Music parts for Soprano?

[mstrick96]

I've gotten my embrochure and setup right and am now playing regularly with my orchestra. In fact, I'm rarely playing my clarinet now because I'm enjoying my soprano so much. (I have a Yani 991 straight sop)

I play with a good church orchestra and we play a variety of musical styles including a little jazz.

My problem is that there is not much music written with soprano sax parts. I'm usually playing trumpet parts because I can hear my notes and can play in tune with the trumpets. This is helping me with my intonation which has been my biggest difficulty. I also sometimes play clarinet and tenor sax parts.

What do the veteran soprano sax players do for soprano parts? Should I try transposing some other instrument's parts?

Mike S

[gege]

you could try to plax the oboe parts, the oboe has about the same range as the soprano, a similar sound and transposing is not so difficult,
gege

[mstrick96]

I might try that. The oboe-like sound quality is one thing that attracted me to the soprano in the first place. We are without an oboe right now. She got married and moved out of the area.

Thanks, I'll look into that.

Mike

[sj]

I play trumpet in the stage band. But my friend played oboe with his soprano in concert band. So you might want to try oboe. Sometimes when you have oboe solos, the soprano will do a outstanding job. :D

[Straightsax]

No transposing:

Bb Clarinet parts - normally a little more interesting than Bb Trumpet Parts.

Bb Tenor Sax parts – you would be playing an octave above. If a Tenor Sax player doing this part, I would leave it alone. That also includes Trombone parts.

Bb Trumpet parts – if nothing else is available and if they don’t have a Bb Trumpet player.

Tape it and create your own part by improvising at home. Also, you may want to try and create obligatos (at home) backing a vocal solo. Don’t noodle in the Church, noodle at home. Get it down and then play it softly as if you were where just doing it off the top of your head. If the Director likes it he/she may include you in the piece. If he/she doesn’t, you will be told to sit down and shut up. So, it has to be good. Rehearsal is rehearsal, not practice. Weave in and out. You don’t want to overshadow the vocalist.

Concert key: (Read a full step up)

Vocal descants – sometimes those soprano voices need a little help up there. If they are trained voices usually they don’t. Some publishers print a separate edition strictly related to descants. You might want to check it out in the music library, if the Church has one.

The Alto line (from four part harmony, if the trumpets are playing the melody)

Oboe parts – like clarinet parts, more interesting than Trumpet parts. You may even have a mouthpiece that gives you that “oboe on steroids” sound anyway. No we don’t want to go there.

Flute Parts

Violin Parts

Normally, I stay away from bass lines. In some pieces they work and in others they don’t. Anything in bass clef and must be determined on a piece by piece basis. Soprano is not a low-end instrument.

If there is no Alto sax player, and there is a part for Alto sax you may want to investigate it. However, the caveat here is that it will not fit on the horn the same way and can lead to totally different phrasing requirements. Another case by case scenario here.

Always seek out the choir edition of the piece, which usually includes an instrumental version – not always, but at least half of the time. Sometimes there is an instrument part that no one wants to play because they do not want to transpose it. And sometimes, it’s the best part of all. It depends on how much work you want to go through to find out.

Basically, the sky is the limit due to the publishers not putting the soprano sax in a box. It really comes down on how much work you want to put into it. There is some music being published for soprano sax in the church arena. However, it’s still in the needle in the haystack stage and varies from denomination to denomination. Check out what publisher your Church uses and go to the web site and see what else they have that your Church isn’t using. You may find some pieces written for soprano sax. Most Church publications have web sites. You may find something there, depending on the publisher.

The higher the instrument, the more important the pitch and intonation. Don’t go beyond your limits, till you get your intonation down solid. Trumpet parts may be fine for right now. Your intonation will improve as your embouchure develops. Don’t rush it. Ah, the temptation. You’ll pay for it later if you do rush it.

Practice, Practice, Practice. And more Practice.

And, as always, Peace.

Chris.