Feedback on Beginning Band Arrangement

I would appreciate some feedback on this beginning band piece. I normally compose for piano but was asked to work with a local music program for kids. I'll be doing some easy folk songs requested by students plus one or two original pieces.

Any advice would be appreciated, especially for the percussion.

The Klangfarbenmelodie is cute. The process of the [I IV V I] section... I see going on is a little bit confusing for younger kids and they won't really get it; they'll be wondering why they aren't playing the melody. I would also encourage a little more expansion away from monophony. Engage them as much as possible. You have good ranges in here to make it seem purposeful in execution, which is always necessary.
Good luck. I find writing for beginners to be much harder than professionals.

On 5/19/2017 at 4:25 PM, ilv said:

Good job. Keep it up. I do want to warn you that a beginner school band is likely going to be unable to play that fast.

 

Noted. Thanks.

22 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

The Klangfarbenmelodie is cute. The process of the [I IV V I] section... I see going on is a little bit confusing for younger kids and they won't really get it; they'll be wondering why they aren't playing the melody. I would also encourage a little more expansion away from monophony. Engage them as much as possible. You have good ranges in here to make it seem purposeful in execution, which is always necessary.
Good luck. I find writing for beginners to be much harder than professionals.

 

Thanks for your suggestions. And I do have to admit, I had to google Klangfarbenmelodie .

Nice.  Add some more stylistic and dynamic markings on your music for clarity.

You did a great job on this. I think the part where some of the band plays just upbeats (around 1:09) may be a bit difficult, but I think the percussion writing was pretty good. Just try not to overuse cymbal like from 1:41-1:47. I think it may be better to have the whole band play the melody at forte rather than just the cymbal crashes, but that's just me.

Overall, just know that beginning band writing is difficult and you are doing a great job!