Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we're going to be discussing colliding visions by Brian Balmages.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
All right, this is a great piece.
This is a grade two on the Texas PML.
It is in concert B flat throughout.
It starts in three, four time.
It has a 16 bar slow introduction and then transitions into a fast four, four.
It does have two clarinet parts, two trumpet parts and a fair amount of percussion.
The timpani part is optional, though we think it's a good idea to have timpani if you have
the players for it.
And the rest of the percussion you definitely, definitely need.
So clarinets, by the way, do not cross the break in this piece at all.
There are no dotted quarter rhythms in it.
So if you are interested in starting the grade twos with your band, this is a very well written
piece and one that is fabulous to start with.
Yep.
So at the very beginning, as Laura mentioned, we start off slow and lyrical.
The whole piece is lyrical in style.
So this is again a great teaching piece for your kids.
You need to make sure that whenever you're talking to the students, you talk a lot about
follow through three leads to one, three leads to one.
I would, when marking my parts for my students, I would draw crescendos between the measures
and vibrato for like flute and alto sax that just helps the music sound like it's pushing
forward and that helps it sound even more fluid and musical to any of the listeners.
As she mentioned, percussion is important and has a lot of little like textural and
color parts in this piece.
So they are very important.
A lot of times he likes to compose with these little like what I call like crunchy notes,
like look at measure four.
You can see that the alto part is divided there and you've got to be against to see.
Encourage your students to lean into that.
You're going to see it come back in the clarinet part and the trumpet part later.
And that just helps like draw some interest as you're moving to the next section.
It's also very important to teach your, your flutes follow through and saxes from four
to five that their sound has to touch the rest because that's where the, the horn part
takes over.
And that comes back over and over and over in this piece where your part is going to
be constantly going into another part.
And so it's really important to teach your kids that follow through.
So when another group comes in there, you know, there's not a big gap in the sound before
they enter.
If you do concert F around the room as part of your daily drill, that is a great way to
transition your fundamentals to the music.
So talking about seamless sound as we transition from one section to the next and concert F
around the room, it's the same concept here.
You can also have, when I have taught this piece, I have had my students subdivide the
eighth notes initially so that it is, they can't take a breath.
It's easier to go one and two and three and one.
And then you can do that crescendo that Katie is talking about.
Once they get the feel of that, take the subdivision away and then it really helps with their
air follow through.
Absolutely.
And then going into measure six, the tubas come in and they have, or they came in before,
but they have this really important low part here and they're descending down an octave
below.
And I think that that's just something to really beef up the sound of the band when
they enter with the lows.
Your clarinet one and two parts are both very critical throughout this piece.
And so it's important to tell your clarinet twos.
You're so important.
Like please bring out your part and to point out the specific sections where they are important.
Right here at measure six, the horns have this cool part.
And if your horns are struggling getting into the upper notes like C and B flat with a good
sound and with good tuning and not sounding forced, it's also written with alto sax cues.
So you could even have it be a horn solo and have your altos all play.
You could have it be one sax and one horn, whatever works for the instrumentation of
your band.
But that's a really great option if it's needed for you.
All mages is great about like this is so smartly written these cues in all of these parts.
It's helpful.
It's great.
The trumpets again, just like I mentioned with clarinets are both very important, both
parts.
I would make sure that I don't have my quote unquote two best players on trumpet one.
I would make sure that I have good players on both parts because they're really important.
And honestly, the trumpet two part is harder at a lot of times because they're constantly
on D's and E's.
They've got to kick more, they have to make sure that their tuning is really nice.
So just be really aware of that and make sure you pick this piece if you have a really good
trumpet section.
They have the melody a lot over and over on this piece.
Going from eight to nine again, making sure that the sound touches seamlessly back up
to the upper woodwinds and you see the clarinets have that crunchy effigy that I mentioned
before.
So really trying to bring that out.
And then the clarinet part is very important going from 10 to 11 along with the horn part,
but especially the clarinet too.
It gets its own little cool thing descending into 11.
So really just bringing that out is going to make your band sound more mature and older
than they are.
Once we get to measure 11, so check out the horn part.
Again, this is doubled in the alto, but that's a big skip going from F to C in horn.
So you want to make sure that you're spending time on the mouthpiece, letting the students
vibrate that interval until they get really comfortable with that.
And again, if you need to modify that in any way, if they're struggling with that, that's
totally fine, but that's a big skip.
That's something that you're going to want to isolate and make sure that you work on
with them.
And your altos are on a D there with the horn on a C.
Yeah.
So the B key for alto sax to be better in tune also to bring the pitch down.
And then, you know, if they want, if the horns do better playing, not trigger C, that's appropriate
as well, but do what works best for you.
But that's an important part where they need to sound the same and not stick out.
It's really important.
This whole section from 11 up to 16, I would go player to player on my horns and see if
the kids need to use trigger or no trigger on the A's, B flats and C's.
Just find what's going to be best for those students.
Melody is in the upper voices, but we have unison rhythm you can see through some of
this section in here.
So just making sure, again, in this slow 60 BPM that we are pushing through all of the
half notes, you want to try and not hear bar lines as much as possible.
Second clarinet and second trumpet have a really important part in measure 12.
They're the only people with moving quarter notes going from 12 to 13.
So they're going to really give you that feeling of three to one, helping to push across the
bar line.
When we get to 13, 14, again, we have all of these moving eighth notes.
Two note slurs happen a lot in here and it's going to be really important at this tempo
and with this style of this piece that we're not clipping the second note of the slur,
making sure that we're feeling d-ya-da, d-ya-da.
So lots of air going through all of those slurs.
Bells have a critical moment in measure 15.
Most of the time in this, they're doubling or complimenting the flute part, but they get
a little feature here at 15.
They have a really important one down later on in the piece as well, but they get a little
feature here.
Measure 16 is we're getting to transition into this new section.
Again, we're talking about this being so well written.
That horn, again, we have that big interval F to C, but now it happens in eighth notes,
not quarter notes, and it's slurred.
So that needs to be something you spend a lot of time working to vibrate with them,
but it's cued in trumpet.
So if you only have one horn player that can do that well, then help to kind of beef it
up by allowing some trumpet players to support them.
When we get ready to transition into 17, make certain that those people that have half notes
in 16 go all the way to the rest in measure 17.
Now measure 17, we tempo transition, major tempo transition, it more than doubles in
speed and we go to four, four time.
This is going to be a section that as you transition, you need to make sure that your
percussion, your marimba, that's where the pulse is in the quarter note marimba, that
the marimba and the cabasa player are a team.
They need to be working as a unit together, making sure that their stuff is lining up.
And also on that cabasa part, it doesn't need to be overly loud.
I have had, I have had players before where I've needed to take some of the beads off
of the cabasa to make it a little quieter.
That is something you are totally able to do or have your student just use two fingers.
And just teach your kids the correct way to play the cabasa too so that that way it doesn't
slow down.
They don't need to move it a lot.
This is just really short.
Exactly.
So it's important to kind of teach them that.
When the horns and trumpets, if they're, if you're having trumpets play cues and then
of course upper woodwinds, flutin, opal come in with the quarter notes, they need to match
the style of the marimba.
So this is going to be full value notes.
They need to tongue firmly.
So we need to hear the clear start of every one of those notes, but there does not need
to be space between those notes.
These should not be lifted at all.
Now the eighth notes on the other hand, I do think it's okay to have the eighth notes
that are repeated in the alto sax line.
Those can be a little crispier.
De-de-da, de-de-da, de-de-da.
But the, as long as the quarter note stays long, then it'll match the style underneath.
That's exactly right.
Right.
Now at measure 19, we've got a little octave tuning issue between flute and oboe.
You've got the flutes on B-flat above the staff and oboes on B-flat in the staff.
With younger groups, that B-flat above the staff for flutes can be really very, very
sharp sometimes.
So that is an area, and it happens again at measure 23.
You may need to only have one or two of your flute players on that upper B-flat and everybody
else on the third line B-flat.
I definitely think that's worth doing.
It's like a little solo or something if they're struggling to make that B-flat sound
in tune.
Absolutely.
When trumpets enter at measure 26, now we're on this new melodic line.
This part, it is real easy for the quarter notes.
For clarinets that had the little ostinato at 24, the same one that Altos had back at
19, when they're on that same note, it's easier to make sure the style is correct, where we
get the full value quarter notes.
Now when trumpets come in and they take over this little opposing ostinato, their notes
are changing, and we find that the tendency is for kids to clip the quarter note short
when the notes are changing.
So just make sure that you drive that home with them.
And now the trumpets just came in with da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, and they're in
octaves.
Oh boy.
Oh man.
I can hear this in my brain from playing it before.
So you have to make sure that the upper C and the lower C are in tune on these trumpets
and that they come in.
And this is a solid chord because they're leading us into this new section.
You also want to make sure that you're really talking a lot about layering here at 27 because
now we're starting to add in new voices, but it's written really well where they're not
going to come in really loud.
Make sure the clarinet stays softer.
And this clarinet part should be very seamless with the eighth notes going back and forth
between first and second.
You want to make sure that it just sounds like da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,
like all the way throughout teaching them that that should sound like one clarinet
player even though it's on two parts.
Saxes get to add in as the new featured color at 27 with the flute and the oboe.
So they could play out a little bit more, but again, just remind them to make sure that
they don't overplay.
And then we have this cool little conversation back and forth with the upper woodwinds going
into the tenor sax and the horn part.
They're kind of finishing the conversation going into 31 again.
So just teaching them to bring that part out will make it just sound seamless.
As we said before, you also get down here in percussion, the suspended cymbal part comes
in.
Which this is really cool.
I like this.
I love the color.
Yeah, often, you know, suspended cymbal players are not playing on with a stick.
They're rolling with mallets.
So just making sure that they know not to hit too close to the dome, but also not too close
to the edge where it rings too much.
They just have to find that exact perfect spot to make it sound a lot like the cabasa.
And of course, this is unique to a director preference, of course, but I like the cabasa
sound and the cymbal sound to be as close to the same length as possible.
So again, because it's kind of mimicking what the clarinets are doing.
Exactly.
Then at 31, you get the claves come in as another new voice, another new color.
So make sure that that part comes out and maybe ask your suspended cymbal player to
come down in volume so that way it's the new thing that's being featured.
And then we still have the upper woodwinds on the melody.
And then we have this tied part at the end of their melody where the trumpets and the
horns kind of get to take over at 33 and 34.
So teaching your long note people to do kind of like not necessarily a forte piano, but
just to get out of the way on the long note and not to do too much crescendo going into
34.
That's going to be a lot more up to the trumpets to kind of help out with that.
And then making sure that the horns really hear that B flat at 33 so they don't miss
that pitch as they're coming down.
Bum, bum, bum, bum, because they're doing what the upper woodwinds have for melody.
Again you got a little crunchy C versus D at 33.
So bringing that dissonance out will just add more to the excitement for sure.
And then at 35, we have our first style shift.
So up until now it's been just very connected in sound.
Now we've got accents.
So you do want to make sure that that comes across to the listener.
And it's 2D band here.
So we finally get this low brass, like finally you have this thick chord.
This is the first 2D part of the fast section.
So we want to hear the chords and the harmonies here.
This is also the first time that the snare drum plays.
So just making sure that they don't come in too loud.
They are important, but you don't want percussion to overpower your band here when they first
come in.
This is also the first time that your lows get their little moment in the sunshine at
36.
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
That's like a very cool part that they get to have.
It kind of comes back over and over.
Again first and second trumpet part, very important at 37 along with the upper woodwinds, except
the upper woodwinds don't always have the melody here.
Sometimes they have repeated notes, not as important.
And then sometimes they have the melodic line coming downwards.
So you want to make sure that you teach the flutes and oboes, you know, here at 37 you're
not as important.
The trumpets get to be the most important color here.
Clarinet 2 gets to be important because they're moving around.
And then they do get to be important again back at 39.
So just teaching your kids to like look for those sections too.
When you have repeated notes, not as important.
When you're moving, that's when you need to bring your part out.
And this is another great time for you.
You see all the flutes on those B-flats above the staff, like the same note.
So because it's a repeated note, it's not as important.
And of course it's up there in the higher register for them for this piece.
So that's going to be something you need to likely thin out.
So either taking it down an octave or cutting players.
And then the style changes again at 39.
We kind of have this accented on, accented off feel.
Four on, four off, yeah.
Yep.
So you want to make sure you really make that be obvious to the listener like I mentioned.
So teaching the kids now we're going to go back to our smooth style and then at 43 back
to the accented style.
And again, we get the low brass with their little moment.
And it kind of continues that way for a little bit until 47.
Once we get to 47, now we've thinned everything out.
We have what I call this waterfall effect where we take this line that starts up in
the high voices, it starts in flute and it goes all the way down to the low brass part
and then comes right back up.
All the way to 55.
So from 47 to 55.
So I would isolate that part.
The quarter notes, the quarter note melody.
I would isolate that and have your kids pass that back and forth.
So they get the idea of what that feels like and sounds like going all the way down the
band and then back up to the upper voices before you even consider adding the accompaniment
in.
All right.
And then making sure that the accompaniment, the clarinet accompaniment maintains the
style that we've had.
Bells are really important here.
Again, they have a part that is totally different than everything else but complimentary.
So bells are going to be super important here.
And then some of the other percussion that adds in.
All right.
So the outfits need to match the style that the clarinet set up when we go from this
woodwind part to kind of brass taking over the melody.
And in measure 51, this is the first time the low brass have an A natural in this piece.
So definitely you're going to need, it is nice.
You're going to need to reinforce a high second position, just an inch of silver.
Now in measure 50, the altos also have an A above the staff.
That is not a good tuning note for them often.
It's not unusual for that note to be flat, that octave A.
So making sure- And they're going to play it really loud because it's not the end of
their melody.
Yes.
So just go easy on it is what I've always told my kids because then they get excited
and they add vibrato and it can like really stick out.
And that's not their moment of glory anymore.
The horns get to come in with the clarinet too.
So just teaching them to be softer.
Absolutely.
And I tell my saxophones, we talk a lot about gripping the mouthpiece with the corners of
your omniscient and keeping the air focused using laser pointer air and not flashlight
air, not air that is wide and spread but air that is really focused.
So I use those terms, flashlight air and laser air a lot.
And let's be honest, if it's not very good, even after all of that teaching, just take
it down an octave and that way it's taken care of itself as well.
Now as we transition into 55, we have a huge low brass, low reed or tuba, low reed moment.
It's just marked mezzo forte but again because we have thinned out the instrumentation as
we get ready to transition into 55 and it's a bigger moment, that tuba and low reed that
comes in on beat three of 54 is really important.
So we want to make sure that they really emphasize that crescendo and help that transition into
55.
And percussion, I always feel like percussion can help an ensemble with a crescendo.
You just have to make sure that they understand, the percussionist understand after the crescendo
to back the volume back down so they're not smothering the ensemble.
At 55, this low brass part needs to be really firmly articulated and the quarter note needs
to touch the rest.
De-de-da off.
So make sure that that is something you emphasize, melody is in the first clarinet and first
trumpet.
So you need to, this is a piece that we, I definitely think you need strong clarinets
and trumpets for even though the technique is not super demanding and the range is not
demanding, they need to be confident.
Yeah, it helps if you have bigger sections in those two areas too, just more kids if
possible.
Going from 56 to 57, you want to make sure that that note touches the rest.
So sound to silence all the time as we transition into 57.
We add in the upper woodwinds at measure 59.
This is a lot like what we had before.
So we want to make sure again, the people that have changing notes are brought out,
the people that have the same notes are underneath the rest of the ensemble and then we get set
up as we start to transition for the big finish into 63.
And at 63 now we have this little cool part in the flute and oboe and alto sax that's
different from anything else we've had in the piece.
Laura and I both said it might be reminiscent of what like the mallet player had back at
48 sort of ish.
But you want this part to be brought out just because it's a new and different color at
the very end and they're kind of heralding like we're almost done with this fast part
and then we're going to go back to the slow part.
Anytime I've played this piece, I've also added a crescendo from 65 to 67 just to be
very excited going into the change because it's quick and it's very immediate.
You will notice that your clarinet one part already comes down in volume going into 67.
That's because that's the only voice that's going to carry over.
So they're going to come in quietly and continue holding and you can even like audition that
G to make sure that it's your best sounding players only on it and everybody in the band
has got to have their sound go all the way to beat one of 67 so that it's a very distinct
layer of cut off.
Then here like I mentioned trying to find the right players in some of the times that
I've played this we've made every one of these a solo a flute solo at 68 and alto solo at
68.
If you've got everybody that can play great if they sound like one player more power to
them.
But there's you know nothing saying that you can't work it out since there's only like
three parts playing here to make it sound your best.
Making sure that you pick the right players flutes and saxes need to use lots of vibrato
here go all the way to the bar line at 70.
Then we have this cool wind times effect at 70 and you want to make sure that you go over
this with your kids because lots of times my kids have just like slam their hand.
Yeah, the wind chimes and it's like it's supposed to be very delicate and it has to take two
full measures to be brought out.
I think one of the best ways that you can get that effect instead of having the students
just scrape their finger down the center of the bars which is kind of loud and jarring
and of course you do get that you get the pitch effect of going high to low there.
What I like to have my students do is we just kind of take their have them take a hand and
they just kind of flutter the bottom of the wind chime bars and move from top to bottom
move from high to low and it gives a way cooler effect.
It makes it sound a lot more like wind chimes that you would have on your porch instead
of you know the type of wind times we're used to hearing.
So I would I love that idea.
Yeah, I would consider using that effect.
Then you want to make sure that you spend a lot of time on this trumpet part here at
71 and 72 making sure that it sounds very seamless that your kids are making the jump
up to the upper notes really well.
You can have them vibrate in on mouthpiece to make sure that they really hear the pitches
especially because the first and second parts are not the same here.
And then your first trumpets may want to kick on E with their first valve slides since they're
holding for so long.
And then you get a nice little bell solo at the end at 73 and when this when you teach
the sh to the kids make sure that they don't start too loud and that together you're just
fading out and once the bell sound has gone away I feel like you're kind of done with
the piece.
So don't feel like you have to hold it for like eight beats or something like that just
whatever fits your band and the texture at the very end of the piece.
And one other quick thing about the trumpet solely going into those last four measures
I know that it's marked piano but I would not like do not like play it.
That's right.
They just need to have a beautiful sound.
That's the most important thing.
All right well we hope that this was helpful for you on your journey to learning colliding
visions.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.