In my series of posts about different musical instruments, I have, over time, managed to cover most of the most common instruments that feature in Western music – those instruments that your children are most likely to be learning to play, or to come across in some way during their time in education at least. So rather than either go back over those instruments I have already written about, or write about less common instruments (which is something I may well do in future years), I thought I would now use my Facts About… series of posts to talk about the most common ensembles that your children will listen to, see perform, or maybe play or sing in. Again, my focus is on ensembles that feature in Western traditions, and it may well be that in the future I look at musical instruments and ensembles from other musical traditions, but for now I will stick with what I know. You can read my other blog posts in this series on ensembles by clicking on the links below:
Facts About The String Quartet
What is a Big Band, Who Performs In It and What Music Do They Play?
- Like the Swing Band, a Big Band is an ensemble with somewhere between 12 and 30 musicians playing together.
- The swing band is made up from musicians from the following families of musical instruments:
- The Brass Family
- The Woodwind (Reeds) Family
- The Percussion Family
- A swing band’s make up can vary, but will often have musicians playing the following instruments:
- between 3 and 5 trumpets
- between 2 and 4 trombones
- 2 alto saxophones
- 2 tenor saxophones
- 1 baritone saxophone
- Piano
- Guitar
- Drums
- Double bass
- The line up of musicians above will often be joined by other musicians from the woodwind family:
- flute
- clarinet
- a singer
- In terms of where the players will sit in the big band, this is pretty much identical to the swing band that I wrote about last month. So players will be sat with the rhythm section (piano, drums, guitar and (double) bass) on the left hand side as you are looking at them and the brass and reeds sections on the right. The brass and reeds will usually be arranged in rows, with saxophones (and other woodwind instrumentalists) in the front row, trombones behind them, and trumpets at the back.
- While a swing band often does not have a conductor, with the sheer number of musicians playing in a Big Band, it is far more common for a Big Band to have a conductor. And so, the conductor will generally stand, like with any other large ensemble, in the centre at the front facing the other musicians.
History of the Big Band
- I wrote last month about the Swing Band, and much of the history of the Swing Band is relevant to Big Bands – certainly Big Bands such as Glenn Miller’s were Big Bands that played Swing Music. Many of the figures who were instrumental in the development of Swing Music were people who were involved in and instrumental in the Big Band scene as well.
- Swing Music grew out of Big Band Music, and in its turn Big Band Music grew out of the Jazz Scene. And arguably the Swing Era was the high point of the Big Band era. They are all inextricably linked. So, this section will probably be quite short as I shall try to look here at the differences between Swing Bands and Big Bands.
- Big Band music grew from the Jazz and Ragtime bands of the early 20th Century. While the first jazz ensembles coming out of New Orleans were often quite small ensembles, as their music began to move into larger dance halls and ballrooms then the bands started to grow to fill the space. They became big bands, quite literally. And as these were ensembles used to accompany dancing, the music they played featured the syncopated rhythms, where music is played emphasising the off-beat, that jazz and swing music is famous for, and which lends itself to dance music. When you first learn to play music, your teachers will spend a lot of time getting you to learn to feel the beat, they may play marching games, to get you to learn to feel a 2/4 rhythm, or get you waltzing around the room to learn how to feel the beat in 3/4 time. but in syncopated music, you play off the beat, making the music have a very distinct rhythmic feel to it.
- While Big Bands do use improvisation in their music, the amount of improvisation can vary hugely. Some Big Bands use a lot of improvisation, and others only give improvised sections of music to their soloists – it stands to reason that larger ensembles will have a number of different musicians playing the same part and you cannot ask, say, 3 trombonists all to improvise a section of music at the same time, so the opportunities for improvisation are a little more limited than with other jazz ensembles.
- Big Band music started to gain in popularity in the 1910s and 20s, and it was Big Bands which had a very large role in helping to popularise swing music. Benny Goodman, a key figure in swing music – so much so that he was often called the “King of Swing”, played a concert at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, California, with his Big Band that brought swing music to a much wider audience, making it more respectable for everyone to listen to, not just those people who went to the dance clubs.
- At the end of the 1930s and into the 1940s the Second World War was raging across Europe. Many Big Bands and Swing musicians and their bands were at the height of their fame, Big Bands were flown all over the world to help boost morale of troops fighting in the Second World War with GI’s favourite songs helping to remind them of their love of their country while they were far from home. Glenn Miller was one Big Band leader who travelled with his Band to perform for troops in England, and they performed at least 800 morale boosting shows before Miller’s plane sadly disappeared while flying over the English Channel and he was declared Missing In Action.
- Today there are many Big Band performances all over the world. While they are not as popular as they were in the early to mid 20th Century, Big Band shows continue to draw crowds wherever they perform.
Big Band World Records
- I could not find any Guiness World Records specific to Big Bands.
If you have enjoyed reading my blog post, thank you. I am always looking for ideas for the blog, so would love to hear from you with suggestions for topics you would like me to cover in the future. Also, if you would be interested in supporting me to keep this blog running, buying the books to review here, and supplies to make the DIY instruments, for example, I would be absolutely delighted if you would consider buying me a coffee using the following link: Buy Me A Coffee Thank you!!
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