Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • December 2015
16
• Contact the percussion specialist (or other director)
to find out what the stage tendencies are in regards to
percussion instruments and their balance to the wind
instruments.
• A percussion check-list (battery as well as auxiliary
instruments; beaters, mallets, etc.) must be created by your
percussionists prior to not only UIL, but Pre-UIL. This
must be double-checked by either you or your percussion
specialist (if you have one).
• Especially when teaching MS/JH bands: it is paramount
that, depending on the stage, you bring either furniture
blankets/quilts, thick black mats or very thick blankets
and/or carpet strips to put underneath your battery
percussion instruments. Some sort of felt-covered “surface”
or towels—for placement of triangles, various mallets/
sticks and other small color instruments—which are to be
placed on music stands/trap stands.
• For ALL students using mutes: thick, black towels
should be folded in a square and placed on the floor in
between students’ feet….not on the side of the chair!
The Day of UIL
• Depending on the time of your UIL performance—
and administrative approval—you are encouraged to have
a rehearsal before your school day begins. Is it at this
rehearsal that you could perform a significant amount
of daily drill exercises and appropriate “chunks” of your
literature. You should definitely reserve time to sight-
read one final piece. Most of us would agree that, even
though it is early in the day, early morning sectionals and/
or extra rehearsals can be VERY productive. Therefore,
before-school rehearsals ensure that students are mentally
engaged at a high level earlier in the day, and will raise the
overall sense of urgency. Then—when you are actually in
the UIL warm-up room, you will not run the risk of “over”
warming-up your ensemble.
• Before leaving your campus, conduct a quick
“inspection” of uniforms, instruments and related
maintenance items, music binders/folders, mutes, etc. It
is imperative that all single and double reed players have
their back-up reeds with them. These reeds should be
totally broken in, as well as ones used in recent rehearsals
and not simply “out of the box.”
• To calm younger students, it would be an excellent
idea to have students silently study their music on the bus
when you are halfway to the contest site. This would of
course require them having their binders/folders with them
on the bus.
Warm-up Room
• As students are getting settled in the warm-up room,
give clear reminders for students to set their instrument
lengths correctly….especially for brass instruments whose
tuning slides have to be pushed in in order for them to fit
in the moldings of the cases.
• It is a good idea to allow students to perform
instrument-specific exercises (octave slurs, harmonics, lip
slurs, scales, etc.) before you perform full-band exercises.
If a rehearsal was done at school prior to departing your
campus, you should only need to perform 1-2 basic
exercises.
• As stated earlier, be cautious not to “over” warm-up
your band; with that said, utilize non-playing techniques
(positioning/fingering with air, saying note names, fingering
without air, etc.) so that you do not have to physically play
as much.
• Unless something sounds really “off,” do not spend
valuable time tuning individuals.
Contest Stage
• Since the percussionists have been setting up either all
or part of the time you were warming up the wind players,
percussionists are allowed—and strongly encouraged—to
play a few sounds on various instruments to become aware
of volume, heights of instruments, etc. These students
should be given strict parameters as to what they should
play….and for how long…so as not to annoy/upset the
judges.
• If chimes are used, they should be placed in a manner
where they will be heard from the audience. If your chime
players are not using your home campus chimes, they
should check the position of the pedal.
Are You Ready for UIL Contest?
