See the Copyright Notice.
Combo tune lists
100+ original combo tunes, for downloading:
- Assorted styles: Swing, Ballad, Waltz, Blues, Mambo, Rumba, etc.
- Conventional song forms: 32 bar AABA or ABAC, blues, etc.
- Arrangement for each song, for Lead, Background (counterpoint), Bass, and Drums.
- MIDI demo file for each song.
- Sheet music for each song, in Concert, Bb, and Eb transpositions.
- The "C+" part is the Concert part, plus the bass line.
You can access the combo tunes two ways:
- View or download individual MIDI files or sheet music, listed by title, style, and year.
- Download bulk ZIP files with all of the combo tunes, as listed in Bulk Downloads.
Note: Depending on your browser setting, when you click on a link you'll either display or download a sheet-music file (pdf), and either playback or download a midi file.
Arrangements
The combo tunes are arranged for four instruments: Lead, Background, Bass, and Drums. The arrangements are intended to provide skeletal material for a small combo, e.g. two or more horns and a rhythm section.
The arrangements are all sheet-music style, for a single time through the song form. Some of the MIDI versions repeat the song form two (or even three times), with and without the Background Part.
The Background Part
The Background Part is a counterpoint line. The Lead Part and Background Part are intended for "mix and match" combinations. E.g. play the Lead Part alone for the opening chorus, then play solo choruses, perhaps adding the Background Part behind the last one (as sort of a "shout chorus"), and then play the Lead Part and Background Part together for the final chorus. The MIDI demos generally play the Lead Part alone for the initial A section, then the Lead Part with the Background Part for the B section and final A section.
The Bass Part
The Bass Parts are mostly generic bass lines for the MIDI demo versions of the combo tunes. I.e. bass players will generally do things their own way. However, for the following combo tunes the bass lines are an integral part.
- April Again
- Bye Bye
- Macau
- Far from the Fountain
- Longtree
The Drum and Latin Percussion Parts
The Drum and Latin Percussion Parts are intended only for the MIDI versions of the combo tunes. The sheet music does not include the Drum or Latin Percussion Parts. This is because:
- Most drummers don't like and/or can’t read written music.
- The MIDI assignment of notes for percussion instruments has no relationship with conventional drum notation.
The Sheet Music
- The downloadable sheet music is available in Concert, Bb, and Eb transpositions for the Lead and Background parts.
- The Concert Parts includes the Bass Parts.
- All parts include chord symbols.
- The Lead and Background parts are within common ranges, e.g. for trumpet, saxophone, etc.
Bulk downloads
These are large ZIP files with all of the combo tunes. The MIDI file is about 225KB, and the Finale and PDF files are about 5MB.
| midi | Sheet music files | |||
| pdf C | pdf Bb | pdf Eb | pdf Score | |
