Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • September 2014
22
more of what works for us. . .
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Chorale
• Simple chorales develop sonority, voice leading,
and musicality
• “Patterson Chorale” or any Bach Chorale will work
• Compose your own chorale to meet the needs of
your group
• Have band members sing, buzz, note-name, etc.
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Articulation
• Multiple ways to approach, important that band
members have a strong vocabulary on how to define
the fronts and releases of their notes
• We work to separate style from note length; i.e.
“Legato” is a style, where as a “Tenuto” is a length
(not a perfect science, sometimes we will cross…)
• An infinite number of ways to articulate, work to
develop a system that allows students to under-
stand specifically what you are looking for—the
“Articulation Series” is a helpful tool in unifying
approach to articulation but is only the start
• Do a lot of articulation exercises with the mouth-
piece on the chin, listening to them blow air
through an aperture using a “Tu” syllable
• Develop articulation exercises that address issues
in your marching show and concert band music
and will build strengths
• Need to address multiple tonguing with your
players if applicable for their instrument
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Volume Control
• If you want to play loud with control, you need to
practice playing loud with control
• It will take time for your band members to develop
control at big volumes; continue to encourage them
to “open up” their sound, while remaining efficient
• Can approach volume through chord progressions,
long tones, crescendo/decrescendo exercises
• Volume building outdoors requires patience
visual
In the visual realm, we are fortunate to have Aaron
Barnes leading our visual program. He marched with
“The Cadets” from 2002-04 and has instructed the
“Crossmen” and “Boston Crusaders” since aging out.
Below are some thoughts on what we do each day to
prepare our students:
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Visual Thoughts and Exercises
Content by Aaron Barnes - Visual Caption Head
•
Use Checkpoints.
We build our technique around
the pulse, creating a picture of what wewant themto
look like on the downbeat and upbeat as they move.
•
Keep it Simple.
Marching is unintuitive, so we
simplify our explanations so that the technique is
easy to teach and to understand.
•
Go Slow.
Students don’t enter the program with a
marching or movement background. We start
every year from the beginning and build skills
slowly and correctly.
•
Repeat Often.
Repetition is the most effective way
to teach a new physical skill, so we try to stay out of
the way and give them many opportunities to
practice and explore the technique.
•
Exercises
. During band camp, we build a collection
of exercises to isolate specific issues. Once the
school year begins we use these to refine our
technique.
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Body Awareness
We use the following exercise to teach the
correct mental and physical approach to our
ideal body alignment and carriage. We begin by
breaking the sections of the body apart. After we
rebuild our posture, we open our bodies up to
try and create as much individual presence as possible.
Focus:
• Having correct alignment and taking up space
• Understanding and separating each section of the
body
• Creating a uniform look through the ensemble
What We Like and What Works For Us. . .