Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we are going to be reviewing two easier marches.
The first is Andalucia by Victor Lopez, and the second will be Infinity March by James
Kernel.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
Our first piece, Andalucia, is one of my favorites for an easier march.
It is in the key of F or D minor and then modulates to the key of B flat or G minor.
It's about two minutes in length.
It's in two-four time.
Has a pretty decent range, lots of style, opportunities, articulation, percussion.
You really need a minimum of four percussionists, though you can have more.
There are lots of extra parts to cover.
Really important in percussion would be snare drum, castanets, and tambourine.
Absolutely.
This piece, as Laura mentioned, this is one of our, both of our little favorites to go
back to, but it does have a lot of demands in specific sections.
For instance, horns, saxes, and again, it's a little bit more difficult with the style.
I like that from a student perspective, this piece is on two pages, so kids feel like,
ooh, this is a real piece of music.
Of course, it has that key change that I mentioned.
I really like that.
Starting at the very beginning, it's a normal march tempo, about 120, and we have an accent
followed by two staccatos.
It has a very Spanish-y type feel.
One, two, and one, one, two, and one.
Everybody has the same rhythm.
That's nice because you can really work on it on a concert F, and then you can all go
into the real notes, and you can really make sure that the style is lined up perfectly
because everybody has the same rhythm.
From a lot of our instruments, we start, not everybody, but we start on a concert A natural.
It is something that you will have to work on tuning to make sure that we get that cross
tuning between the upper woodwinds and the trumpets that are on that flat partial, and
your low brass are starting on an A natural.
Again, it will take a little bit of tweaking to make that sound really good.
Yep.
Then we have this, everybody's still doing 2D rhythms up until measure nine.
There's pickups in the melody in flute, oboe, and first trumpet, or only trumpet.
Sorry, there's not more than one trumpet part.
They have the melody throughout, and it's really important to teach that they are not
going to take a breath after four measures.
It should be either an eight measure phrase or sneaky places to take a breath if they
need one early.
Now, one thing I would say in this piece that I have found, I've played this with several
bands before, that we have eighth note releases where they change note, da, de, ah, de, ah,
really working open throat releases and not letting students clip that off so short and
close their throat off for better tone quality.
Yep, I agree on that 100%.
Now we have this melody, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta,
ta, ta, ta, ta.
I teach the kids, sorry I didn't sing that in the right key, but I teach the kids to
lead through the long note and so that musicality comes in.
Again, it just sounds really pretty.
The kids love it.
The low motor or the motor voices are playing on one, two, one, two.
That's pretty nice because they're playing just on the downbeats, but-
It's not the same notes every measure.
Like I mentioned before, the horn part is a little bit trickier and the alto part because
they play on the ands.
You got to really have that motor set, one, and two, and three, and four, and... It is
a little bit more tricky.
It may not be for every single sub-non-varsity or non-varsity band out there.
That's right.
Then we're getting some accidentals thrown in going into 15 and 16 with a full band crescendo
as we're at the height of this melodic point.
Then we all have an accented quarter note pickup going into 17.
It changes to subito piano right here.
This is something that you have to work really hard at because everybody's at this forte
level and everybody goes two, one, two, and one, two, and... It's this big moment.
That's right.
Then everybody has to come down.
I tell my kids every time we talk about as an ensemble playing piano that it's like a
really intense whisper.
I use the example of if your parents have ever yelled at you in church, if they lean
over and say, Katie, you better stop that right now.
It's a really intense whisper.
That's how their air needs to be.
Piano does not mean slow puny air.
We need to have really fast, intense air in order to keep the tone quality beautiful.
Absolutely.
Then we start up with... It's the same people on the melody and it's the same idea, but
again everybody drops down.
Then we're all crescendoing up again into measure 24 with another release on beat one.
Then we have this super fun part in the horns at 25.
The horns have one, two, and one, one, one.
It's a very cool little counter melody.
It's beautiful and I love it and I think it's really cool, but you have to have very accurate
horns.
The saxes, double them, but of course I always teach my saxes.
You color the horn part.
The horns get to be the most prominent and the oboes have this part too.
It's cute and clarinet.
I mean you could always have a strong horn player play and then kind of beef up that
horn color with that beautiful clarinet.
That works as well.
The oboe note is a C sharp and I'm having flashbacks from the last time we played this.
We asked our oboe player to sit out here so that that way the horn and the altos could
be the stars.
I don't know.
Just be mindful of the fact that that's a tough note to play in tune for everybody and
you want to make sure that it doesn't detract.
It only makes everybody sound more mature.
We're continuing with this bass line, but now we've got a couple extra eighth notes
added in.
The rotor accompaniment, again really tonally centered.
Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta.
Keeping everything open and it aligns with what's happening in the percussion section
as well.
At 33 the flutes add in with the horn, sax, oboe melody and the trumpet part.
So now we're just kind of beefing it up a little bit, changing the color.
The trumpet part does go up to a C.
There are some cross tuning considerations in this section as we thicken all that up.
Then we go back to kind of the same rhythm from the beginning.
One two one two one two.
Crash.
Is it a crash or a bass drum hit?
I can't remember.
Oh maybe it's nothing.
I think I made that up.
So there's nothing there.
So don't let them crash there.
Then we go into 43 and we have pick up notes in the trumpet part and the flute and the
oboe and they have the exact same melody from before, but now we're hitting those high B's
and C's in trumpet and they're a little tired at this point.
So again making sure we're really listening to our tuning across the ensemble.
We're back to everybody having that one and two and one and two and motor between the
mids and the lows.
Then we have our first like little, no not our first time, but our second time of having
that subito piano thing that we talked about before.
So the full band has a big beat too and then everybody drops down at 51.
We have the same melody people and then at the very end at 57 the lows get to go one
and two and one.
Then we have a pick up note into the key signature change.
Now this key change, this would be like the trio of this particular march.
Horns, clarinets and altos are the feature instrument here.
The accompaniment motor really thins out.
It just goes to tuba and bass clarinet.
It is cued in several other instruments so if you needed some additional support you
have that option.
Last time I played this we actually made it be a bass clarinet, little like woodwind feature,
even though the horns played.
But we made it be that way just because our tubas weren't necessarily so centered on these
moving parts.
So feel free to experiment.
Find what works best for your group.
That color combination that's going to show off your ensemble.
This whole section through here, this is a lot about just airflow and connection.
No slur.
No gaps in the sound.
Yes.
It's very very pretty.
The horns again are featured here and they don't go up quite as high but they have to
be very accurate.
We continue that same smooth melody in those instruments but then we add some accompaniment
in the trumpet and flute and oboe.
They come in one, two, and one and lots of some accidentals in this section after the
key change.
So this would be a great opportunity for like, Katie and I talk a lot about pre-marking parts,
right?
Making sure that you've marked the kids parts.
This will help them be successful quicker.
Yep.
And your low brass have to play like an E natural in one measure and then an A flat and then
another measure and then go back to E flat.
So I think it's important again just to really reiterate this part.
It's like changing like the, I don't know, the chord structure.
The chord structure.
Yeah, it's just changing a little bit.
When we've played this, I have had the groups with the melody, we spend a lot of time making
it sound like our chorale.
Like even though the tempo is faster, we are trying to make it sound as much like a chorale
in this section as possible on the melody.
Of course the accompaniment is a little bit different but just again getting, you know,
big rich full sound centered on all of our notes and tuning.
At the end of this, of the trio section, we all have a release at 90 and then going into
91, it's just like the beginning again.
One, two, one, the same thing we've already talked about.
But then there's a DS all coda.
So you go all the way back to the beginning and it's actually kind of long because then
you go all the way back and you play until measure 20 and then you go to the coda.
So it feels a little longer.
It is repetitive obviously but again that pre-marking of the parts, making sure the
kids know where to go back to the DS, where to take the coda, how the piece ends, all
of that.
Yep.
So this is a great piece again like we said for just, you know, like a grade one type
of march.
So this is an introduction to a very cool Spanish march.
Yep.
Maybe even a 1.5.
Yes.
Our next piece is Infinity March and this piece is also a great one to play that's about
a grade one, maybe even a 1.5.
This one is in the key of concert B flat throughout.
It's in 4-4 time, not 2-4 time like our previous one is.
And this does have some dotted rhythms.
We have some dotted quarter eighth rhythms in this.
The percussion parts are pretty limited.
We have snare, bass, crash and then some keyboard instruments as well.
Now the snare part, I will say, I think the snare part is pretty active considering the
simplicity of some of the other parts in this.
But I love this.
One of the things I think is great about this piece is it is a great introduction to like
march format.
How we have, I teach my students that with marches we generally have a melody, a counter
melody and a motor and it fits that template really, really well.
Yep.
And I was, when we were discussing this before the podcast, I told Laura that last time I
played this piece or a couple times ago, we only had two percussionists in the band that
I played it with.
So we only had the snare part and the bass drum part covered and that was it.
And they performed at UIL.
So you can absolutely make it work with very limited percussion.
Now if you have a student who's coordinated enough and I know they can play bass drum
and crash cymbals in quotes at the same time by playing on a suspended cymbal.
That's right.
Yep.
You could do that.
But with that being said, the whole piece starts out with percussion.
So you want to make sure your percussion are confident enough because they're establishing
pulse.
They need to feel confident coming in at the beginning.
I mean, you know, the rhythm is, yeah, the rhythm's one, two and three, four and one
and a two and three, four and a one, two and a.
So like Laura was saying, it's not the easiest percussion part ever.
So you want to pick a snare drummer who can like play even 16th notes.
That's right.
Then going into measure nine, we have the melody, a pickup note going in with clarinet,
horn and alto sax.
And this melody is beautiful.
It's long, it's connected and we're going to teach the kids not to breathe after a dotted
half note at 10.
So they have four, one, three, four and one, four and one, two, three.
So that's really important to teach them that skill of phrasing and pushing through.
And the low people actually have quite an active part.
It moves around.
They are only playing quarter notes, but it's little scales.
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four,
two, don't miss that a natural four.
That's always the part where my low brass are like not quite natural.
Yeah, they don't come quite far enough in on that.
So I'm like, Oh gosh, please, please tune that.
But anyways, it is repetitive though.
So they do have that part frequently, but it is something to make sure you spend some
time on.
Then we have our first dotted quarter note rhythm getting into measure 15, one, two and
three and one and that's as hard as that rhythm gets.
So that's great for just a teaching tool about how to do dotted quarter note eighth note.
And I stole this from, I stole this from Kathy Johnson, but she calls them yay yay rhythms.
And man, I tell you what, especially for younger students, it clicks in their brain.
Anytime we have a dotted quarter eighth note and I can just say, Hey, we have yay yay
rhythms.
They know exactly what I'm talking about.
So in this case with the dotted quarter happening on beat three, the students could count three
yay yay and one three yay yay and one.
And then they, they completely understand.
I hardly have students miss those rhythms because they're thinking that yay yay.
So that might be a good teaching tool for you as well.
When we get to measure 18, we have a cool little almost almost like a response or countermelody
that happens in the trumpet and the flute and oboe.
And this is not very easy.
It's got these big skips in it.
So obviously you want to make sure that those players are really confident that the trumpets
are listening to the flute.
It's not as hard for the flute as it is for trumpets.
And the trumpets have to play one, one and two or two and three, four and one.
They have to go to the low C going into 17.
That's kind of tricky.
That's almost like a little bugle.
Yeah.
So that can be tricky for those students.
So yeah, spending some time on that.
Then at 17, the clarinets still have the melody with the trumpets, but now we have more people
added in like the flutes and the oboes and the trumpets are holding this note above them
and they're not as important.
So we have to back them off.
Flutes have got to show off great vibrato along with the altos on a very long tied note for
five beats.
Then that will also help mask any tuning.
If the tuning, you know, if they're using good enough vibrato, it can, it can, it can
help mask some tuning inconsistencies.
But this again, like Laura said, it's, you know, it follows the format.
We have the, the little melody line.
We have a little counter melody and then we have the baseline.
So it's easy for kids to know where they fit in.
They even have like breath marks written in about where to breathe.
So again, I would draw arrows in my parts when I'm pre-marking for the kids and arrow
where there's a dotted quarter or dotted half note going to two eighth notes.
Don't take a breath there.
Then we continue this little rhythm as we go on to measure 25.
Then going into 25, we have a little statement in the trumpets four and one.
Then everybody else in the band goes two, three, four, one and two, three trumpet flute
two, three, four.
And trumpets are all by themselves with snare drum in that pickup to 25.
So again, that's kind of a counting thing.
Making sure that the people who are not trumpets are counting carefully and know right when
to come in.
Yep.
So the calculation here is not, there's no special marking, so everything is long and
connected with a firm front.
Yes.
And then March style.
Yeah.
And then there is one like little big skip in the horn part at 28 where they have to
go from an E to a C and then they have to hold said C for eight counts.
So I mean, that's kind of difficult.
So you might want to like maybe even horns will sit this one out.
Toes can take over or find one horn player who can play that in tune without it getting
flatter as they hold or where they're not blasting above the group because it's not
the melody.
So we want to make sure it's just light sounding.
And then I would also consider this is a section where I have found tuning.
Like if you have a player that is playing that, they can often be really, really sharp
on that C. But if they play on the non trigger side, if they play on the F side of the horn,
it really helps to bring that pitch down.
Again, that's only if they can play with a really good sound on a C to begin with.
That is something an alternate fingering to consider to help the tuning.
Then the flutes have this kind of cool counter melody line where they go up to a B flat,
A, G. It's like a little scale.
It doubles tenor sax, which I think that doubling is really interesting, but I like the color
of it.
And you want to make sure that they're not blasting above everybody.
I have often had only one flute player play the upper octave and had everybody else mirror
what the oboes have, which is just a third line B flat.
And then we have the same little low brass part here.
The horns have to go back to an eight count C a little bit later.
More fun.
Yeah.
Because it's just the same phrase again.
At 36, we end the piece with long quarter notes.
Long, rest, rest.
Four, long, rest, rest.
Four, one, two, three, four, one, release.
Breathe.
Three, four, one, two, three, four, don't breathe.
Cha cha cha.
So it's, I mean, it's just such a good little piece and it is written really well to make
bands sound good with the right instrumentation and the right players.
That's right.
We hope that you have enjoyed learning about both of these pieces, Andalucia and Infinity
March and that you'll consider programming them in a future contest season.
Thanks for joining us on this episode of Band BFFs.