Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be discussing Tripwire by Jarod Hall.
Cheers to starting the conversation!
Alright, Tripwire is a great two on the Texas PML and it's a pretty new piece.
This was written in 2020.
It is in the key of concert E flat or C minor.
It is about three and a half minutes long.
And it is a great piece.
Every section gets to be featured in this piece.
It's one of the reasons that kids really like to play.
And percussion is really cool on this piece as well.
There's lots of percussion and all the percussion parts are important.
Now I will say one of the things that I think is that makes this piece a little bit more
challenging is it is rarely 2D band.
There is a lot of thinned out scoring in this and it makes it really cool.
But it also makes it a little more challenging.
Also lots of style in this piece.
Lots of staccato, accent, tenuto, lots of style.
Here at the very beginning, like Laura just mentioned, it starts off with a bang at the
beginning and then it's very, very thinned out immediately with just percussion playing.
You want to make sure you have a really, really confident pulse wise marimba player.
Then you get little features with tambourine, fiber slap, you know, it's really cool.
The kids really like it.
You got a big bass drum hit on beat two.
And then like a response from the other voices as they're coming in here with staccato sounds.
It's supposed to sound like you're trip wiring a security system.
So the kids just love playing this piece.
Then we've got another beat, three entrance here from the same voices, a little snare
drum added in for color and effect, timpani leading us into the nine.
I want those half notes to almost feel like bell tones.
So like a really firm articulation at the start.
We talk about the shape of the sound matching the shape of the cymbal.
So that is a very clear triangle shaped note leading into measure seven.
Yep.
And then we're here at nine.
And then once we get to measure nine.
Now you have heard probably Katie and I talk about melody sheets before, but this is a
piece that I think a melody sheet is absolutely perfect before four.
We have this melodic line that happens that starts in the tuba and low reeds.
Two, three, and two and three and four, one, two, three, and and two and three.
It is so easy to write that out for the whole ensemble and use it to teach all the style,
all of the notes at one time to everybody because almost every instrument section is
going to get that at some point in this piece.
And how cool that the melody starts off with tuba.
Yes.
Mr. Hall is a tuba player.
And I was like, this is so cool, you know, like it's going to make your low people feel
extra awesome.
They're going to feel seen.
Yes.
Feel seen and feel heard, right?
Finally, not a whole note.
And as we continue on in measure 12, there's all these little effects.
So we've talked about the percussive effects, but there are also wind player effects.
Like you see this little eighth note, three and four and one that happens in the low brass.
There are all these types of little musical instrumental effects that happen several
times throughout this piece.
They need to make sure that they match articulation on all of that complimentary stuff.
There's cues in a lot of the low reeds.
And certainly I suppose it depends on whether you're playing this piece for a contest, a
festival, or if it's more of a spring concert or a fall concert piece.
But if it works with the instrumentation of your band, I would have every kid who has
the cues play this.
Yeah, because it's just fun.
It's fun.
It's thinned out.
You're not having to worry about the balance between melody and accompaniment here.
You're really just worried about balance instrumentation.
Absolutely.
Once we get it over to measure 17, we have this little rhythmic ostinato that takes over
in the clarinets and then the flutes get the melody.
So that ostinato in the clarinets needs to be a really crisp articulation and not cover
up what's happening in the flute and the oboe.
And I really like the little grace note feature that Mr. Hall has put here for the flutes and
the oboe.
It just gives it a little jaunty feel.
Makes you imagine a different person sneaking around, not trying to trip the wire.
So that's pretty cool just to add that little feature in and then just the real short little
staccato notes here and then continuing with the ostinato.
Just again, those musical effects, right?
So with the clarinets, I would have my clarinets and anytime anyone has this ostinato, so it
passes from the clarinet to the alto sax, I would have them play that with the percussion
who have the same part so that they hear, like you can see it in the marimba, and then
it adds in some other percussion.
So making sure that they are playing that together and they're doing their best to match
note length on that.
We start to thicken up the texture a little bit as we lead into 25.
So we're adding more of the low brass in again as kind of complimentary.
25 is the first time that the trumpets really get to kind of show off and take the lead
here.
And again, they take over the same melody.
Everyone else in the accompaniment who has the half note and dotted quarter rhythm, making
sure that that's a really, even though it's mezzo piano, we still want a really firm articulation,
we're start to all of those notes and emphasizing the accents that happen in the syncopated
rhythm.
Yeah, I was going to mention, I've actually never personally played this piece before.
I have heard it several times and I think it's fabulous.
But just looking at it from like a non-studied standpoint, I think that the most important
thing to really make stand out is the style.
There are a lot of cool staccato features where he's trying to make the person sound
like they're tiptoeing and then it's going to be really smooth like at 23 and 24.
And then we have these accents at 25.
I think the more you can bring out the style and teach the students about that, the better
just to make it sound even more mature.
That's right.
That's what makes it effective.
That's what makes it sound really cool and really effective.
All right.
As we continue moving on, you're going to notice that dynamically we start to bring down the
dynamics a little bit as we transition, getting ready to go into 35, which by the way, 35
is the first time that it has been 2D band.
All right.
So this we get really soft here and you'll see this, again, this little rhythm one and
four, one and four.
And it happens on the same note.
So the students need to make sure that the articulation is really clear.
Otherwise that rhythm is especially the soft dynamic.
Or even make it be an accent.
Yes.
Ta, ta, ta.
Exactly.
And then that will help to clear up that articulation.
And then you see it smooth in the trumpet part right above it.
So just really that differing style is important to bring out.
And that's where we start the crescendo.
So you see that when Clarinet and trumpet come in, now we're starting this crescendo
at 33, leading in.
We get to measure 35 and this is an impact moment.
All right.
And there's even a stick shot in percussion.
Yeah.
How fun is that?
They love doing that.
Yeah.
Any type of cool effects in percussion, we always love that.
So there's also, you'll see in the horn part that there's a rip in the horns.
So this is a really cool opportunity.
And in the altos for those instruments to get something that's kind of cool.
You just, again, want to make sure that the longer valued notes, the flute, the trumpet,
all of that is not covering up that rhythmic part that's happening underneath it, even
though they are the melody.
And we want to make sure that you're watching the tuning.
Like I would isolate my flute, oboe, clarinet and trumpets on this part and making sure
that the tuning is accurate.
You may need to do some alternate fingerings and trumpet if they're pitch on those Ds is
not consistent.
Of course, you've got, you know, that fifth partial D against the flute C and the oboe
C. It's a tuning.
It can be a tuning nightmare.
Or maybe this could just be a soloist on the first trumpet part here where it's really
high just for the time being, and then they can all add back in after this range is definitely
one of the things that I think makes this a little more challenging.
We talked about the thinned out scoring and the style considerations, but range as well.
Like your low brass are going to get all the way up to a high E flat.
Trumpets are getting up to a G. Clarinets are absolutely crossing the break.
So, you know, there's, there are range considerations in this piece for sure.
Again, I just think this is so fun because that, that big impact moment is so cool.
And it's fun for the kids.
And then, and then Mr. Hall wrote it so well, you come back down.
It's like you're sneaking again.
Again, it's like a chase.
So the person's getting away.
The, the thinning out here is neat because you're hearing the trombone part with the
chromaticism.
Yeah, leading into the tuba again.
And then the tubas get to take over the melody again.
It's just, it's really well written where the kids think it's super fun too.
And everybody gets a cool, everybody gets a cool part.
The trombones have this 43.
Yeah, they get the melody now with the scoop in there.
So that's fun.
Yeah, it's just very, it's very jazz.
It's so cute.
Lots of jazz techniques.
Yep.
A little bit more grace notes and the upper woodwinds here coming in.
It's easy for that rhythmic ostinato in the woodwinds, especially where it's written in
first clarinet.
It's easy for that rhythmic ostinato to get a little bit too loud.
So I would make sure that if you, if you only have one first clarinet player that can really
play that piano and with the correct style and that register, that's fine.
You definitely don't need a ton of people on that, but just making sure that that, that
ostinato does not cover up the melody.
Yep.
Totally agree with that.
And then it's, it is smartly written though, where there's not a ton of that ostinato again.
And then we're coming into 51 where the horn and the alto get to come in and it's marked
legato.
So make sure that they're playing this style very differently.
But then you've got the, the, just the shift over with the low brass adding in some accents.
So making sure that they are doing what's on the page is important.
You have big timpani features here, kind of like they're the, they're the conversation.
That's right.
Yeah.
So you have a 52 timpani, 53 back to horn, 54 back to timpani.
So that's a cool little thing for your percussionist to have as well.
And then again, we're kind of building it up a little bit.
And then we land on an upper E flat, nope, C in the French horn part.
So you want to make sure that that's really in tune because they're holding it versus
the saxophone D.
You need to add the B key.
Definitely put the low B key down.
Definitely be thinking about, you know, maybe that's a solo part where one sax and one horn
can hold it in tune and not let it be, you know, out of tune.
That would be super awesome to think about.
And then they even have to do the decrescendo and that's important because everybody's
doing that leading into 59.
So just do whatever works best for your band.
And as we get to 59, you see now that the flute and oboe take over that melody that
the altos and horns had before.
So that more legato style.
But now we're putting it in the woodwinds.
So it was a little bit more of a brass and saxophone feature.
And now we're kind of putting it in just the upper woodwinds.
And the way this piece ends, like it's a, it's a, it's a fade.
So those, those dynamics are really important and making sure that your students are able
to do the stylistic things at a variety of dynamic levels is important.
In your daily drill, that would be something that I would maybe take a style exercise.
And articulation or style exercise and have them do it at a variety of dynamics so that
they're learning how it feels different because it does.
It feels different to play accents and staccatos forte than it does piano.
Yep.
You have this cool little saxophone feature that kind of comes out of the mix at 60.
So that's fun.
Again, at lending to the jazzy sound to it.
And then we have another full band moment here before 67, right around measure 62.
We end up now, this is another place where there is 2D band.
And you can see there's basically three different parts that are happening here.
So making sure that you have prioritized the melody, those moving eighth notes.
And even though it's slurred, you see the accents.
So you have to make sure that that is tongued really firmly on the accent and notes that
we lean into the first note of every one of those accents.
And then that is complimented by the accompaniment part.
And if everybody is doing their part, it's really cool.
Yeah, this tube apart is really neat down here too.
How it's coming up and ascending.
And then the triplets, that's super fun.
I think that this is just really, really a cool impact moment for everybody.
67 is a recap of that first 2D band moment that we had earlier in the piece.
You get another rip in the alto and the horn.
And man, I would let your horns rip if they can.
And they sound good.
Let them loose on this because they will, they will love it.
Now the percussion has gotten a little thicker here.
So we want to make sure that the percussion are not covering up the band.
Their part is really, really cool.
But you want to make sure that it's not covering up the wind players.
For sure.
And then again, you see kind of like in the accompaniment that there's lots of accents
here.
So just making sure that you can really hear that rhythm.
And then again, like we talked about before at 67 on these longer notes here with trumpet
and flute, perhaps do the same thing you did before where you're kind of cutting it down
where it's not taking over so that it's not louder than the sax and the horn part.
And also the tuning isn't an issue.
The flutes are much higher here.
So just making sure that they don't sound screamy.
They're floating some of the upper notes.
But they do get to be fun here, which is, you know, not a nice thing for your little flute
section.
And lots of vibrato on those high notes.
Oh, for sure.
So we're leading all the way into another humongous fortissimo section here.
We're all in.
And then we're kind of thinning out and getting softer again, as Laura mentioned before.
Yeah.
So this is another one of those what I would consider an impact moment.
All right.
So we're, again, you've got the full band and we want to make sure that we're here.
I would prioritize the horn and alto line.
And you'll notice the horn line is split and man, horn gets all the way up to a high F.
So your horns, you need to have, you need to have really strong horns.
But that to me is the most important part happening in these two measures.
And then the low brass kind of takeover to help us thin out before clarinets.
You have a cool little clarinet solo before 78.
And then percussion get a whole little chunk of measures here to kind of be featured, which
is really nice.
Yeah.
And it's nice that, again, they get to be featured.
They're playing forte.
They need to follow the dynamics too.
It's like this is another little person, quote, unquote, trying to get away from the burglar
or whatever.
So they, they're loud for three measures and they go to piano again and they're going to
build up that suspense into 82.
And then this is another really fun, full band moment.
This is band versus percussion here.
So, you know, and all of these notes, man, you want to make sure that note length is
really, really important.
And then look at some of these notes, like these are not easy for, for all students to
come in off of arrest on some of these notes.
So that is something that you need to make sure that, that you practice.
And with your brass players, I would practice that vibrating that pitch so that they feel
it before they need to hear it and they need to feel it before they play it.
And then you've got some cool features here in percussion, like you've got a vibra slap,
your marimba gets to be the cool little part, making sure that whenever the students come
back in, like Laura said, we even have trumpets coming in on a high G and flutes are up to
high F, but the flute part is written split where if you don't have students sounding
their best up that high, you can have them play the lower notes instead or all of them
can play the lower notes, whatever fits your band.
But just really making sure that all the style fits here.
This would be another great section from 82 to, you know, 80, whatever this is, 86 or
seven, doing that like on a concert F before you add in trying to make it more difficult.
Everybody's got the same 2D rhythms here minus percussion, just making sure that kids don't
come in at the wrong time and trip the wire.
So that that would be a good thing for you to work on in your daily exercises as well.
And I would make sure everywhere that we have these quarter notes here at the end that we
are keeping those quarter notes equal length.
So like for example, from 83 to 84, when we go from beat four to beat one, the tendency
for students is going to be to go da, da, da, da, and those notes need to be equal
length.
So the note needs to touch the rest da, da, equal length on both of those notes all throughout
this section.
Then you've got a forte piano moment here and percussion gets to take the lead again,
getting into don't let them actually play triple F, but they're going to be excited to
see that.
Yes, they are.
And they have to touch the rest.
And that is a chord that has to be you've got to spend some time working to balance that
and helping your band understand what the pitch tendencies are when they crescendo to
that degree going from piano to even if it's just piano to forte or if you go to a forte
plus, right?
There are pitch tendencies.
They need to be aware of that.
They need to know how to adjust for those pitch tendencies.
And I tell my students like if you're on first trumpet flute oboe instruments like that first
clarinet, you're not even going to crescendo.
It's going to let the let the bigger instruments do that for you.
Absolutely.
And let the percussion help.
And that's going to help the band to sound way more balanced.
Then of course, as we get ready to close this out, we have first clarinet and first trumpet
that kind of bring in this little melodic line.
Again, we had this earlier, this little chromaticism.
This becomes almost like another waterfall effect here where this chromatic line kind
of passes through all of the different instruments or many of the different instruments in the
band.
And this time though, it's half note, half note, quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter,
half note, half note in the waterfall section.
I think that's just a cool moment and good writing.
And then make sure again that all of these half notes are balanced, right?
We're holding these long double whole notes and all of that.
So we want to make sure that we're working to stagger, breathe in this section and that
you hear the moving notes are more important.
So those moving half notes or moving quarter notes are more important than the whole notes.
And then it ends with your low people taking over and again, really, really full value
note lengths here at measure 100.
You've got all the way back down to just percussion playing sneakily like the beginning, little
tambourine roll to bring in the flutes again for the last little hurrah moment here.
And then the low people get their moment and then it ends with tuba just like it began.
It ends like it started.
That's right.
It's all ending because it's, you know, how often do you have just like one or two instruments
playing at the end of a piece?
It's really, really great.
Kids just love this piece because it's got so many cool moments in it.
Everybody gets a moment of glory.
And it's just, it's fun.
It's got a lot of cool effects in it.
It is fun.
Lots of style considerations, lots of dynamic considerations, but fun for every every instrument
and some cool effects.
So we hope you guys will consider programming Tripwire into one of your future concerts.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.