Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.
The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be talking about Grand Gallop by Johnnie Vinson.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
All right.
We love this Gallop March.
It is in the key of concert B flat.
It does change to the key of concert E flat.
It's in two four and it has split clarinet parts, three clarinet parts, split alto parts,
split trumpet parts, trombone and euphonium, often double but they do sometimes split.
Limited percussion.
You can do, you need to have snare bass and crash cymbal.
The bells part you could do without.
It does double the flute throughout.
Timpani is not very active in this.
If you have enough percussionist, it's always nice to have a timpani player, but you would
be fine without it as well.
This is a circus march and so the kids love it because it's fun.
It's mostly 2D written and it can be played at any tempo, which I think is really fun
about circus marches and gallops in general.
You can play it kind of slow.
You can do an achela rondo at the end to make it more exciting.
So many options and it's not difficult for the children.
The rhythms are fairly easy.
Nerves and rhythms and styles are relatively easy.
You bring in that extra level of challenge with the tempo, being able to differentiate
the tempo based on the skill level of your ensemble.
At the very beginning, the uppers have the melody and they come in on beat one each time
and then the lows have a response on beat two.
So it goes one, two, one, two, one, two and one, two and everybody has an accent on beat
two and that happens a lot throughout this piece.
Then the lows are going to come down a level and the trumpet, flute, clarinet one, alto
one have the melody and this is written so that on the melody they play same, same, then
we get louder.
So each time on their little melody line, they're going to get stronger on eighth notes
and land on an accent and note in the middle and then get softer again.
So real quick, back at the introduction with this alternating people on beat one and people
on beat two, I had my students play that like each of those notes were forte piano so that
we could hear it really clearly.
You could hear all of those entrances really clearly.
Like all marches, I think it's important every time you have a pickup note that the pickup
note is full value.
So we might do firmer articulation and space some places in the march, but pickup notes
should always be full value.
No space between the pickup note and the downbeat of the following measure.
This melody continues on in the uppers all the way until measure 20 through the first
ending.
Lots of slur two tongue two.
There are little moments where the trombones get to kind of do a little counter melody
type line.
It's when the upper people have their half note, the trombones will have two quarter
notes along with bassoon and it's just like a cool little moment that they can bring out
a tad just to help with the color.
At 13, the low brass are now tongue in quarter notes again.
You do want to make sure you pay attention to the tuning.
They do go up to like upper D and C and trombone and euphonium quite often.
So making sure that those are in tune as they go above the staff and not loud because it's
not the melody.
As you're playing this section, depending on how fast you go, I think it's important.
This is a musical opinion, but I would not put space between these quarter notes.
I would use a really firm front to the note so it's clear, but I think it can sound immature
if you start to put space between it.
If you're going really, really fast, you know, da da da da da da da da da da da da versus
da da da da da da da da da da da.
That just sounds a little more immature.
So that's again a personal preference, but I would go more on the side of firmness of
the front of the note and not worrying about space.
Yeah, it doesn't indicate to play it too short or anything like that either.
So I think that that's a good, good thing to follow.
The melody has a first ending and on the end of the first ending, of course, there's a
big pickup to go back to measure five.
You know, making sure that that is strong and as Laura said, continues on no space between.
Then on the second time around, you can do whatever you want.
That's what's really cool about marches is you get to make musical decisions.
So it's one of my favorite things about marches.
I love it.
Maybe the first time you heard a lot of the trumpet and not a lot of the woodwinds, maybe
the second time you want to leave the trumpet out and let the woodwind shine or maybe the
first time the woodwinds shine and the second time the trumpet shine.
The trumpet parts are both written to in harmonies a lot.
I think it's really important to hear both trumpet parts on this piece while I'm kind
of thinking about it.
But do whatever you want.
You can play it the same both times.
That's kind of up to you.
On the second time around, the whole group has kind of a final ending one, two, three,
four, one off on one.
And when I'm marking my parts, I always write that in.
So it's like a half note tied to an eighth note release.
We see that all the time in music.
So the first few times we see that, I'll slash it out and write off on one.
And then I'll teach the students now in the future, anytime you see this, we know that
we're always just going to be off on one.
And they're always like, Miss Lucy already teaches that a half note is off on one.
I'm like, yeah, I don't know.
I guess back in the day they didn't teach that.
But I do make sure that they don't hold it over because there needs to be absolute silence
on the and of one because then you have pickups two and one into the next string, which is
at 25.
And here at 25, the first time through, it is mezzo piano.
We have a different kind of style here.
This again, one of my favorite things about marches is being able to color them however
you want, whatever your personal preference is.
When we played this the first time through at 25, I featured woodwinds and had one trumpet
player play and then had the snare player play on the rim.
And then when we came back in the second time, all of the brass came in and brass were featured.
Snare went to the drum and that helped to add to that contrast of dynamics, but also
just made it sound a little bit more a little bit more interesting.
Also it's a great way to depending on what other pieces you're pairing with this on your
program.
If your brass need a little bit of a face break, you can build in a face break on a
march like that.
So it's great that you can just tailor it to whatever you like and what is going to
be effective for your ensemble.
I think I was a little bit more boring and just straight up played it as normal, but
I do that a lot with marches.
This one we were talking before we started the podcast.
I played this in 2021 right after COVID.
I think that was the last time I played it.
So I remember that my I just had a little tiny baby ensemble in person face to face.
And so I think we just like there probably wasn't even a trumpet to play.
So whatever it was is what we ran with.
But it's a really cool little part where the trumpet and flute and clarinet are getting
featured with the melody again.
We have a little crescendo decrescendo for two measures again, like we did before.
Lots of accidentals, especially in sax clarinet and trumpet.
So just making sure that they feel really comfortable with that and that they like go
through the measure.
Like there's even an A sharp.
So just making sure you teach them that or write it in their part to help them so that
they know what that inharmonic is if needed.
And then we get here at measure 33 as we're finishing out this little second strain, there
is a chunk of two measures that are accented by everybody.
And it is really important that that match and that it be different than everything that
you heard before in the snare part right here.
We have four accented quarter note rolls and they are not connected.
So you need to make sure that the snare player understands that that we should not hear.
We should hear there needs to be space in there since they are not connected and it
will help match what the wind players are doing.
And I told my bass drum to play louder there too.
And the crashes get to be louder.
The whole band gets to be a little stronger for those four notes.
Then we have a second ending, a first ending and a second ending on the same thing as Laura
already mentioned.
She had her students do different things on each strain, which is pretty cool.
Then we have a at the end of the second ending, a pickup into the trio at 43 and it's marked
piano.
So then we have our key change at 43 and the melody is in clarinet and alto sax, tenor
sax as kind of like the harmony part.
The euphonium line also has importance.
It's a long, nope, it's with bassoon.
Yeah.
So the counter melody truly is in bassoon and euphonium here.
It does have cues in the trombone part though.
If like maybe you don't have a good euphonium section or something, you could have your
trombone play.
That's kind of up to you.
This is another moment where, you know, this is where you get to let your woodwind shine.
So like you can go down to one on a part in your brass instruments.
I wouldn't do that in tuba.
I think tuba needs to be beefed up if you have more than one tuba.
But this is where the woodwinds get to kind of take over.
Featuring your bass clarinet is a great thing.
Letting your bassoon shine over and above the euphonium.
I love trios and I think that if you can let your woodwind shine, it's just a cool moment.
And like Laura said, it's a face rest for brass if you know you're programming something
more difficult.
In this section, before he does a lot, he writes in a lot of hairpin dynamics.
There's nothing written in here.
So you have the opportunity to kind of add your own taste.
And I, you know, we basically did four measures up, four measures down.
But writing it in and making sure that they're working for that goal.
Because it's in two four instead of four four, they need to be thinking 16 bar phrases instead
of eight bar phrases.
And again, writing in breath marks and things like that.
Places where they can breathe and places where they should not breathe.
So that you get the type of phrasing you want.
Yeah.
And even where you want them to not breathe, I always write an NB, but I will also draw
a crescendo because I really feel like they need to push through the end of that phrase
where they would want to take a breath instead.
You need to push through and crescendo so it sounds more musical.
And then like Laura mentioned, you can in sectionals or whatever else you can pick spots
where you want the kids to take breaths, where it's kind of hidden.
There's plenty of quarter notes in here where you could say you two, you two breathe here,
you two breathe after this quarter note.
So it's just a matter of you taking the time to do that either in their part ahead of time
to save you time later on in sectionals.
So you can literally do like every single kid's part and say in the trio here, I'm going
to let this kid breathe here and here.
And then on the next kid's part, I'm going to let them breathe on the odd measures right
here and right here.
Or in sectionals, make sure you take time to talk about it.
But breathing plans are so important and I think a lot of band directors don't spend
enough time talking to kids about how important breathing is.
It shouldn't just be breathe wherever you want to.
Like if it's going to sound musical and I always talk to them, I talk to them like this
and say, is this normal?
And then they all laugh and look at me and I'm like, yeah, I know.
Like you wouldn't play music like that either.
Everything is going to get stronger.
You're going to sound like there's an end and a beginning.
There's inflection in what you play.
Yes.
There needs to be inflection in what you play.
And this is a great march for teaching that because it's not technically hard and it's
not rhythmically hard.
So teaching those little like swells and everything is I think just so important.
So low brass get another little moment of those four quarter notes with the accents
as Laura mentioned before.
And now we don't have the percussion to help us.
So now it's low brass's job and low reeds to really bring that out leading into 59.
We're continuing to have the upper people with the melody here, making sure everybody
else is out of the way.
And then at more accented quarters leading into 67.
Then 67 has big saxophone moment along with the euphonium and bassoon line still in clarinet.
Then we end with the low brass playing one, two and one.
Then the lows get to come in with the dog fight.
So 75 is your typical moment with the dog fight where the lows have the melody and they
have house top accents now.
So they get to play really, really firm and short here.
And it's marked fortissimo.
So yeah, I mean, lots of energy.
And I did teach space here between the dotted quarter and eighth.
So I did ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta.
So this is a moment where I did teach the space as opposed to before like Laura had
mentioned.
Then the upper people have a response.
One, two and three, four and one, two, three.
I know it's in two, four, but if you're thinking of it in that kind of phrase.
Then the lows get their little moment again.
And then the uppers have a response.
A very traditional dog fight.
And then everybody comes in at 91, mezzo forte together.
Then we're going to crescendo up to make it sound really fun and exciting.
Then big fortissimo pickup into 95.
This is the moment where you could do an accella rondo if you wanted to.
I believe when I played it, I did.
So we ended the dog fight in the same tempo and then we had a pickup into 95 and we started
getting faster and faster to the end.
So there's a big fortissimo pickup unless I'm remembering this piece incorrectly.
Nope.
That's where it was.
I experimented with it.
It did not work as well for my ensemble.
I love being able to do that, but the year that we played this, it did not work as well
for my ensemble.
So we ended up not doing the accella rondo, but I think it's a really cool option to have.
This is also a place where I definitely brought out the trombone line.
It's just a bunch of quarter notes, but we've heard the melody.
It's a recap of the melody.
And they get to do the two, three, four, like the accented quarters more here.
Yeah.
They need to be brought.
This is the brass's moment.
Yes.
So the trio is the woodwind moment.
This is the brass moment.
So they won the dog fight.
That's what you can tell them and they'll be so excited to play loud.
But yes, the woodwinds get to kind of calm down.
It's literally a recap of the beginning.
Do whatever you want to make it sound even more fun in your ensemble to make it more
colorful.
If you're continuing to do the accella rondo, it gets faster and faster at 119.
And then the ending is just a typical March ending.
One, two, and one, two.
And it is marked as a house top eighth note.
Followed by eight the rest of that.
But I always tell everybody the stinger should be long.
Yes.
I tell my students to think the word tone.
One, two, and one, tone.
Yep.
Exactly.
It needs to be long.
Tone.
Yep.
So this piece is so much fun.
It is fun.
And you get so many choices.
You can do whatever fits your ensemble to make them shine.
One other fun little thing I didn't mention that if you have, because we talked about
the limited amount of percussion parts on it, if you have extra percussion, one year
we played this, we added some extra accessory stuff.
It's a circus march.
Have fun with it.
We added like vibra slap and we added whistle like in some fun little places when it would
make sense to have some cool little sounds.
So you can definitely kind of make it a little more entertaining.
Again, it's my favorite thing about marches.
You can tweak marches and color them in any way that you want.
So have fun with the circus march with your percussion section too.
Yes.
We hope that you guys will consider programming Grand Gallop in the future and thank you for
joining us on this episode of BAM BFFs.