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 Brace for Impact by Christina Huss.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
We got a brace for impact in our lives, huh?
I guess.
We just came up on the holiday season. We just got our first little moment of breathing room.
It's like a few days after Christmas.
Yes, right here before things kick into high gear in the second semester.
It's been a lot though, right?
It has. I've been enjoying just kind of resting and taking it easy.
I've had a couple of really lazy days, which sometimes my brain needs to have.
Yes, Netflix and Hangout.
And then I've been cleaning my house like a crazy person, which I know will not surprise anyone.
Yeah, KB has taken all of her decorations down.
Her house is decked out for Valentine's.
Meanwhile, mine will have Christmas up until we go back to school.
Hey, man, listen. I need a clean start.
I'm bracing for the impact of the new semester.
Nicely done.
But this piece is super fun. It's a Texas PML Grade 1.
So it is in 4-4 throughout.
It's in the key of E-flat or C minor.
Really easy rhythms.
It's a minute and 40 seconds long, so it is not long at all.
It has two clarinet parts, two trumpet parts.
It's really fast, like 150, 160 BPM.
Lots of percussion parts.
You need five to six players on percussion to really execute this well.
Doubled low brass parts, low reed parts, a lot.
So really just split clarinet, split trumpet parts.
But even then, they're often playing in line with each other.
So 2D rhythms often.
The piece starts off at 156 and does not slow down.
It's literally like you are bracing for impact.
But it's exciting. The kids like it.
And again, it's pretty accessible.
Lots of hits on beat 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1.
And the low people part.
And the highs 1, 2, and 3, 4, and 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1.
And there are accents on 1 and then 3, 4, 1 to line up with the low brass.
So easy to play and line up those accent articulations for any level of group.
It continues on with the upper people having that little moment of glory.
And then a little different part at 7.
Yeah, you have a little syncopation in here and accents.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 3 and 3 and 4.
And it's got slurs.
And the slurs follow along with that feel.
So like it lays pretty easy.
One of the things I like about this, like even though the wind parts are really pretty straight ahead,
rhythmically and range wise, the percussion part is, it's not overly simplified.
And I mean, I like that a lot.
That way you're not having snare drummers back there playing quarter notes and eighth notes.
They're playing something that is more active.
That's got some 16ths.
Yep.
And the syncopated rhythm is in the bass drum part.
The mallets get more of the melody.
But it's got that like driving feel to it for sure.
Then all the accents at 7 and 8 line up with the syncopated low brass part.
They have 1 and 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
And the upper people have 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3, 4.
So all those accents, if you really line it up and do it well, line up perfectly
and make it just have that cool little style going into 9.
And that would be something I would take those two measures
and I would work that into a fundamental exercise with your band,
having upper voices play 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
And you can do it all on a concert F.
And the low mid and low voices just playing the hits along with them
so that the kids get the feel for what that feels like
and how that aligns together stylistically.
Yep.
And then Timpani kind of does cool stuff along with Tuba here too.
So I wouldn't necessarily leave it out.
It's got a pretty cool little part for sure.
9, the melody continues on in the clarinets and the trumpets.
And now we had a cool counter melody in the flute and oboe and alto saxophone
and horn, which I really like the horn color dominating this here.
If your horns are strong enough, it's got some pretty big leaps in terms of skiffs.
It's a perfect fit up to a D.
Yeah.
So they need to sound good.
But it, you know, and it's scored well, like I said, in flute, oboe and alto.
If you only have one horn that can really play it and sound good,
then let them do that, but it's covered in other instruments.
And so they're the new part that you want to bring out in feature.
Everybody else has the same considerations from before.
We do the same little syncopated thing going into 17.
Trumpets are living on a D below the staff.
So one, two and three, four and one.
You must kick.
Yes.
I mean, that is going to be super important.
And make a trituner and make sure that you are in tune and green, green, green.
You know, sometimes.
And that is something I would write in.
Yeah.
Right?
Like, kick.
Sometimes I think trumpets are like, oh yeah, I'm kicking.
But like, are you kicking enough?
Like, look at your tuner.
Right.
Oh wait, I need to kick more, you know.
Yeah.
That's like something you've got to train and teach non-varsity and
sub-non-varsity students.
They can't just be like, yeah, I'm kicking a little bit or like, oh,
that's good enough.
Oh, my third valve slide doesn't work.
Oops.
Like, you know, well, then you're not going to be in tune on a D.
So making sure, you know, you really take a lot of time on that.
That is definitely critical when they're all playing D for like the whole piece.
Then the key signature just has B flats in trumpet one.
It's like down below the staff.
Yeah, range-wise it's actually very doable.
Yeah.
So then we get this, the sax and the saxophones join the flute and the
trumpet on the one and two and three and four and one and two and three,
four part.
Then it's 17.
We have a new moment with cabasa getting to, it's like a lot of the
percussion drops out per cabasa is the one giving the pulse.
The trombones have a different part than some of the other people had before.
The trombone, euphonia and bassoon have a different little melody line.
It's kind of like counter melody to the flute and oboe who have the melody.
Dynamically, we've dropped down here.
It's a lot softer.
This is a little bit more flowy.
Like there's more slurs in the upper melody.
So, less.
So, whole notes in a lot of the low people.
Yeah.
And the low brass, the trombone, euphonia and bassoon part here and it doubles
what's happening in the tenor.
You want to make sure that they're firm on the fronts of their notes,
but this should not be, this is not the same type of style.
We're thinking denting the air.
Yes, absolutely.
On the succumbent part.
Yes.
Then at the end of the melody, like melody goes one, two, three, four and one and
they have a whole note.
When they have the whole note, the lows go one, two, three, four, one.
So, it's kind of like a little playback and forth.
Then they get softer again and the flute and the oboe continue their melody with
the counter melody again.
Now, sorry, the counter melody is now in sax and horn compared to before.
And the horn again is like doing some just different jumps like A flat to C to D.
It's just, they're going to really have to be able to hear their part.
And like spend a lot of time in sectionals making sure that it sounds correct.
And that it doesn't sound strange.
Yeah, there's a lot of like accidentals in here too.
So making sure that the students understand the rule of accidentals.
The flute part has like D flat in it at one moment, then it's D natural, the next
measure.
So just making sure kids know what they're doing and marking that in their parts
ahead of time will really help.
My favorite way to finger D flat on flute is right hand down.
So that way it sounds really in tune.
Even though it's going fast, I think that's a good thing to kind of teach the kids.
And then oboe has D flat too.
So making sure that you've kind of thought through your pinky situation, A flat and
D flat pinkies here in the oboe part and E flat and F.
So this is a good moment to sit down and say, you know, what you've got to do so that
you can get tripped up and trying to use two right pinkies in the same measure.
Then the lows, we're kind of getting out of the slurry section at 24.
The lows have a little baseline going down with accents one, two, three, four.
Big timpani roll, which is going to help kind of build this moment leading into 25.
Crash symbol at 25 and then it's back to the beginning.
It's exactly like we had at the very beginning with the hits and the accents on the same
beats, same little syncopated thing at 31 and the upper people.
Then we have a whole note, Day Crescendo for the whole band.
A fun little chord.
And then a fun little cluster like chord coming back up to 35.
Like it's supposed to be kind of scary and like dramatic like what's going to happen.
And then we change to three, four.
And there this is a big percussion moment, which is just like fun.
And this is like timpani major.
I mean, it's like it's a major timpani solo here.
So timpani player needs to be playing with really articulate mallets.
There needs to be a lot of clarity in the part.
It doesn't need to sound muddy.
You know, one, two, and one, two, three, one, two, and while cabasa is going.
Keep in the beat.
There's a ratchet part.
Tom's snare and bass come back in.
It's an extended percussion feature.
Yes.
And then at 43, this is fun.
And this, by the way, is a really cool piece to do with like a region band to.
Yeah.
If you are ever something programmatic, spring concert or fall concert.
Now, I know lots of there's probably lots of different opinions on clapping in music,
you know, and I know it is it roll the dice, right?
You can see if it's going to go well or if it's not, but this one has clapping.
Yeah.
Good clapping.
So the whole group, the woodwinds have the same rhythm and then the lows have a different
rhythm and the low claps have accents on them.
So you can go into like lots of depth about like their normal.
They're actually but marked and then like, yeah, I know, right?
So like, how do you make that happen?
I don't know.
But yeah, it gets louder and louder as they continue on, but you can talk about different
ways to clap like offsetting your hands kind of like symbols.
We talk it straight up together to make it sound louder.
We talk it.
That's good grammar.
We talk and I said it.
I said, I talk about a golf clap.
So like, you know, if you think about being at a golf match and you know how they kind
of clap off pretentiously, that that's how when we clap as a full ensemble, that's how
we need to clap, you know, it's a golf clap.
You can also dynamically bring it up by like being lower and then higher and like get stronger
that way.
Whatever it's whatever you want to do.
Listen, everybody like you can talk.
You can talk the claps to death, but like when they're talking about accenting, I would
tell my kids that they don't need to bring their hands any further apart.
They just need to use more velocity, right?
You know, so you can have it through percussion.
That's right.
You can have a piano accented class and the students are sitting there going, wait, tell
me exactly how far apart to pull my hands.
But anyway, you can have fun here.
It gets louder and louder and we're accenting and the percussion is continuing to be featured,
which is fine.
Everybody is going to be to rush because they have the syncopation one, two and one and that
three and three.
Yeah.
And one and three.
The clappers are going to want to rush.
So they're raining it in.
Yep.
Because they're excited about it.
Then the timpani continues their little solo.
It's like climaxed up to measure 54.
They have a roll.
Then we're back into four, four and it's like the beginning again.
Flute and oboe and clarinet kind of get the melody.
Trumpets are chilling on the D again.
Low people are playing just the little impact moments.
Percussion is grooving.
It's a lot like the very, very beginning, but now we're adding in more voices.
More thicker.
Thicker.
Textured.
Yeah.
Then we have the same little syncopated one and two and three and four and one and two
and three, four.
Fink, chino.
Four take piano, trill, situation.
We all know how I feel about trills.
Let one kid trill and just don't make it be a huge deal.
It's like a little bell tones on each beat.
Trombones and tubas on beat one.
Horns enter on beat two with alto sax.
Trumpet two enters alone on beat three.
And why is it always squared like that?
But it right?
It always is.
That's like two or three kids.
So maybe beef it up by writing that the tenor sax gets to play on beat three along with
your trumpet two or have some of your clarinets do it instead of trilling, but be, you know,
I don't know.
Be thoughtful about it.
I would bop this measure like a million times, right?
One, two, three, four.
Yep.
And trumpet one gets the four alone.
So maybe even having some flutes do that with them.
And then one, two and three, four and one and two and three, four.
And like big snare drum at the end and timpani and choke everything in the cymbals.
It's a fun little ending.
So this is definitely like you just hit the impact.
So this is a fun piece.
The kids really, really like it.
Yeah.
So lots of articulation, some tuning considerations.
But it's not horrible.
It is not range wise.
Yeah.
Rhythmic horn part.
Yes.
It's a little bit above range for most younger ensembles.
Sub non or developing non-barcity groups.
Yeah.
But this is a great piece.
And we hope that you will consider playing Brace for Impact.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Band BFF.