TubeNet

What are the rules/legalities of doing your own arrangements of songs, specifically of newer music? My bands are so small and have such limited instrumentation that I'd like to redo a couple of songs for the spring concert and possibly for the large group contest but I would like to be legal about this if I do it.

Also, how does this work with sites such as sibeliusmusic.com with folks posting their arrangements of this stuff?

MOST newer tunes are under copyright. The present U.S. copyright law is really convoluted. Anything published in 1922, or before is in the public domain. Things published between 1924 & (I believe) 1964 had to have the copyright renewed. It used to be an initial copy protection of 28 yrs., renewable for an additional 28 yrs. The laws were changed in the 70's.

I do not stand behind the above information. It is as close to what I remember as I can....a.....remember.

Looking back at the rest of your post, my response is that legally you are not allowed to mess with the music without permission. In actual practice, you do have some leeway in making some changes, if they help your band to sound better.

I have to do this all the time to cover missing instrumentation in my church orchestra. Composers/arrangers are all over the map. I can usually tell what kind of changes I'll have to make and try to get persmission before I buy the piece. The conversation usually goes like this, "I really like your piece/arrangement and would like to buy it but I'll have to change x,y,z to make it work for my group." Answered by, "Ok, do what you have to do, but don't mess with the basics." Sometimes it's, "If you touch a note I'll sue your pants off." In that case I find another piece. If you change it without permission, you are leaving yourself open to action.

What about completely different arrangements? Say a local marching band hires you to do a show for them - have you ever run across a situation where you need to completely change the instrumentation? If so, how did they respond during the phone call?