Customer Reviews

Marching Band Arranging: Methods, Materials, Techniques

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I used William Spencer-Pierce's marching band arrangements in my high school marching band for many years. They were always well received by the audience and judging community. My students and I were never dissapointed.
I recognize many of the techniques in the book because Bill explained many of the " hows and whys " of his philosophy when I was his client. This book is full of these great nuggets of information on marching band arranging.
I especially like the book because it is practical rather than purely theoretical. The widespread use of musical examples really does a nice job of illustrating the text.
The book belongs in the personal library of every high school marching band director. It would also be a valuable resource for high school or college students considering a career in instrumental music education.
Experienced band directors can also benefit because arrangements might need to be tweaked during during the marching season to adapt to personnel changes or judges' suggestions.
Based on forty years of teaching marching band, I hardily recommend this book!

Wow, I wish I could have had this book coming out of college. I was fortunate enough to have William Spencer Pierce as an arranger though. WSP helped us take our group to state numerous times and helped us win State in 1994 and the Class A BOA National Championship in 1992.

He has managed to create a book to guide any director or student through the same steps he used to create award winning arrangments. The book is straight forward. It is easy to understand and apply to any of your arranging needs.

I would urge directors, college students, and judges to read this book and keep it as a reference. It would be an ideal supplemental book to any college course dealing with arranging, drill writing, or music education. This would be one of those books the music students would not sell back at the end of the semester.

A must read for anyone serious about the marching band activity.

In Marching Band Arranging William Spencer-Pierce presents a concise and practical guide to arranging. For the young teacher or college student, there are sections covering basic theory, instruments, and formal considerations. Experienced teachers will benefit from Spencer-Pierce's suggestions on scoring, voicings, and stylistic issues (such as scoring for jazz charts). Spencer-Pierce explains each lesson clearly, and reinforces them with numerous examples and lists for further listening and reading. The book concludes with three complete scores representing different styles and instrumentations.

I highly recommend Marching Band Arranging to anyone interested in arranging or composing. Spencer-Pierce has written a valuable guide appropriate for all teachers and musicians.

Marching Band Arranging has all the basics of the "for dummies" series of books, but it takes several giant steps beyond those basics. This is a great "how to" manual not only for those that want to learn the art of arranging, but gives any band director some great ideas and short-cuts to "tweak" either stock or custom arrangements. If I'd had this earlier in my career I could have saved a lot of time and money for my students and myself. If used for only a quick reference of transpositions, instrument ranges and basic music theory, it is well worth the price.
Bill Spencer-Pierce has done a great job of presenting this subject in a clear, easy-to-understand format. It would be equally valuable for the experienced director or even those special students that we've all had that want to try their hand at musical composition. Spencer-Pierce covers the entire spectrum of musical arranging for the genre of marching/pep band and has included many samples to illustrate his points. Of special interest is the treatment of the percussion instruments, all-too-often neglected by some arrangers. Many times I've had to get my percussion parts written by someone other than the arranger that wrote for the horn line. This book solves that problem.
For those who have no intention of arranging on their own, this book will be a great asset in helping communicate your needs to your arranger. I suspect Mr. Spencer-Pierce has wished his clients had a bit more savvy in this area during his tenure as an arranger! It will also help to solve those problems that often show up in rehearsals as the marching show develops. There are always those glitches that are caused by unexpected instrumentation and personnel changes. The ability to make these "fixes" is a great stress reliever for both directors and students.
In short, this book has something for everyone involved in marching band. Seasoned directors, new directors and even students will find many pearls that will make your band experience much more enjoyable.