Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
Today's episode we are going to be discussing Dance Celebration by Robert W. Smith.
Cheers to starting the conversation!
Alright this piece, this very popular piece, is in the key of concert B flat, four four
time throughout.
It's a really fast tempo but the style is really more flowing all the way throughout.
It's about two minutes long.
No split parts at all.
Everything is a single part throughout.
Lots of percussion considerations in here and all of the percussion parts are really
important so you want to make sure that you have all of those covered.
Absolutely.
There is no major snare drum parts here at the very beginning and really no major percussion
so your students really have to learn from the beginning to watch and internalize the
pulse.
Again that's really important because it is a faster paced piece.
You do have to cover the bells part in Dance Celebration.
It is very important over and over and it comes back and it is not doubled by upper
woodwinds like in some other pieces.
As Laura said, try to make sure everything is covered even if one student has to cover
two different things.
As we're getting to the beginning we're starting off and we have just the woodwinds and then
when the brass enter in we're starting mezzo-piano, doing a little bit of a crescendo and then
coming back down.
Sometimes when I play this with my band the kids have gotten really excited about the
crescendo and they kind of go overboard and it sounds not as good as it could.
Make sure you teach from the very beginning maybe using numbers to talk about your dynamic
contrast.
We're going to start at a level 3 and we're going to do 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3.
This piece is so great for teaching dynamics.
You can do that on your daily exercises with your band.
You can just play a concert F for 8 counts and practice doing a little crescendo and
then a little day crescendo so everybody feels confident in that because they all have that
at measures 3 and 4.
Never lose sight of the tuba being the most important part to be heard, not the long flute
part up top.
One of the things that I think in this piece, really this is general for anything, but in
this piece specifically, Katie's talking about using that number system.
I think that's really important.
You can end up having what you think are tuning issues when your students are playing these
crescendos.
They really are not tuning issues.
They're balance issues with people that are on the third of the chord crescendoing way
more than people that are on the root of the chord.
That can sometimes sound like a tuning problem when it's not.
It is a balance issue.
Using the kids to balance down to that low tuba sound, the root of the chord can really
help fix that from the beginning.
Absolutely.
And just to note, trumpets do have a lot of Ds like at measure 4 for instance.
So they must kick so that that can be better in tune.
Clarinets are chilling on a G. They need to use resonance fingerings either by completely
right hand down or whatever will make them be better in tune.
That's really important to take note of like Laura said to make sure that we sound equal
here.
At measure 7, the bells are very important again and all alone on that part.
So you do have to have somebody play that for sure.
You'll want to talk to your students about when they have these long notes tied across
the bar line like in flute and clarinet.
You'll want to talk about stagger breathing and how to do that to make sure that you plan
it out for them.
Laura and I believe in taking our students' parts before we pass out for any concert and
we will mark up the part for them like if they have accidentals to think about or like
flutes need to be on the thumb B flat side just to name a couple little small things.
This would be a good opportunity for you to say like if you're getting, you're the A
breather and you're the B breather, A's are going to breathe in measure 6, B's are going
to breathe in measure 7.
That creates a seamless longer sound and that way the kids don't all breathe on bar lines
which of course is the MO for everybody in band.
And then we're doing another crescendo, day crescendo here at 7 and 8.
You do want to make sure kids articulate firmly enough that you can hear that there are two
half notes here instead of two whole notes but not overdoing it.
It should still be seamless.
Then at 9 we have the beginning, we have the same thing as the beginning but then trumpets
come in one measure later.
So make sure trumpets play that confidently and again remember to kick on their D's and
maybe even making sure that they're balancing to the woodwinds and not overplaying them.
And then at 11 we have our first split parts where the higher people keep going and lows
have something different.
We want to make sure that if they do have the long note like at 11 in the flute oboe trumpet
that they're playing underneath the new part which would be the horn, sax, trombone, euphonium.
Still no tuba here so you want to make sure that those parts are being the focal point
and everybody else plays underneath them.
And then flutes, we would teach that they will release on beat one with oboe and clarinet
of measure 12 and take a breath mark there.
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, so that way it's like a very obvious movement together in measure 12.
Now right there at measure 12 and I'm sorry Katie I just wanted to jump in with this.
Right there at measure 12 those horns are sitting on a third space C. Everyone who has
that long note is on a unison concert F there.
So if your horns are having trouble hitting that C I would either take my horns out of
that note.
You might put them down an octave but that's a pretty big skip going from a third line
B flat down to a C below the staff.
So you might just leave your horns out or if there's one horn that can play it well
then have them do that but because that note is unison and all of those whole notes you
want to make sure that it's secure and confident.
So don't be afraid to modify that if you need to.
And your alto sax is on a D in that exact same chord so make sure they're using the left
hand B key to bring the pitch down on that D as well.
And then that is hard in the horn.
Every time we've played this man we've had to work with our horns a lot because they're
coming from the third space C all the way down to a D. They already have to do that
in measure 13.
So just isolating or you know letting that be like an alto solo and not having your horns
play if you have horns that's a consideration.
We have another important bell part at 14 all by themselves.
They have a little solo so just you know make a big deal out of them.
Bells don't normally get to you know have something fun.
And then we all have a crescendo coming into 17 which is where the piece stylistically
kind of changes a bit.
Don't overdo the crescendo.
Everybody again maybe use the number system so that we don't go too loud and again balance
down to the tuba.
The snare drum finally enters and provides the pulse for the next little section.
Alright so when we get to 17 now one of my favorite tricks well I say tricks I think
it's just a good teaching strategy.
When working on any piece is to create a melody sheet for the entire band.
Love that.
So I like to take you know if there's one or two maybe it is a melody line maybe it's
an accompaniment line and you write it out for everyone in the band that way even your
tubas that may just be sitting there playing some long notes or whatever most of the time
get a chance to move around a little bit.
It gives you an opportunity to teach style, write notes, rhythms, note links to the band
as a whole before applying it to the piece.
Now looking at what happens at 17 this is a classic example of where I think a melody
sheet would be really awesome.
This accompaniment line that you have at 17 the tendency is for people to play these
notes too short dot dot dot and we want full body of sound resonance here and again when
you put that in a melody sheet and you can practice the whole band playing all of this
together it really really is beneficial.
And I like how he also writes it with the accent on beat 3.
Da da da da da da.
And we teach the kids to make that be a full value quarter note all the way to the rest.
Everyone touches silence every time.
The bells and the timpani or low tom if you don't have timpani are super important here.
They are going opposite of what the wind players are doing so making sure that the percussionists
and the wind players feel really secure with that.
Once we get to measure 21 clarinets get to take over the melody here which is awesome.
Alright so clarinets playing big full strong the accompaniment part needs to back down
which it is written dynamically for them to back off.
We might tell them to go lower than even mezzo.
Exactly and you may even have to thin some of those parts out.
You may have to take some players out in order to make sure that you hear the clarinets.
I tell my students all the time that a score is a recipe and I'm the chef.
Now this is like making music is not like baking which is a very precise science.
You have to use the exact right measurements.
This is like creating a meal and I have to use the ingredients I have in front of me.
So this piece was written for certain instrumentation and we may not have that exact instrumentation
and me as the chef I get to kind of tweak the recipe for the ingredients that I have
and kids understand that.
They understand that analogy.
So if you only have three or four clarinets you may need to thin out the alto saxophone
part.
Because we're going to for sure have a billion saxes.
That's exactly how it always goes.
Exactly that's right.
Alright so this continues on with the same type of thematic element until you get to
29.
And here at 29 we're continuing again and we're adding in the flutes to join in with
the clarinets.
So what I've told my flutes in the past is now you get to take over and be the star of
the show.
Clarinets you're the supporting actor back off a tiny bit and then oboe goodness gracious.
I remember last time I played this the poor little oboes could not fit into the band here
very easily.
So maybe like only have one oboe play this part or maybe like don't have them play at
all if you have really loud oboes.
That just might be something to consider just speaking from personal experience.
Or you can alternate two or four measure phrases.
That's a great idea.
If you have two oboes maybe one place two measures one place the next two measures.
Yep and trumpets come in too so remind them not to come in any louder than the flutes.
The flutes get to be the new star of the show.
The tambourine also adds in at 29 and that's the driving pulse behind the band.
So just ensure that they come out and timpani and bells should have backed down as well
whenever the clarinets entered a while back.
And then this is also again a great opportunity to continue making sure you hear that accent
on beat three.
That's kind of a cool thing that was written in that I think sometimes bands don't always
make happen whenever I'm judging them.
So that's a cool thing to hear.
We want to make sure that in the melody they're doing the tongue slur tongues correctly.
This is definitely a spot where flutes will like to slur too much.
Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta.
That is not correct.
So you need to make sure they do ta ta ta ta.
And again when we're writing in the parts for the kids to make sure that they're successful
we would take the opportunity to write TST on those spots to make sure that the kids
are definitely articulating that correctly.
Now we're going to build again into 37.
This is our first big moment for the piece and timpani and snare drum are really going
to help us drive into 37.
And once we get to 37 this is the like the first big moment for the full ensemble.
Right.
So this part in the horns, well first of all we want to make sure we all arrive together,
clear articulation.
We have a concert B flat chord that you land on right here and some of our like the altos
in the horns are on the third of the chord.
Like Katie talked about before.
I know this goes by really fast but you still want to make sure that that chord is going
to be nice and in tune.
You may want to have the altos add the their B or I'm sorry their it's concert B.
Sorry.
The horns, this is a big thing.
I have my horns.
I would go player by player on this but this whole section from 37 to 48 they can play
on the non-trigger side of the horn.
So they can play it on the F side of the horn and often for most of my horn players that
will be more in tune than playing it on the B flat side of the horn.
So again I would go player by player to find out what's going to be the most in tune for
them and then have them mark that in their part and do that whether they're using trigger
or not using trigger.
And then in the low brass man we have lots of A naturals here.
This is going to be really important that your low brass feel really confident on those
A naturals.
I preach to my trombone players one inch of silver and inch of silver on those A naturals.
So when they go to that second position they should not see more than an inch of silver.
That second position is way closer to first than it is to third and that may be something
that you have to slow down and spend some time on to lock in that tuning.
And one of my favorite people in life, Mike Beavers once told me that second position
is closer to first than it is to third.
And when you say that to students over and over that really does help with the A natural
tuning and that is a big deal in this piece.
All we're talking about this horn and alto part at 37 so horn is going to the high C,
alto is going to D add the B key.
There's that B key.
Clarinet is all over the throat tones here.
This is just a recipe for bad tuning if we're not thinking about what we need to do.
So clarinets need to have their right hand down.
They need to be thinking if that's necessary to make them be in tune.
Saxes need to make sure that they're not sharp.
Horn needs to make sure that they're not sharp.
So this is a great place to isolate all those parts together and hear the lines and make
sure that students aren't sticking out.
Like Laura said, thinking about ways to make them sound just as seamless as possible.
And flutes right here, we're coming from 36 to 37.
They have to do an octave jump.
So just make sure you're working on them getting the B flat out correctly with their
air and not over blowing to make the high B flat come out.
Otherwise it will be sharp and again mess up your chord tuning.
And depending on how many flutes you have, I might split my section and have half of
my flutes up and half of my flutes down an octave just to help with some of that tuning.
And don't let them breathe from 36 to 37.
I know that sounds really silly, but you know, they like to breathe on bar lines and that's
a pivotal moment.
So don't let them do it.
This whole section from 37 to 45, almost every measure has an accent on beat one for all
of the wind players and the percussion.
We want to make sure that we hear that, that that accent is really coming through.
We're emphasizing beat one for everybody throughout that whole section.
And then make sure that we catch in the snare part that they need to turn the snares off
as they are transitioning into this new idea at 45.
And real quick, looking back at 40, Timpani get to have this really cool part coming into
41 or low tom, whichever one you're using.
So just make sure you see those like really isolated percussion parts.
Again, they're very important on this piece.
So coming into 45, this is literally just a recap.
Now we have Flute and Trumpet on melody and the oboe and the clarinet are the secondary
part.
They need to play softer and not play louder than the melody here.
They come to that line.
Same thing.
We're just continuing to make sure we have full value low notes.
If you have a little bit of a weaker low brass and low reed section, this piece is pretty
good for you because they don't have a lot of exposed melody until we get to measure
53.
They have what I call their moment in the sunshine here and they get two measures of
an important part.
But that's not bad, right?
Like you can spend some time in that making sure that they sound really nice.
I'm getting their G's in tune at the end of 54.
But that's that's it.
That's it for your low people.
So if you again don't have the most incredibly amazing parts for your low people, this is
good because it's very rarely do they have the important things.
Now watch out in the accompaniment here in the low voices, Tenor Berry, all of that in
the low brass.
Watch out that they the tendency for them is going to be in this part to go one rest,
rest, rest, rest, dah, dah.
They're not going to play those notes equal lengths.
So make sure that all of those quarter notes are equal length.
Four, one, two, three, four, three, four, one.
They're going to want to make the last note of that shorter than everything else.
So make sure that you don't allow them to do that.
Yes.
And then going on, we have another little crescendo coming into 57.
And then we get this really cool moment here.
Yeah.
So at 57, this is a cool staggered entrance where we all have the same idea.
One, two, three and four.
And I, when you have these long tied notes, again, you're going to have to, for some of
the parts, you may have to mark in some staggered breathing.
If the kids are having trouble making a three measure phrase in one breath right there.
But I also have the students think of those long notes like four tape pianos.
So the low brass and horns and altos, dah, dah, dia, dah.
Dah, dah, dia, dah.
Exactly.
They get out of the way so they make room for the next section to come in.
That's a good little teaching tool for them.
And then the timpani has a really important part underneath.
So just making sure that they feel confident on their entrance.
And we basically drive it home to the end.
This time though, we have accents on beat three, just like at the beginning with the
accompaniment line.
So just making sure that we're still hearing that low brass finally get another little
moment in the sunshine here at 61 to the end.
And it's so important.
Yeah.
And you want to make sure everybody else backs off to them so that they sound really
confident and they're building us into the last little part.
The leading tone from 63 to 64 is the worst out of tune.
It's the worst in the trombone.
Yeah.
So make sure that the A natural is in tune and that the B natural and the trumpets is
in tune.
Sometimes they undershoot, don't change their vowel shape.
So we want to make sure that that last little chord, 63 is in tune.
And again, they're not blowing too hard to make a tuning issue quote unquote happen when
actually it's just a balance issue.
And then the ending, making sure the last note says the word tone, ta tone, make sure
it's a full value quarter note at the end.
Open throat release on that.
And I know it's marked fortissimo at the end, but again, like with that whole recipe idea,
fortissimo doesn't mean like crazy loud.
It needs to be with their very best sound tone quality being the most important thing.
Absolutely.
Well, we hope that this is really helpful and that you will consider using dance celebration
in one of your upcoming programs.
Thanks for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.