Sweet Caroline (Pep Band Band Arrangement)

This is my arrangement of Sweet Caroline for pep band. I'm actually not sure why I'm posting this. It's just what I've been working on recently and I'm really happy with the way it came out.... Well, enjoy! Notes: This is meant to be easily playable and simple. The singing and clapping section is meant to sound like clapping, but finale doesn't let you make custom sounds for a note, so it just sounds like annoying chords.
Sweet Caroline (Pep Band Band Arrangement)

Pep band player here!
This isn't half bad. Definitely simple and catchy. I think your orchestration of the tune to band is pretty good. I like the flow and rendering of it in this recording (except the Finale problem you came up with: there's probably a way around that.) As an arrangement it's IMO very true to the tune while taking a little advantage of the new setting. I think you could definitely take the band concept much, much further. There are some standard stand tunes which sound nothing like the original song (ex. Brick House, Hey Song, yadda yadda) and take on their own life when put to pep band. This one needs a little more of that.

My critiques:
*Firstly, fix the collisions and duplicated markings on the first page. The marking "medium swing" on a score only needs to be placed at most on each staff group. Ideally you can get away with putting it singly on the top staff.
*You could probably also get away with combining the alto staves, the trumpet staves, the horn staves and the trombone staves.
*No flute? It's rare for a group to have nothing but picc. *shudder*
*Take note: any pep band would probably (for time constraints as well as aesthetic reasons) ignore the DS. Not suggesting you do anything about it, tho.
*You've given very, very important parts to a usually relatively weaker section, the altos and French horns. Be wary of that.
*The drumline part is good, but pretty unengaging. You basically wrote a trap set part without any fills. 1- Write in fills, 2-write building lines that build with the band. 3-m.34: the drum part is pretty anti-climactic. We had all this open cymbal stuff leading up to...a tame, high hat groove.
*Man, trombones are usually the biggest and loudest section. I don't quite think you believe that, the way you orchestrated the melodies and supporting lines. Unless you're writing for a specific group with a relatively weak trombone section, I think that's a large source of untapped potential throughout this piece. Keep that in mind for future projects.
*In the singing section, I would definitely not make that a capella. I suggest leaving the tubas and drums in doing something. A band singing is not loud enough to carry over the energy of the tune at the end.
*The ending: nix the decrescendo, IMO, and write the scale going up and a crescendo to a double forte. That passage is a transitory passage. You MUST transform it into an ending.

It's a cool oldie that definitely fits nicely into the pep band genre. Go all the way. Weak endings and soft orchestrations mean this tune probably won't see more than a year of play in a group. Good for a recording as is, needs a tad more excitement to really be an awesome, practical stand chart.
8/10. Thanks for sharing!

-Pete
Note: When I say a section is "weak," I'm talking about volume interpreted by the audience.

Peter_W had a lot of good advice. This does need a little bit more drive! Try to give it something off your own; something to set it apart. However, this was a pleasant listen, and you did a good job.

Just because it's a pep band piece, I would probably cut the intro and just go to the chorus, unless of course you had tons of time.