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 Armory by Randall Standridge.
Cheers to starting the conversation!
Alright, Armory, a very popular piece.
Your kids will love this.
If you play it with all standard pieces, lots of great cool percussion, active percussion.
It's in the key of concert F, D minor.
It's about two minutes in length, four-four time throughout.
Clarinet part never crosses the break, and it's one clarinet part.
There are two trumpet parts.
The first trumpet part does go up to a high D, but that's only in the introduction.
Horn part is pretty important.
It doesn't go above a C, and the low brass parts are all pretty straight ahead in terms
of range.
Percussion we feel like you need a minimum of six percussionists to pull this off, and
every percussion part is important.
Absolutely.
So at the very beginning, notice that it says intense, 154.
You really do need to try to play this piece in the spirit of how it was written.
It was written to be like video game music and very exciting, and building up, and like
it's almost like fight scenes in certain places.
So you do want to make sure that you work up your tempo.
This is something that's going to come back over and over the opening statement and rhythm
along with the style.
Ta, ta, short, short, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, and really leaning on every accent, making
sure that those come out of the mix is so important here.
Making the staccatos be like the weaker sounding, softer sounding one will really help that
pop out.
I'm a fan of vocalizing, and so I have my students on this.
We vocalize da's for accents and d's for staccatos.
So we would say as an ensemble, especially because this is unison, da, da, di, di, da,
da, di, di, da, di, da, and say that until we can match it and then playing it.
The bells part's really important many times in this piece, so make sure that you've got
a strong person that's got good pulse here.
And then this is a cool piece because it's got break drum, it's got sleigh bells, china
cymbal, you play the suspended cymbal with a stick on the bell.
So it's got lots of cool color effects, so make sure you lean into that.
But do not let the break drum become the crazy focal point.
I have adjudicated this piece so many times, and many times panels will talk afterward
and be like, oh man, that was a good one.
You couldn't hear the break drum that much.
Or like, man, that was break drum city, so you want it to be like a nice color effect
but not take over the ensemble.
There's so much metallic percussion in this that it can overwhelm the ensemble.
So the implements that you choose for your percussionist to use are also really important.
Don't just assume that whatever mallet or stick the kid picks up is going to be effective.
You're going to want to make sure you spend some time getting the right implements so
the color is exactly what you want.
Absolutely.
So again, as Laura mentioned, the only spot where we have a D in the trumpets is in measure
four.
So just making sure that that's in tune or let's be honest, just leave it out.
If for some reason your kiddos can't get it, it's doubled in the flute part and in the trombone
part so the C will come out, concert C.
We're going to continue to have this little part until measure seven.
Then we have a little transition with the trumpet and the oboe and sax having the melody
here.
When we get to measure eight with the forte piano, really make that come way down and
let the bells and flute become the cool part along with timpani.
And I've told my timpani to crescendo through that each time that we play it.
So they will start a little softer eight and then get louder and louder all the way to
measure 12 kind of as the bass quote unquote of that little part.
I even have told like upper woodwinds at times to not even crescendo and nine and a
10 so that way they don't take over that little melody part.
The flute part is divided depending on your section.
If you don't have very many kids, put more on the lower note and a few less on the top
part.
It's not a hard chord to tune, but just to make sure that that's not too loud.
At 12 you want to ask that part to layer down as they're not the melody anymore, especially
the bells.
The bells have got to come way down so that they're not covering the tenor sax and then
the low Braslow reeds part.
This part here is a kind of a tuning nightmare in the trombones because you have E naturals
and Gs and you're holding out E natural at the end of the phrase for a long time.
So you may need to go down the row and help modify parts if kids just can't quite get
into second position, but you do what's best for your ensemble.
Please also note that the style has changed here and now we have long tongues.
So you really want to make sure that that style is obvious to the listener.
I find with trombones, especially in this part right here, when they're coming from
fourth to second, they tend to do a really nice job on those E naturals, but when they're
going from F to E natural, they always overextend.
So I mean, it does take some time.
That's a good sectional thing to just spend time on making sure that they understand the
technique.
Right.
Each time at like 11 going into 12 and then here at 15 going into 16, you'll notice that
the percussion section has these little interspersed moments where they're kind of communicating
with the band.
So each time they have that have them start softer and crescendo up, but those are really
important to make sure that they come out of the mix.
At 15, we have a trill.
And if you've listened to any episodes, you know that I'm not a humongous fan of trills.
So maybe just find like one person to play the trill.
It's supposed to be piano anyway.
It's there for a color effect, but it should not be the focal point for sure.
Then as we continue into this low brass, low reeds melody, same thing.
You've got percussion coming into 20 that you want to bring up in a big suspended cymbal
roll to make it sound extra awesome.
And you get to hit the China cymbal at the same time as the suspended cymbal at 20.
So your percussionist, that's cool.
Yes.
All right.
When we get to measure 20, so we continue, we add the oboe into that little rhythmic
ostinato that's happening in the bells and the flute.
So again, we want to make sure that as they continue to play that they don't get louder
and louder as they go.
That needs to be just kind of a motor effect that is in the background.
The new idea here is the trumpet.
Well the new idea is what's happening in horn, clarinet and alto sax.
The trumpets take over the melody that the low brass were playing before.
So it's up to you.
I would tend to kind of want to feature that new idea that's coming in with the clarinet
and the horn, but the trumpets are what have the melody.
Now the low brass here, we want to make sure that low brass low reeds, that that part gets
underneath the melody and the new counter melody idea that we have.
And again, these two new do markings.
It is real easy when we play on beat four and on beat one for us to not make those notes
equal length.
So making sure that we go long, rest, rest, long, long, rest, long, long, long, just being
real intentional about that instead of going long, rest, rest, long, short, rest, long,
long, short, that's going to be their tendency.
The note that happens before the rest.
As we continue on, there is this cool at measure 23.
The low brass low reeds, they just have this little punctuated part that should come out.
It's the end of the halfway point of a phrase and they just get to add a cool little effect.
So we want to make sure that we hear the difference in that style, the accents and staccatos.
As we continue on, it's more of the same with trumpets on the melody and horn alto and clarinet
having that counter melody part.
One thing that I noticed, and I'm not sure if we've done this when we've played it in
the past, but there's a tambourine to break drum switch over here at 26.
And since the tempo is so fast, if you have to, you may want to mount the tambourine.
If you don't have enough kids and this is the same kid playing everything, you may want
to mount it so they can just put their sticks down and be ready on the break drum.
That's just a little side note.
I don't know that that's what you have to do for your group, but it's just an idea.
Something to keep in mind.
As we get to measure 28, this is the first time we have kind of this new idea.
It's a new style, now we're going to the slurred notes, these moving eighth notes that are more
connected.
Flowy.
Yeah, definitely more flowy.
So we have, again, these little impact moments and statements coming from the low brass,
low reeds and percussion, but all of the movement is happening in those upper voices.
Now I would make sure on all of this, this is basically like an even finger exercise
in music written out for a lot of these parts.
I would have them play it tongueed first, even just on a concert F to make sure that
we are passing these chunks of eighth notes to each other smoothly, just like a concert
F around the room.
For sure.
So make it really, really smooth and then you can go to the notes, but I would still
articulate it.
And then I would take the tongue away and that will help to stabilize their fingers,
make sure that their fingers are really even.
Now for all of these passages, we end up having, everybody ends up having a one and two and
three and four, one and two and three rest.
You need to make sure that there is no gap between the bar line right there.
No breath, one and two and three and four, one and two and three, they should not breathe.
They should lead into the next little section.
Lead into that.
Then this really cool thing at measure 31, the trumpets come in and they get just this
little, this little effect moment where they're three and four and then they're part at 32.
Nobody else has this with them.
They have this descending half note part that is really important.
I think the trumpets, all of the eighth note people, I know it's written to crescendo.
I would keep all of the eighth note people low.
Keep it underneath that and let this half note part be what is driving the crescendo.
One, three, one, three, one, two and three.
That's really cool whenever bands do that because it's not written in that way, but
I mean it is, there's a crescendo, but let that drive it, not anything else.
Yeah, not all of that moving stuff.
It can get too busy, too active if we do that.
And then of course we have this new idea coming into this one and two and three, four, one,
all these accidentals right before measure 36.
Be real intentional about making sure all of the kids are confident on that.
And again, equal length.
Four, one, those are both the same.
Accent, accent, so equal length note to note.
Here at 36, I kind of think of this as like the fight scene of the piece.
We've got the China symbol coming back in.
We've got hits from the band and percussion is just going crazy underneath, not crazy,
but just continuing to play.
Making sure that you align the articulation here and that nobody accidentally plays during
a rest.
And have the kids practice like just saying their rhythm so that they know exactly where
they come in.
And then at measure 39, making sure that everybody gets softer again for the one measure to lead
back into 40.
The driving part here is the low people part and really work on that tuning.
We've got to make sure that the A natural to the E flat to the D is super in tune in
the low part.
Many can help drive that two, three and four and one going back into 40 for that hit.
More hits, make sure that when you have four, one next to each other that those are two
separate air streams and equal length.
Ta ta, not ta ta, or ta ta.
Surely they won't do that one, but long short they do all the time.
So you want to make sure it stays the same.
All of this percussion that's happening underneath here.
This is really, really easy for this to get.
It is a percussion feature, right?
The winds are just kind of punctuating it, but because it's like the rhythm is doubled
and the bass drum and the China symbol are emphasizing the accents, it is so easy for
the percussion section to jam out on this and get way too loud.
So I would encourage them keep their stick height at six inches or less on all of this
for sure on the accents and then the taps even lower than that.
I like this timpani part at 42.
That's a really neat part to bring out and then letting them kind of be the star of the
show there.
We have a nice suspended cymbal roll going into 44.
And now we get this really cool new part with the sleigh bells.
Yeah, and the sleigh bells, man, this part here, because this goes so fast, I mean, if
you're playing this at 150 plus where it's written, that sleigh bells part is, it can
be a nightmare to play correctly.
Well to play it in time.
To play it in time.
To put it in time and then their hand gets tired and they go slower and slower and you're
like, go, go.
So I would have my sleigh bell player turn the sleigh bell sideways and hold it in both
hands and shake it with both hands.
It can be a real small subtle motion and that they have a lot more control over the delay
is less significant than if you play the sleigh bells in the traditional way.
So you might experiment with that.
They even make sleigh bells like I have used before, I don't think there's like a real
name for it, but like a flat sleigh bells where it's just a flat piece of wood and the
sleigh bells are mounted around the edge of it that you can mount and the student can
play with mallets.
We looked it up online and it's called an antique sleigh bells.
So I don't know.
I mean, like look that up if that's something that you, if your kiddo can't do the sideways
sleigh bells.
I think that's gonna cool to me when Laura brought that up.
I've used it.
I've used it before.
Now in this instance, the sleigh bells are only playing for a short amount of time.
It might not be worth it, but if you're playing something, you know, it's extended.
Yeah, sure.
So here again with the horn and the flutes, this is a really cool part at 44.
We want to make sure that the counter melody again is brought out a little bit more this
time, even though the trumpets have the melody, maybe kind of like a march.
You want to think about bringing the color instruments out more like oboe and horn or
even just flute and oboe because it's a new color and a new sound here at the end of the
piece since everything is so familiar in the same as before.
It just continues the same on when we get to measure 52.
This is very much a recap of what we had earlier in the piece.
I would treat it exactly the same way.
There's nothing in it that's new even at pickups to measure 56 when the trumpets come back
in there.
Again, it's the exact same idea that we had before.
And I still, again, I still think this trumpet part is so cool that I think it needs to be
the focal point here both times, both times.
And then it's building up here too all the way, especially in the trumpet part, to 39.
So just continue trying to get them to bring up their volume as they're leading in.
And then there's this cool horn part.
I love this leading into measure 60 right here where we have the alto tenor and horn,
the one and two and three, and then the trill on beat three and four.
And then like you want, I would really spend time practicing that clean release right on
beat one so that it's a very cool percussion feature, percussion actually have fortissimo
written and it's really effective if they play fortissimo and then drop down to piano
where that's written and four and one, leading into measure 62.
And then remind them to stay under the band at 62.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, when they come back in.
They do not need to crescendo back up to fortissimo.
62 is exactly like the beginning.
So we have this little statement here in the middle.
It's not until we get to measure 68 that we get our first like new ideas we're building
towards the ending here.
The horn part here, we dropped to messo piano, everybody.
The horn and clarinet part I think is really important and really cool.
So I would feature that in this little section.
Build all the way to measure 70.
Again another percussion break just like we've talked about before.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Like the fight scene.
Like we discussed before making sure that equal link four, one, spend plenty of time
on that.
And then at measure 73, again, this is like what we had earlier, but we have this people
coming in on one, three and four.
Nobody comes in on beat two.
So again, just making sure that this would be something I might bop with them so everyone
is really clear about where their note entrance comes in.
And the timpani can really help out with leading into that hit at measure 74 as well.
As we come to the end here, we want to really exaggerate the forte piano crescendo in the
low voices so that we make room for the eighth notes and the moving parts to come out in
the upper voices.
I love the clarinet and horn part here.
Again, it was just like what we had earlier.
And then went into and four, one that four, one needs to be exactly equal, exactly equal.
And then the China symbol here, we want to let that ring that's marked to let ring.
Don't be tempted to try and dampen that.
It's a really cool sound when it just rings for sure.
This piece is so fun.
Again, it's like video game music.
Your kids are going to love it.
They're going to practice it.
It is a great option for your next upcoming program.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.