Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we're going to delve into Night Fury by Carol Britton Chambers.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
All right, this piece is in the key of concert F. It's about two minutes in length.
It is 4-4 with a handful of measures in 3-4.
It does have split clarinet and trumpet parts.
Percussion is really important.
There are lots of percussion instruments.
It is very important.
And there are some rhythmic considerations in this.
Lots of dotted quarter eighth rhythms and some eighth rest and eighth note combinations
you want to be aware of.
So starting off at the very beginning, you'll notice that the tempo is really quick and
you need to be sure that you start slower with your bands, especially if they're younger,
so that you don't have the tendency to rush through.
So we usually start this at about 100 and then maybe move it up a little bit.
And you don't have to go 144.
It's just supposed to have an energetic underlying feel.
So just make sure that you continue to think about your pulse as you're working on the
piece.
Again, as Laura mentioned, percussion is very important.
There's really not a part that can be left out on this piece.
So make sure that you do have enough players to cover everything.
Chimes are incredibly important at the beginning.
And a lot of times chime players don't like to play chimes loud enough, which sounds crazy,
but it's because they think that like, it's really loud to me standing right here.
But then to the audience, it's not loud enough.
So just really talking about how to properly play chimes at the very beginning is important
for percussion.
And we start off with this half note, stair stepping, scale, scalar line at the beginning.
And you're going to want to make sure you don't start too loud.
And then coming into five, we have some dim, diminishing where we're going into quarter
notes and we want to make sure that we start softer.
Again, just to bring some extra drama there.
Now, all those half notes, remember, a lot of them stay the same and some parts are changing.
So make sure you're bringing out the changing notes.
Absolutely.
There are lots of D's in trumpet.
So making sure that they're remembering to kick so that it's in tune all the time.
And then at seven, we have our first accent.
And this is a drum break.
And this is where we go into three, four.
Laura and I both think that it's really important to mark up students' parts whenever you're
learning anything with them ahead of time.
So that way you don't have to waste time saying, oh, make sure you mark that, you know, e-natural.
You've already done it for them.
So here at seven, this is a great opportunity to write in the counts for rests.
One, two, three, one, two, three.
So that way they're not miscounting and then coming in incorrectly at 11.
The percussion need to really spend a lot of time making sure that they do the accents
really well and that they don't rush through the eighth rest, eighth note combination that
Laura mentioned earlier.
That is a tendency.
And then by the time your band comes in at 11, if they've rushed it, it's like beyond
out of control.
Like you don't even know what tempo you're going anymore.
Now one of the ways that you can address that with your percussionists is you can have them
put their left hand on the rim of the drum so that they are feeling straight eighth note
pulses all the way through one and click and click in.
That will really help them.
Obviously, you don't want to keep that in permanently, but if you do that while they
are learning it, it will help them to internalize that pulse.
Yep.
So if your snare drum continues on in 11, make sure that you ask them to play under
the band.
Lots of times I've judged this piece.
Percussion gets so excited.
Yeah, they're so excited and they get to move all fast and play 16th notes and it is just
overwhelming.
So just encourage your percussion.
Remember they had their moment in the sunshine at seven.
Now they're going to back out of the way.
Not a mezzo forte.
I'd say mezzo piano at best at 11.
And making sure those accents are brought out and everything else needs to be a tap
on that drum.
So just really, really low stick hype for them.
All right.
Once we get to measure 11, all right, man, concert E naturals, concert E naturals, concert
E naturals and E naturals.
They are super, super important.
So you want to make sure again that those parts are pre-marked for your students so
you can anticipate all of that.
Now one of the biggest things we hear bands do on this all the time is try to play in
two measure phrases.
One, three, four and one, two, three, one, two, three.
And we do not want to do that.
We want to make sure that we're going all the way through those half notes, thinking
about even like a little mini crescendo at the end of those half notes.
So we make the full four bar phrase.
At performance tempo, it is not hard for them to play this in four bar phrases.
So please, you know, hold them accountable to that for sure.
All right.
And then making sure that skip in the low brass when they go from the D to the A, making
sure they're in this is in measure 14, that we're getting all the way up into that second
position and they're hearing that interval of a fifth.
That is something you probably need to slow down and isolate to make sure that that is
accurate all the way through that.
Really mature bands, if your band is a little more mature, you could even add some phrasing
in here, some crescendo for two measures, day crescendo for two measures.
Those are all things that you can just kind of add in depending on the maturity level
of your group.
Yeah.
So measure 14, man, a lot of times when I've judged this piece, even in my own band hall,
the A natural is so flat.
So just make sure that you talk to the kids about that and really drive home that in A
is closer to first than is to third.
And that's going to really help going from four to two, making sure that they're all
the way in.
And then at 15 also make sure that the first and second trumpet parts are equally as important.
Now there with clarinet and with trumpet, the parts are not rhythmically unison the
whole time through here.
So you need to make sure that you have strong players on both first part and second part
in those instruments.
And then once we've made it to measure 19, now we have the same idea, the same melodic
idea, but we've kind of moved it up a third.
So make sure that, you know, again, that we're hearing all of the parts clearly and bells
leading into 19 is really important.
Don't sleep on the bells.
I will tell you a little side note.
One time one of my bands was playing this and we just like totally didn't see that the
bells were so critical important until later on in the learning process.
So we had to redo some parts to make sure that that was brought out.
Don't let that be you.
Make sure you see the bells are very important.
They do not double the flute in the oboe part ever.
They are on their own thing and they are super important to texturally to lead into different
measures here at 19, like Laura said, it's just higher, but you're doing the same thing,
perhaps with the phrase shaping where you crescendo for two day crescendo for two any
time that your sax and your flute and if you have oboes are chilling on these dotted half
notes, make sure they're adding in some pulsing or vibrato again, major bells parted 22.
That's not doubled anywhere else.
As we're crescendoing into 25, you want to make sure you teach the kids to have no breath
there.
Doing the crescendo wholeheartedly.
They get to breathe in like one second on beat two at 25, making sure that your low
brass, especially your tubas are very open on the a naturals so that they can be in tune
there.
All right.
And then yeah, bells again, right there at 26, another part bells there they are with
the upper woodwinds, the flute and the first clarinet and the first clarinet part man,
this first clarinet part crosses the break.
You need to make sure and if all of your first clarinets can't play up there with a really
good sound, that's okay.
You can put one clarinet player up there.
That's perfectly fine.
If you just have one that can sit up there and write that register, but we want to make
sure that the first clarinet part complements the flute part and doesn't smother the flute
part right here.
And then the low brass get to have, they're having a conversation here.
So we love to talk about that in our band halls.
So the low brass are going to make sure that they're tonguing firmly so that their repeated
notes come out.
And then again, watch the tuning on E natural in 27 and 28 in the low people here.
I can hear this part in my brain at 29 again with the clarinet like Laura just said that
F sharp and G man, those can stick out like crazy.
If you don't have a controlled player, I have always played it where that's a solo player
because it can really cut through your band, especially because you don't have any trumpet
here.
You don't have any low brass.
And then you have the tuning and the French horn from B to C. They tend to be sharp.
So just make sure that 29 you're really slowing it down and listening to your tuning and the
chord changes here, making sure that we're 100%.
Again, this is a great opportunity to mark stuff in for your students.
So Sacks loves to miss F sharp here at 29 and C sharp at 31 and 30.
So if you go in and pre-mark your parts for your students, they're going to be less likely
to miss those notes, obviously.
Stylistically here, the low reeds that have that kind of motor accompaniment one, two,
four, I would have them lift off of those quarter notes to give a little more clarity
in the articulation.
And da, da, da, da, da, da, that'll really help to clear that up.
Right.
One more thing I didn't mention is that 28, make sure that you elongate the third beat.
Da, da, da, lots of times bands won't go all the way to beat four right there.
And you want to make sure that we end that really well because there's a rest for everybody
on beat four before this new section.
Tambourine also takes over at 29 and they're the rhythmic pulse.
So make sure you have a really good tambourine player here.
One year that I played this, my tambourine player was very slow in her internal pulse.
And so it kind of like ruined the momentum when we got here.
So just make sure you pick a strong player who can kind of take over what the snare
drummer has already set up.
And again, these accents in the tambourine part are going to be really, really important.
Now this whole part here with low brass, all the low brass coming in, the rhythms, the
parcels, the tuning, the articulation, this is all stuff that you just have to make sure
you break down and spend time on with your players.
Right.
And it seems like something like, oh, it's just an afterthought.
It's a little conversation back and forth here.
But like this is something low brass can sound really great on or not.
So make sure you spend a lot of time.
And then they come in at 35 with another little conversation on a G. So we just have to make
sure that we're really in tune when we enter there.
And then measure 36 has E, G and A in trombone, all really difficult notes to play in tune.
So make sure that that sounds really good.
And then that your low brass and low reeds are doing the articulation there too.
Tongue slur, tongue tongue.
And then your upper woodwinds get to have it in 37.
Speaking of tongue slur, tongue, right, the same articulation that we have right here.
Now when we start to have these white notes, these dotted half notes, again, we talk a
lot about air follow through, making sure that we're using our air supporting all the
way to the ends of those of those white notes, being careful of the accompaniment part in
the low brass, D, D, D, D off, D, D, D off.
So that sound to silence, making sure that that beat three touches the rest.
And it is marked that it needs to be a long note right there.
Right.
And then you emphasize that with your students.
And I don't know why, but low brass still love to breathe every single measure, at least
maybe it's just my band hall, but make sure that they don't breathe.
I don't think so.
Okay, good, because that makes you feel a little bit better.
Between 39 and 40, they love to breathe there.
There's no reason to breathe there because they get to breathe in 40.
So make sure that you're teaching them to take a full breath at the end of 38.
Do not breathe in 39 and lead into 40.
Then take your breath mark on beat four of 40.
Only then, everybody else, no breath going from 40 to 41, because they're leading into
that change for the trumpet and the sax to kind of take over with the melody.
And make sure that your upper woodwinds don't stop early going into 41 that they lead all
the way to the bar line, and that they come in really confidently on beat three after
alto and trumpet.
Now when we get to 43, we're back to this percussion break, kind of this recap, but
now we have the cool effect of the upper woodwinds getting to trill.
Katie and I both are in agreement that we hardly ever let our entire section trill.
I really don't like trills and being like a flute player, I probably am not allowed
to say that, but they just tend to detract.
So you want to make sure that you maybe audition somebody to be the solo triller in the section,
and they will love that, you know, just getting a chance to shine.
Absolutely.
And it still has a couple of other players play without the trill, right?
But just, you know, one or two players on the trill to give the effect that we're after,
that will make it effective and instead of being a distraction.
And a lot of times when I've judged this piece, the woodwinds don't know when to stop trilling.
Yes.
So it's kind of like a guess.
So make sure you work on a firm cutoff on beat one of 45.
And the accents and percussion are important here.
And then this effect comes back a few times before in the suspended cymbal.
Suspended cymbal gets to be hit several times throughout the piece.
And I kind of told my students in the past, it's kind of like a little miniature gong.
So make sure that that effect does get to come out and that they let it ring.
And it's always on an arrival point for the band.
47 is just a straight up recap of what we've had before.
Now one of the things we haven't talked about yet, but this rhythm that happens in the low
brass over another da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
I think it's important for them to lift just a little bit off the dotted quarter note in
order to give clarity in the articulation so it doesn't sound so muddy.
Maybe not completely removing the dot, but definitely lifting a little bit.
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
just a little bit of space, a little bit of daylight.
Yep.
We have another big Bell's moment at 50.
So make sure you don't miss that.
Then the low brass get their moment of sunshine here at 53.
And they get to kind of come out.
But again, we've got D's that we have to be sure to tune and E and G and A again.
Every time I've played this piece.
All those fun notes.
This has been a big moment where we really have to make sure we're in tune across the
band 53 and 54.
And then where the second clarinet comes in, they get to have a cool moment where the
chord changes a little bit.
So encourage those kids to lean into that and crescendo across the barline into 55.
As we come here, again, this is a little bit of a recap.
Make sure you're always thinking about tuning across the band between the A and the upper
flute and the B and the trumpet, making sure that we aren't sharp on those pitches.
Again, pushing through the barline, as Laura mentioned at the beginning.
And 61 is just like the beginning, starting softer there, building it up and then starting
soft again at 63.
So it doesn't become too out of control.
Again a little too measure percussion break this time.
Now, because this is like the beginning, and I know we've said this a lot through here,
this is a recap.
We've done this before.
I think it's so important to teach students that we want to be as efficient as possible.
We want to make our lives as easy as possible.
So when we're learning this at the beginning, I immediately draw my students' attention
to where else it happens in the piece.
We just did this at the beginning.
Now find somewhere else in this piece where this happens.
And they're excited to say, oh, I found it.
Miss Bell, it happens here.
It happens here.
Great.
Now, copy, paste everything that you just wrote.
We're going to write it in this section so that they become efficient learners.
The goal ultimately is that they don't end up needing us.
They can do this all on their own.
And then here at the very end, we do have a similar melody, but now we have some accents.
So make sure that there's just a tiny bit of space between them.
And then we teach 69 as a forte piano so that you can grow to the very end.
You can teach them that they can have dynamic numbers.
Like you're going to go all the way down to a level two at the beginning of this note.
And then Christian do up two, three, four, five, six, seven.
And everybody's going to be off on beat three.
A very good cutoff.
A very precise.
With the whole band, nobody holds over.
We choked the suspended cymbal.
Tempani has a big moment at 69.
Don't let snare drum cover them up.
That's more about the tempani.
And then everybody dampens at the end.
So it's a nice, good, clean finish.
We hope that this was a great recap for you on Night Fury and that you will consider
programming this in the future for your band.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.