About the Music

What is the music of Pandemica Driveway Band all about and where can I get sheet music?

Pandemica Driveway Band has a library of over 500 arrangements for clarinet, French horn, tuba, drum set, and guitar, ranging from Tin Pan Alley and folk through Swing and Latin, and up to Country, Pop and Rock. All of our arrangements were done by tubist Bill Wilson. Bill's published almost 500 brass quintet arrangements and has written hundreds of arrangements for Crosstown Horn Band, several dozen for Salt and Pepper Street Band, and several dozen for small pit orchestra horn sections.

Some of you have asked whether you can access these arrangements, and whether they might work for slightly different instrumentation.

In September, 2021, we began publishing a handful of these arrangements at Sheet Music Plus, through the Toot Suite Brass Publishing label, which has been publishing brass quintet and other brass arrangements since 2013. We chose these arrangements carefully. We want to share arrangements:

• That are approachable by gifted high schoolers and reasonably dedicated amateur musicians.

• That will be recognizable to at least some in the audience.

• That will challenge the performers, sometimes musically, sometimes technically, and sometimes both.

• That will help make the ensemble sound wonderful.

The Pandemica Driveway Band is definitely a "horn band". We split our musicians into "the horns" (the clarinet and French horn) and "the rhythm section" (the tuba, drum set, and guitar). We use the French horn and clarinet in somewhat similar ways, but we take advantage of the special characteristics each instrument has, and of the capabilities that clarinetist Skip Bedard and French hornist Gloria Wilson have.

The clarinet parts are usually not exceedingly fast-moving, but they take advantage of the extended range of the clarinet, ranging from the lowest available note (E below the staff) to sometimes E above the staff, for a total of 3 octaves. The clarinet is often used for lead parts, but we also often use the clarinet to play either high countermelodies or countermelodies that roam across the entire clarinet range.

The French horn parts avoid fast motion at pretty much all costs, and are more limited in range, pretty much ranging from G below the treble clef staff to F at the top of the staff, for a range of almost 2 octaves. The French horn is also often used for lead parts, although perhaps not quite as much as the clarinet, but the French horn is also used for gorgeous slow moving harmonization. Because this ensemble has drum set and guitar, the French horn is very rarely used to play simple offbeats.

We aim in our arrangements to keep the non-lead parts interesting enough that were we to drop the lead out in a section of music with a harmony part, the audience would simply assume that the harmony part was the lead. We also aim in our rehearsals and performance to play these harmony parts as though audience members were listening carefully to both lead and harmony parts, so we attach great importance to musicality in the harmony parts.

Our tuba parts vary. Some of our tuba parts are very simple rhythmic bass parts. With these, we strive for consistent sound and to drive the music forward. Some of our tuba parts are oriented toward harmonization more than driving a rhythmic agenda forward, and with these we strive to build gorgeous stacks of sound. And sometimes our tuba parts push the bounds of playability because they are fast and punchy. Some of this music is unplayable unless the tuba player is a very fast single tonguer or is capable of double tonguing and managing valves pretty independently. These are the parts that can make audience members start shouting "Tuba, Tuba, Tuba!".

Our written drum set parts are fairly simple. As is often the case with drum set music, our drummer looks at the written music, gets some insights from it, and maps that music to drum set patterns that he has learned over the years. The result is music that doesn't sound quite like it is written, doesn't sound the same at every performance, and is very enjoyable. Your drummer should feel free to explore.

Our guitar parts are also fairly simple, but, because we are an amateur horn band, we have chosen keys that are friendlier to the French horn and clarinet than to the guitar. In other words, our arrangements tend to have flats instead of sharps.

We do not attempt to reproduce the original sound from any of the various bands whose music we play. We have our own sound and we aim for that sound. I suppose you could try to sound like the Beatles when you play music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but the arrangements are written more to sound wonderful with our instrumentation, and less to support imitation. When you play this music, bear in mind that you want to make your sound, not the Beatles sound, and maybe not even the Pandemica Driveway Band sound.

If you're interested in purchasing arrangements of our music, you can see a complete list at Sheet Music Plus .

We've only performed these arrangements with the instrumentation that we advertise. But we think that some substitutions would be reasonable:

• For the clarinet part, we think you could substitute soprano or alto sax.

• For the French horn part, we think you could substitute euphonium, alto sax, or tenor sax.

We don't think that it would be workable to substitute trumpet for clarinet. Not only do we use more of the clarinet range than would be comfortable for amateur trumpet players, but the clarinet requires less rest than the trumpet, and the arrangements reflect that.

If you want to perform any of these published pieces with substitutes for clarinet and/or French horn, contact Bill Wilson at wdw747(at)gmail.com to inquire. If we can do these transpositions and you are purchasing the arrangement, the transposition work does not require additional payment.

If you've heard us play a piece and can't find it at Sheet Music Plus, shoot Bill an email and ask about it. Not all of our music is publishable (we require permission from the copyright owner to publish) but most of those copyright permissions are readily accessible with no up front cost, and we're happy to take fan input into consideration in choosing arrangements to publish.