Q: Would I want that arrangement to have the same extensions that I'm doing on piano (Dm9, G9/13, Cmaj6/9)? Is it a good strategy to take the same notes the piano is playing, but just voice them in a different order/inversion? Do I want to double all those same notes? I know there's not set "rules" or anything. And you can write horn arrangements/vocal arrangements in any way that sounds good to you. But I'm new to this kind of thing, and ju
st inter
ested in any tips or "strategies" you may have.
A: usually i think you'll find when arranging for a band, you're usuallly going to want to not go too far beyond what a single piano player could play with 2 hands. (or even one.) Doubling notes is fine and great. i think if you were to take all the notes that anyone is playing at any given time, octave specific, and diagram them on the piano, i think it should really usually only be between like 4 and 9 notes. but you'll have to try and see. but if you have multiple chordal instruments, horns, voices, whatever, i think it would be a bad strategy to try to put everyone on different notes on purpose. on that Dmin7, everyone should gravitate toward that F note, and/or the A and C notes, right around the middle range, and when theres more players just be gentle and let those notes just sing and glow as each instrument approaches those voicings in whatever way their instrument works best-- so ideally you should get a nicely layered sound that just sounds like a 2-4 note chord that sounds like a very healthy blend, where all the most important notes are being played by approximately 2 and a half people. but you'll just have to try and see