Most band and marching band scores don't have a soprano part to them. I also have a soprano, and my conductor said I could play soprano for some of the songs in band...because only some have parts.

The soprano is mostley reserved for sax quartets, and in some casses a more jazzy tune will have a soprano part. But it throws off the balence. In marching band it would be completly useless. Unless you had a curved soprano, the strait soprano pionts strait into the ground, which absorbs most of the sound anyways and when it does reach the audience it is late. This is the same reason that clarinets do not march. If you have some sort of obsession and just have to play soprano, I suggest you do a quartet for solo and ensamble. Then it would be perfectly acceptable to have a soprano, and I've even seen quintets with a sopranino part written. Working out your intonation and balence issues will give you enough to do on soprano without having concert band pieces to work on as well.

The soprano points into the ground (as useless as a clarinet for marching band on a grassy field, as far as I'm concerned.) why not concert band? Well, it's a lot tougher to play than alto, embouchre/control wise. But for a high school concert band, I think the soprano saxophone is perfectly legitimate. In fact, I just got a Deutch Grommophone vinyl recording that includes a soprano saxophone concerto with symphony orchestra, so if he thinks that sops aren't legit horns, he needs to go back to school and get his Master's Degree.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- my band director will not let me play soprano in marching band or even in concert band, do yall have this problem, he says"soprano saxophone is a special instrument " i told him why dont i justplay tumpet part or clarinet part of tenor part but he said it is somecases used in jazz ensomble i dont no this happend to you? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I happen to agree with your director. I think it rather a selfish notion of players who want to arbitrarily substitute one instrument with another for no other reason than they wish it. A soprano saxophone doesn't remotely sound like a tenor or a clarinet, nor does it sound like a trumpet. Honestly, do you think arrangers and composers assign parts to their works so thoughtlessly and arbitrarily? They don't. Making such a substitution in a concert band can be very disruptive to voicing and blend of the ensemble, particulariy with the soprano which is an instrument that can sound shrill and obnoxious in the hands of those that lack great skill and a sound tonal concept. Substituting such a thing should be based on carefull thought and musical reasoning, not a result of bending to one player's whim.

I know someone who plays soprano in middle school band, (marching, jazz, concert) highschool band should be ok!