I didn't really no where to put this topic and I suppose it is "general".
Me and two friends are wanting to start up our own band/ensemble. I play the flute and my friends play alto saxophone and clarinet but we don't really know what type of music would be best to play with the mixture of instruments. We were thinking maybe jazz, swing, modern kind of music.

Does the mix of sounds work ok together?

Also does anyone know anyone pieces/books that we can get inspiration from?
I do a lot of arranging for a wind quintet I am in so could have a go at arranging some pieces to get us used to playing together and then hopefully we hope to compose our own music to play and to also help us with AS/A level music.

Any tips or advice would come in very useful

I thought that you would have had lots of replies to this but not one so far can I see. If you wanted to do a little transposing for the flute you could play clarinet trios with or without accomp. I would think that you would have far more fun however arranging some simple piano pieces for your trio. Have a look at pieces by Pamela Wedgwood and see what you can do with those for starters.

I run a band comprised of flutes, clarinets and saxes and we do loads of jazz/swing BUT I play keyboard with it which adds rhythm and harmonic base. Can you find a keyboard player, preferably one who can play from chord symbols? Or a guitarist?

Hope your band goes well - we have great fun in ours and even get paid occasionally!

Liz

Thanks, I will see what I can do! I'll try and hunt down a keyboard player or guitarist
I'm gonna see if I can find some pieces by Pamela Wedgwood and see what I can come up with!
I think Jazz/swing is probably the best genre for s but if anyone has any other ideas I would be grateful for your help!