Hi
As a brass/sax teacher of both private and county school pupils I am irritated by the music arrangements given to my starter brass pupils. Prime examples I can think of are Con Moto publications and Kaleidiscope but there are certainly others out there arranged by professional music companies.

These pieces are earmarked as easy grade 1/2 and they may well be easy for the violins but they are not for the brass players!!
It appears to me that the music is arranged in the first instance for recorders, flutes and violins and is usually in the keys of C or G, which is obviously primarily for the violins!!
However this puts any trumpet parts in in D or A (2 or 3 sharps) and any alto saxophone parts in A or E (3 or 4 sharps)

These pieces are very rarely in flat keys

These means for example that a beginner trumpet may have to play low C#s F#s and G#s.These are all difficult notes for a beginner to produce and/or find on a brass instrument.
The beginner alto sax player/clarinettist has similar problems with notes not found in the natural scale of the instrument
I have also seen a low B on the trombone which is a difficult note to produce (7th position ...beginners arms aren't long enough!!)

This is the equivalent of making beginner strings play in Eb!!!

I don't expect my brass pupils to have it easy all the time and never read sharps BUT a bit of balance with these arrangements would be nice.
So maybe an arrangement in F Bb Eb would help the strings to learn the flats and give the brass/clarinets/saxs an easier time!!!

Has anyone working in a school environment found any good easy orchestral arrangements out there?
or experienced this problem?

(I appreciate Junior Wind band arrangements tend to be in flat keys)

When I was learning, my teacher had a book of music for beginners which had CD backing which I always enjoyed. I cant for the life of me think what it was called, but I will ask her when I next see her.

I teach a group of 7 9yr olds as part of my enrichment at college; they're all beginners having only been learning since september. (they have a professional teacher aswell as me obviously, i just run a little band thing)

I arrange my own versions of songs that they enjoy; you know like classic songs or tv themes. It doesnt take me too long; I just look in my beginners book that I had and take the melody line, then adding other parts to it.

There is always the helpful fact that if I want to do a more adventurous piece I can play the melody line, leaving the beginners with the parts of the tune they can manage.

And the best part is, they all love it!!

Arranging music can lead to copyright problems if performed in public.
Try http://www.archwaymusic.com/ or http://www.musicbyarrangement.co.uk/

Is it alright if you're just doing it for a bit of fun though? Like it never reaches a concert?
Im worried now!