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Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs.

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The podcast where we make your music selection less complicated.

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On today's episode, we're going to be discussing Action Scene by Brian Balmages.

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Cheers to starting the conversation!

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Alright, Action Scene, this is such a fun, great programmatic piece to put together.

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It's about two minutes in length.

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It's in the key of F or D minor, three, four throughout.

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So, Texas PML grade one.

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Yes, split clarinet parts, two clarinet, two trumpet parts.

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The low-grass, low-read part is doubled throughout.

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Percussion, timpani, marimba, you need minimum six percussionists.

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You could do it with more because you can split some parts up, but minimum six percussionists.

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And I do think a lot of the accessory percussion stuff on the percussion two part is all really

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important to getting the flavor of the piece of music.

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So minimum six percussionists.

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Laura and I have both played this piece with region bands when we have been invited to

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be clinicians, which I think is super appropriate because it's such a fun piece to put together.

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It is not super difficult in rhythms, but the kids all like, there's a cool low-brass

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part.

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The percussion gets to play all the time.

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So this is a great piece if you're just looking to let everybody be happy and to have a fun

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part.

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And just have a good time.

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It's a really fun piece.

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Now, I'll say that what I think is deceptive on the piece is the articulation.

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The rhythms are not difficult, but it is two minutes of articulation.

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One and two and three and lots of articulation.

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So the tendency can be for it to get real heavy and the percussion as well.

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Yeah, it can get real heavy with articulation and heavy, loud percussion and want to slow

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down a little bit.

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So keeping the energy up while maintaining kind of the lightness so it doesn't bog down.

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The whole piece starts off with like, and it's at 156 tempo, so it's fast.

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Starts off with a big hit and then it's kind of like just the marimba keeping the beat

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underneath the pulse.

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You want to like, you know, like, like mission, mission impossible type.

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Yeah.

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It's feel.

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So everybody plays on one, two, two and one and one, two and the whole band has that

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rhythm at the beginning.

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So you got to make sure everybody counts.

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Everybody articulates firmly all together.

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Watch your rest.

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Yes.

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And it, but it's like got like that little like action scene type of feel to it.

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Like what's going to happen?

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The trumpet has the melody along with clarinet one and alto sax at the beginning.

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So you would want to layer everybody else down at that moment.

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In fact, right in everybody's parts, piano at this moment so that we don't have all

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those big hits constantly, like at your, at your face, you want to bring, you want to

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level it down.

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Right.

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So you can hear those couple of different melodic parts.

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That's not very many people on the melody.

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Yeah.

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And then they, they keep going on the melody until nine, nine, the low brass get the melody.

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So that's really fun for them.

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I know when I've played this with region bands for some reason, this rhythm catches children

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off guard sometimes one, two and one, two and one, two and one and two, three.

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And you're like, well, that's not hard, but I, you know, it could be, I guess for low

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brass sometimes.

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So just making sure the kids like feel that and know what it feels like.

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It's got lots of A flats written in.

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So you got to be careful on the third position.

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Yeah.

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So you're doing E naturals and A flats.

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And so like melodically, they need to kind of get in their ear what this sounds like.

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It's not something you see on the page and you go, oh, this is, I can sing this in my

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head.

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Right.

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Right.

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So they, it's more of a minor feel.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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So they need to, they need to get that in their ear to help that tuning be really solid

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in the trombones.

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It's also doubled in bass clarinet and berry sax, which is nice.

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So they're, you know, tubas have it too.

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So everybody in the lows get their moment of glory.

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Then you get a little punctuation in the trumpet at 13 with one, two and three in, two and

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three in.

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And it doesn't have a crescendo on it, but I added that in.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Yeah.

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Like start softer and like come out of nowhere just to give it that little excitement feel.

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Make it more musically interesting.

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There's stuff going on in the percussion.

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We're playing on the rim.

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We're doing some hi-hat.

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So there's all of these different kinds of sounds and textures coming from the percussion

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section that I think the trumpets are kind of like fitting in.

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Functionally.

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Yeah.

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Fitting into all of that.

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At 17, the lows are going to come down a volume and then the clarinets come in with

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the melody line.

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And now it's like, it does sound like Mission Impossible to me.

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They're playing dotted half notes on each beat, every measure it's a new note and it's

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kind of like a drawn out melody line and you can add shaping to that too.

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Get stronger on each measure.

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Alto sax adds in.

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And so they're adding to the fun feel like Laura said we've got closed hi-hat going on

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with open hi-hat too.

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So it's like a fun little percussion part here for sure.

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Lows are continuing to just kind of now have the background melody at 25.

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The trumpets come in and take over.

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Riffs and horns come in and so they have that they're taking over this dotted half

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note melody and now we're getting the low voices are still keeping with that one, two

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and one, two and and now we have the upper woodwinds that are coming in but changing

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notes instead of saying on one note.

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So their part is now going to be just slightly more important than what's happening.

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Two and three.

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Yeah.

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Than what's happening in the motor still while the melody is in this dotted half note section

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that's now going on in trumpet horn and in tenor sax.

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So we're kind of building this anticipation.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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We're kind of building up a little the dynamic level dropped off and now we're kind of building

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and re-intensifying to get us all the way up to to the next big moment was coming up

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at measure 33.

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I think it's really important at measures like this, especially with younger bands to

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write in on their part like number one, trumpet horn number two, flute oboe clarinet or whatever

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or like I just call it like mids highs and lows usually in my band.

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But like writing in on their part or like taking your pencil like everybody's marked

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mezzo forte here, right?

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But that's not accurate.

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So like taking it and when you're marking your parts like change the dynamic level forte

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for horn and trumpet, mezzo forte for upper woodwinds, piano for low bass, you know, and

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we you know, in my band hall, we call that ear mapping.

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Yeah.

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So we're constantly writing like, okay, our ear map on here's where your ear needs to

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go. So, you know, ear map that out on their parts as much as you can ahead of time.

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Yeah, that'll help.

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Yeah, for sure. And if not, at least the kids can have some ownership in that process when

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when you're rehearsing it.

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Yep.

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At Laura mentioned at 33, we have a big hit right before that at 31.

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Everybody has a forte piano.

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So we're going to come down and the low brass and low reeds start on beat one and then on

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beat two is like the highs in the mids, one, two, and then we all joined together two and

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three and one. And that's a big fall at 33. So that's fun because everybody gets to move

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their little fingers and it kind of sounds jazzy kind of like an action scene. Then the

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lows keep going with the fun part, but this time with a new style.

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So they're doing they have marcato accents and they're doing one into and rest one into

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and this is the part where I really feel like it can get heavy if the style is not executed

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correctly. Obviously, a marcato is going to be really firm. It's going to be short. It

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needs to be defined. But you know, I use this example when I'm talking articulation with

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my band all the time we talk about the difference between a sumo wrestler and a sprinter and

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a sumo wrestler is not built for sprinting. That's not what his body is made for. Right.

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So that when you're talking about articulating rhythms like this, where you're having to

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be this same fast rhythm over and over making their tongue like a sprinter, no sumo wrestler

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tongues. So sprinter tongues so that the articulation does not slow down. Yeah, like a fat guy in

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his underwear. There's a there's a cool part here too with China symbol on beat three,

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which I think is fun. It adds to that like flavor of the piece. Kids always like China

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symbol because it's got that real distinct sound, but it's a really neat little like effect

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here for percussion. They're going to continue doing this and then horn and clarinet come

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in with one, three, and it's like a forte, like a crescendo to forte and then a day crescendo,

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then the lows keep going but now not the same articulation. They have this melody like what

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they had at the beginning. So more of these e natural and a flat back to that same little

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melodic line that statement, timpani, hi hat snare drum on rim are adding to the anticipation

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underneath clarinet and horn now get this new part with tenor sax at 43. They're like

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the new melody and it's the same thing the lows had before just a different tessitura

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and color lows are now not important at all. They're just playing color chords. Trumpets

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have a secondary part where they're doing like little chromatic II things. Be natural

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be flat, be natural, be natural C sharp. It's kind of a weird little inner interlude with

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saxophone. So just making sure that the kids can hear like those half steps and when it

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changes, right? Because it changes it's not always sometimes it's on beat one, sometimes

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it's on three. And then like sax is going from like F to F sharp, making sure you mark

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in their part ahead of time to use the chromatic fingering for F sharp. There's a lot of different

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like chromatic type things and considerations in the clarinet part to. So just going through

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your part ahead of time to make sure that kids are like you have to go from be flat

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to be natural and clarinet one. So making sure that they understand they can't they

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can't switch their finger. They have to use the chromatic fingering, especially that speed.

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Yeah. So going through your parts in advance to make sure you've thought about all of that

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I think is really important. The marimba part here it changes a little bit instead of just

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being kind of on this one note, keep the motor going. Now it's changing one and two and one

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and two. And so it's kind of mixing some of these other parts. And I think this marimba

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part here is something that can come out of the texture a little and there's a cool new

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congas mark too. And if you don't have congas, you can use toms. But that's pretty cool because

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like how often do you get to hear that flavor? Yeah, right? So it's like, I think the percussion

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parts are really fun and adds to the color. We kind of continue this little like chromatic

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key thing and then little bursts of flutin oboe as they converse back and forth with

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the melody and the horn clarinet and tenor sax that keeps going to 51. Now that part

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that the trumpets and saxes had before continues in sax. But the trumpets get this like they

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get the melody part one, two and one, two and and it's up a little bit higher for those

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trumpet ones. Particularly if you're playing this with like a non varsity band goes up

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to like C sharp and D. The partials are a little bit weird here. So I remember like

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whenever I've played this, I kind of have to spend a little time here with the with the

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trumpets making sure that they get it. It's like be natural C sharp D, then C sharp D

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be flat, then be natural. Just lots of finger combinations. Yeah, and the pitches are just

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a little bit different. It's chromatic sometimes, but not other times. Now in that motor part

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now we still have some people that are still going one and two and rest one and two and

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but now in the low voices we have one and three. So the effect is that we get one and

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two and three, one and two and three, one and two and three and all of those parts just

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wanting to make sure stylistically that that is how you you know how you want it to sound

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making sure that there be the people quarter note on beat three that we're making that

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note not super short that needs to lead into the next measure. At 55 we're back to those

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Markado accents we had before with the little china symbol in our spurs in on beat threes.

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So everybody has it now and we have to keep everything very firm moving forward like Laura

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mentioned and it's everybody one and two and one and two and and then lows, lows, lows

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and they have like a little moment there and I remember whenever I've played this sometimes

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they're too heavy like Laura mentioned. So just trying to keep that really light and

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then everybody again having the same rhythm big timpani moment. Big timpani solo with

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like a little snare drum buildup and then at 61 we're back to the quiet style like before

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like the mission impossible type sound with horn and clarinet to tenor sax kind of chilling

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underneath with long notes but the clarinet one with the melody alone. That's right. Yep.

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Marimba has gone back to kind of its like that little ostinato along with some of the

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lower parts and then clarinets are continuing to have the melody and then at 69 the trumpets

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this part's cool. We get chords but with accents at the beginning like a little belt

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tones. Yeah, little belt tones and have them play them like their little forte piano.

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Yeah, every one of them. And we mark it in the part like that for them so that they get

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out of the way. So it starts with trumpet two and then trumpet one and horn and then

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trumpet two again and then horn and so it's like the horns and the trumpets keep doing

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it. Then the flutes in the alto and clarinet one and oboe come in with the one two and

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the part that trumpets had before. So everybody else you got to really layer this down so

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it's not too much like it's very toody but there is like you know there's the important

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parts so you have to make sure that they can prioritize who's the melody. We get here to

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measure 77 and we're back to that unison rhythm one into and rest with percussion happening

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and they're one into and rest one two three one into and so again just lots of lots of

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articulation and counting since this is more unison rhythm in this section here. Then we're

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back to the beginning like where everybody played on one two two and one except this

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time not everybody has it just the brass have it and then the upper woodwinds have the melody.

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Yep and then 86 trumpets take over the melody we continue with some of that interspersement

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it's just like the beginning the lows get there same one two and one two and from before

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with the a flats and e naturals and then at 94 we all drop down in dynamic to like build

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it up to the end everybody's got one two and or two three and so it's like playing on you

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know everybody plays on different beats but it's building up building up building up crescendoing

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getting more firm and articulation to the very end and then a big timpani moment one and

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everybody has a big hit on two and dampen everything and it's very exciting it's like

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the robber got caught or whatever in the action scene. The exciting finish. Yeah so this piece

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is a little shy of a hundred measures it's very fun very playable very playable but lots

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of little details to work out to make it be a hundred percent perfect right but honestly

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I mean you could play this in so many realms yes a region band you could play it with a

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non varsity at UIL or a non varsity at your spring concert as ending showstopper you know

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any but like literally anybody could read this down and it's fun sounding yes not it's not

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the most challenging sounds harder than it is yeah but it's super fun so the kids love

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it because it's exactly like movie music which we love yes well we hope that you will consider

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programming action scene in one of your future concerts coming up thanks for joining us today

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on this episode of Band BFFs