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I'm sure there are those in this crowd who have played a couple of weddings. I had the stupid idea of trying to play some weddings with my brass quintet. Now that I have a couple weddings booked, I've got to find actual charts to play. Where do you find charts for sappy love songs for quintet? If you were playing off of lead sheets that would be one thing, but for a quintet we need real written out arrangements. I'm finding I've gotta write my own. Surely someone has a collection of sappy love songs for weddings arranged for quintet? You can't just ask AI for arrangements of Isn't She Lovely and Unforgettable yet (or can you)?

Google "planning music for your wedding". There is a lot of advice out there for planning wedding music and as a musician you should understand the subject from the perspective of the happy couple. There is a lot of spots in weddings where there is a specific kind of music that may be required (e.g. processionals and recessionals). In addition, will they have other sources of music (e.g. organ, DJ, an 8 year-old niece who expects you to back her while she plays the ocarina, the drunk uncle who sings Irish ballads)?

There are several quintet music books designed for weddings. You can Google "brass quintet for weddings".

If you make the couple and the guests happy, you will probably get additional wedding gigs. Word of mouth is strong in the wedding music business.

Finally, you might be able to charge more than you think. Again Google is your friend. Google "breakdown of wedding costs" and be shocked at what some people spend on weddings.

Finally a couple of warnings. There is a possibility that someone at the wedding thinks they play one of the instruments in your quintet and will ask to borrow an instrument to "sit in" with the band (e.g. a drunk groom who played the trombone in middle school). Be prepared to handle this situation. Also, someone will request you play a song that you don't know (e.g. a drunk bride). Be prepared to politely say no several times.

Ok, thanks. I have all of the classical stuff, what I need is the sappy pop tunes that everyone seems to want. That's harder to find. Just for reference of anyone else who might be interested, I found some of what I was looking for at the Chamberlain brass.com. Free stuff, paid stuff, classic, pop, etc.

If anyone knows of other sites that give/sell pop charts, it's an ongoing search for me.

Bassboner wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:10 am Ok, thanks. I have all of the classical stuff, what I need is the sappy pop tunes that everyone seems to want. That's harder to find. Just for reference of anyone else who might be interested, I found some of what I was looking for at the Chamberlain brass.com. Free stuff, paid stuff, classic, pop, etc.

If anyone knows of other sites that give/sell pop charts, it's an ongoing search for me.

Have you looked into any arrangements by Seb Skelly?

https://www.sebskelly.com/sheet-music.html

arpthark wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 10:08 am
Have you looked into any arrangements by Seb Skelly?

https://www.sebskelly.com/sheet-music.html

I have bought stuff from Seb Skelly in the past, but I didn't see a lot of the stuff he has available for some reason. Still, he's a trumpet player, and it's hard to admit they do anything right, but... I went ahead and bought "Just the Way You Are" from him anyway, trumpet player or not. Thanks for the reminder. Some cool and worthwhile stuff in there.

Bassboner wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 1:15 pm

arpthark wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 10:08 am
Have you looked into any arrangements by Seb Skelly?

https://www.sebskelly.com/sheet-music.html

I have bought stuff from Seb Skelly in the past, but I didn't see a lot of the stuff he has available for some reason. Still, he's a trumpet player, and it's hard to admit they do anything right, but... I went ahead and bought "Just the Way You Are" from him anyway, trumpet player or not. Thanks for the reminder. Some cool and worthwhile stuff in there.

I’ve played in a group that has 10-20 arrangements by him in the revolving setlist. All good, some bordering on “too cute” but it’s easy to pare that stuff down when needed.

arpthark wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 1:22 pm
I’ve played in a group that has 10-20 arrangements by him in the revolving setlist. All good, some bordering on “too cute” but it’s easy to pare that stuff down when needed.

I've got a bunch of stuff from Musescore, but you have to be choosy and spend some time looking through stuff there. The Skelly stuff is a bit pricey to just go and buy a bunch of it. He should do bundles or something. Like Elephant used to do with his Christmas charts (which I bought and have made good use of with my quintet over the course of a couple of Christmas seasons).

For anyone interested, as a summary what I needed was about 30 pop charts (some of which were direct requests from the bride) and about 10 classical tunes for prelude, ceremony and recessional plus a cocktail hour. The classical stuff was easy to get and available everywhere. The pop charts were more difficult. I checked Cherry, Hickey's, Sheet Music Direct, and a few other places with minimal results. The big jackpots for me were:

Musescore : get a membership, search and download . In the past there were more good things, but they have changed the rules a few times. A fellow named Driggs did 100+ good quintet arrangements. Also, you can get a good starting point and doctor the arrangement to your own needs. I'm not a arranging expert, but I. I'm good enough to rejigger an arrangement for a specific goal.

Chamberlain Brass: 140+ free arrangements for quintet. Of these, I used ~10. Not bad. Wide range of tacky love songs from a working quintet in NYC.

Seb Skelly stuff isn't bad, but it's $15-20 a pop. The problem with picking music is that the percentage of tunes you pick to tunes you can use is often low, maybe 10-40%. You kiss a lot of frogs. Skelly really needs to sell bundles - maybe 20 tunes for $40 or something. Of those you might use 4-5.

Robert Elkjer sells some quintets, and they are much more sophisticated and involved. He bundles stuff into reasonably priced books. I have a bunch of his stuff for quartet. He sells 5-6 tunes per book, and we use 1-2 charts per book. So you get a lot of tunes you can't /don't use, but you are pretty much guaranteed to get one keeper per book/set.

The people in your quintet need to be open minded and willing to make something work even if it doesn't sound perfect the first reading . We have one old curmudgeon who just pronounces all pop charts to be "bad arrangements". If you believe in the chart, it's easier to sell it and make it work. Not believing in a chart is just sabotage.

Anyway, Wedding charts are out there, but they aren't necessarily easy to find, and you have to be selective.