing in a horn section yet, trust me as a saxophone player, you need to know these tactics.
Because you can apply them even if you’re just writing for two saxophones in a duet.
Or if you’re playing with one or two other saxophones or trumpets or trombones.
These tips are perfect if you’re going all the way to saxophone legend status and playing in a horn band.
Check out my conversation with Steve to find out how to write for a sax section in 3 easy tactics.
Tactic #1: Playing in Unison
Nigel: Would you say that the stuff we’re going talk about today would help people, whatever level they’re at?
Steve: Oh, definitely. I mean, the thing about horn ranging is you don’t have to make things complicated to make it sound good. Even if you’ve only got two people – a trumpet and a saxophone – you can still make it sound great, with just with the two of you. It makes the band sound better, when you’re there!
Nigel: What if you are just playing with one other saxophone, or one other horn player, and you have no other experience on how to write for a sax section? What’s the easiest, but also really effective tactic that you can use?
Steve: Well, the best thing to do is play in unison or octaves. It sounds very simplistic, but if you’ve got two or three people playing in a couple of octaves, it’s really powerful.
Your lines don’t have to be complicated at all.They can be just long notes or they can be stabs. You can just play on the beat 2, if you want to.
In Soul music, for instance, there are so many of those old Soul records from the sixties on Motown. Listen to Soul Man – that’s a classic example. The horn section there is about as simple as you can get. It’s just one note, on the tonic, in unison. Done!
Nigel: There you go. That’s it. We don’t need to know anything else. Just need to play in unison.
How to create your unison sax lines
So it just goes to show, our first tactic is so simple. But it works and it’s been used on famous tracks like Sam and Dave – Soul Man.
So we’re simply taking the top line and then doubling it on the other instrument, whether that’s two altos or two tenors, or an alto and a tenor. You choose.
So if we look at the music here for Soul Man, it’s in the key of G Concert. That means the alto saxophones are in the key of E, and the tenor saxophones are in the key of A.
Now we’re just playing one long note, which is an E on alto or an A on tenor.
So if you’re in a band playing this song, and you’ve got two alto saxophones, you just play an E. But you could put one of them down the octave.
If you’ve got an alto and a tenor, then the tenor can play down the octave, and that’s going give you a really big fat sound.
Now it’s also worth mentioning that the unison technique is used in the opening line of Soul Man.
But listen to what happens when you add a second saxophone to that line just in unison, or just playing in octaves. How much more powerful does that sound?
Finally, I’ve got someone to play with in the studio!
Tactic #2: Add a Third
Nigel: So what’s the next step if we want to spice things up and add a bit more interest?
Steve:: Well, you can always add harmony, like a third – usually a third above.
You can also flip it round. So you can put the tune an octave higher, and that’s called a sixth, so it’s just a third inverted.
You can play a line in octaves and then if you’ve got to play it twice, do the second time in thirds or sixths. That’s just a nice little bit of interest.
And again, that’s not a complicated thing to do. You’re not trying to work out any weird chords or passing notes. So you’re in thirds or sixths if you go the other way around.
I love this second tactic. And Steve goes on to say, in soul music and a lot of pop music we’re usually sticking within the key signature. So you don’t need worry about finding complicated harmony notes here that aren’t in the key of the song.
But there’s an important thing that Steve said here. And that is, that when we find that second harmony by going a third up, or three steps up the scale from the first note, it always sounds better if you take that upper note and you drop it down into the lower voice.
So in our example where we’ve got an alto and a tenor in the horn section, the alto would play the main melody note, which in this case is the naming note of the chord.
And then the tenor would play a third above that, but an octave lower, and that gives you a fat sound.
Now, what if you have more than just two horns?
What if you’ve got three or even four horns in your horn section? How then can we easily use harmony to make our horn section sound awesome?
Tactic #3: Double Up the Melody
Steve: If you’ve got three people in your horn section, if you have somebody who’s on the melody, somebody is on your harmony below it, then you can just double the melody down the octave.
Because any way you can reinforce that melody will make it more punchy. And then your harmony is just a little addition that colors it.
So if you’ve got four horns, you know it’s best to have somebody on the melody. Then one person on the harmony and then maybe two down there on the octave below the melody.
Nigel: Can you explain that scenario, if we had an alto, a tenor, and a bari in a horn section?
Steve: Well, a baritone is always a good, fun instrument to have. So if you’ve got an alto, a tenor and a bari, you could have some great octaves. You have your alto on the melody. The tenor can be an octave below it, and your baritone can be an octave below that. So you’ve got three versions of the melody, and that is really strong.
Nigel: So all moving in parallel.
Steve: Yes – all moving in parallel. You don’t even need your harmony yet.
If you want to put your harmony in, you could put your baritone where your tenor was and move your tenor up to the third. But honestly that if you got three instruments in three different octaves just on the tune, that’s so powerful.
Nigel: So what about if we had a different combination in our horn section? For example, if there was a trumpet, a trombone, and a tenor saxophone – what would we do then?
Steve: Often I would put the tenor and the trombone in unison together, and then the trumpet an octave above.
When you start doubling up your melody, you need to watch for intonation problems. So on the trumpet, the melody might be in the middle of the range of the trumpet. However, when it’s on the tenor, on the same note, you are right up the top of the range of the instrument. And that can cause intonation problems.
So it’s much better to have it that down the octave. So you could have the trumpet above, and the tenor and the trombone together in the octave below. That’s a really strong sound.
Nigel: And again, that’s quite simple.
Steve: If you want harmony, you’ll put your tenor up on the harmony.
Nigel: Okay, so trumpet and trombone are an octave part and then the tenor on the harmony.
How interesting is it to hear somebody who’s at the top of their game, making this complicated thing seem simple? I love that.
3 Easy Tactics to write for a sax section
We’ve got three easy tactics. I bet you can’t wait to try them out yourself.
So we’ve talked about having our instruments in unison, so playing the same note, or the same note an octave apart.
And then we talked about writing a the harmony part a third above the melody.
But then you can also take that harmony note that’s the third above and put that down the octave. That’s a really powerful sound.
And then third, we talked about using that concept for 2, 3, 4 instruments or more. So you might have your top note, and your third above, (in the octave below). And then all the other notes are the same as the top note but an octave below. Or even two octaves below if you’ve got a bari sax.
Working as an Arranger on the Voice UK
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the rest of this masterclass with Steve Parry.
He also dug into what it was like working on a show like The Voice UK. He talked about the amazing volume of work that he has to do, transcribing and writing out hundreds of charts – sometimes in a really short period of time.
And he also spoke a little bit about some of the other amazing shows he’s working on – really inspiring.
If you want to check out the full masterclass, you can get access now with a 14 day free trial of Sax School PRO.
I hope you enjoy using some of these harmony concepts in your next project!