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How much to charge for horn arrangements?

7K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  Morry 
#1 ·
Hey guys. There's a group that I play with that has a decent amount of notated horn charts, but a lot of the music are lead sheets in C. Some of the stuff is music that has horns and some of it is music that didn't originally have horns but we add horns anyway. But whatever we come up with happens on the fly and has to be relatively simple so everyone will be able to pick it up.

I offered to write some horn charts for the band and the leader thought it was a good idea. Some of the stuff will be straight record rips and other stuff will be lines I'll write myself. We're supposed to talk about how much I'll be compensated for the work. But I don't have any idea where to start. Anybody have a fair idea about what a fair rate per chart (3 horns) would be? I was thinking of having different rates based on the complexity of the rip/arrangement. For example, I did a couple of freebies a few months ago that took me about 20 minutes each from transcription to being done in Finale. But there's some Sinatra stuff that has horns almost all the way through where it's in harmony instead of unison/octave which would take more time.

Or should I charge by the hour? Any ideas?
 
#2 ·
"To whom much is given, much is required!"

I write out charts for the band I play in from time to time as do others. I dont charge them (myself) anything. If I can do it, I do it. If it makes playing in the band more enjoyable, I write a chart. Others lug the gear and make contributions in other ways. It all comes out in the wash.
 
#3 ·
You can buy arrangements anywhere from $5 to $35 on the web. Somewhere in between would be fair IMHO.
 
#5 ·
I'd seen ranges of $15-35 and was kind of thinking something like $10-15 for easier stuff (riff based, repetitive sections, a lot of unison/octave lines) and $35 for more intricate stuff (horn playing almost all the time, through composed, mostly 3 part harmony) and $20-25 for in between stuff. Maybe charge a little extra if I'm writing the parts myself instead of simply transcribing them.

Still want to hear other peoples opinions.
 
#4 ·
Let me point out that this is a fairly successful private party/wedding band. Almost every person in the band is a high caliber pro. The band makes at least a couple grand per performance. There's money to pay for the services. I've done a chart or two here or there when a new song w/horns has been added to the set. But I'm not doing 15-20 charts in 2 weeks for free (we're playing for a crowd of 10K on July 4 so I'll hope to have them ready by then). And they wouldn't expect me to either. They know it'll be a lot of work and they're willing to pay for it. I don't want to gouge them and am willing to cut give them a discount from what a typical rate would be, but I'm not going to do it for free. It's a lot of work and I need some money and the wedding bookings have slowed over the summer.
 
#8 ·
Youre right, a chart here and there isnt a big deal. I would probably want some compensation if I had to write out a whole gigs worth of charts!

I recently paid by the hour for a bunch of music to be written out... I think it was $30/hr.
 
#10 ·
In Germany, I usually got €50.00* a chart - meaning three horns (no rhythm parts).
*($64.00)
 
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