Ask Phil about jazz composition and arranging
An educational service for aspiring composers and arrangers: send Phil a specific question about jazz composition, arranging, string writing or orchestral scoring.
How to send a question
Email Phil at philkelly@philkellymusic.com. Keep each email to one specific question or problem, and keep it to the music. If it helps to show what you are working on, attach a short sketch file from your notation program, or a PDF of the page in question. A few bars that show the problem are more useful than a full score.
Questions about string writing and full orchestral scoring are welcome as well as big band and small group jazz writing.
Good questions to ask
- Voicing a sax soli so the lead line sings without the section getting muddy.
- Writing split two-part harmony between saxes and trumpets.
- Adding strings, real or programmed, behind a jazz ballad.
- Reworking a standard's changes into a new line, the way "Play Tonic Buds" sits on "Just Friends".
- Pacing a chart: where the shout chorus goes, and how to hand off between soloists.
Who is answering
Phil has spent more than forty years writing for bands, singers, symphony pops, film and television. He has taught film scoring and music for commercial media as a guest lecturer at the University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University and the University of Colorado at Denver, and coached student big bands at the Bud Shank Jazz Workshop in Port Townsend. His own charts, the examples he is most likely to refer to, can be heard through the audio clips on the recordings page, and many are available as published big band scores if you want to study the parts.
Selected questions and answers may be posted on this page, without your email address, so that other writers can learn from them too.