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 talking about a great piece named Blue Sky Horizon
by Randall Standridge.
Cheers to starting the conversation.
Blue Sky Horizon is a new, relatively new piece in the past couple of years.
It is a great two on the Texas PML.
It's in the key of Concert F. It does have split clarinet parts, split trumpet parts,
as is pretty typical with standard. It has lots of percussion as well. The Trombone
New Phony Imparts are split as well. You do need to have in order to cover all of the
percussion parts well. It's really best for you to have five to six minimum on this piece.
With any Randall's Dandridge piece, the more percussion the better. It is very percussion heavy
and all the parts are super duper fun, which is awesome.
This piece is a kid favorite. It is fast. It's fun. The style is fun to put together.
They really love it. It's not super difficult because it's got the same kind of layered
rhythm and the rhythm, like the same style all the way throughout. So kids enjoy putting
it together.
The length of it is one of the things that makes it a little more challenging. It's three
minutes, which is not terribly long, but it is a little bit longer for a grade two.
So it starts off with just percussion. Timpony is very important here and snare drum.
Then the clarinet and the trumpets come in with the melody. It's got a very stylistic
sound with accents. And then percussion is going to turn underneath on motor.
Then they do that for four measures. Then the obos and the flutes come in to color
that clarinet and trumpet part. That would be a good opportunity to bring the first grouping
down and notch on their dynamic and allow the flutes and the obos to shine for their
four measures in the sun. And this goes really fast, but the tendency for young players
is going to be to take a breath after the half of the day into that two measures. So you
want to really train them even when you're learning it slower. You want to train them not
to breathe there.
That's literally what I say in my own being also. And then also they're not going to
breathe though at measure five because they're going to continuously lead into six with the
flute and the obo coming in. So what we've taught our students to do we're playing this
currently in the Moss Band-Hall. We taught the students to stagger where they're going to
breathe in five. Some are breathing after the first quarter note and some after the second
quarter note. One, two, three, one, or whatever. And we drew a little crescendo when we marked
their parts from five to six and then you would do the same thing and the other parts as
well.
And it's so exposed that's really important. Right. So there is percussion playing, but there
is no low voice. You get a tempany going for one, but that's really it. So it's real obvious
if they take a big gap. Oh yeah, for sure.
Then these the accident style continues and then everybody, the low brass get to come in
with four or one in measure 10 and they get their moment in the sunshine now. It's not all
low brass like tuba, base clarinet, you know, etc. They have like a long note but the like
trombone, your volume, tear voices get the melody now. So everybody else is going to
lay or down. Flutes and obos just have little quarter notes that are staccato along with
bells and they need to be very soft so that that doesn't distract. We talked to them about
like being little twinkle twinkle twinkle. And then this is the moment for trombone. You
find them to shine for sure. Now the snare drum part on this is really out of my
throat throughout. And a lot of left hand accents that line up with what the winds are doing.
So they'll have one and to do and three and four and one and to and three. It's real common
for young players to slow that left hand accent down. So if you're having pulse issues,
that might be something that you check, but they need to keep their unaccented notes, the
taps really loaded the drum so that it really aligns with what the wind players are doing.
And you can even help add some emphasis to what the players are doing. Yes, that. And again,
like Laura just mentioned it is active. So you have to teach the kids that you're another
layer under the melody. That's right. The tambourine helps keep the beat also here, which is
good. So pick a good player that can watch you and stay right with you as it's kind of a
more moral metronome when you're performing. The same people keep playing the melody. Then
everybody at measure 14 has the same thing. One, two and and four, one, two, three, four, one,
two, three, four, one, three, four, one. So the whole band has a 2D rhythm, which is nice,
except everybody's got to sound exact the same on your style. Okay. If you don't have
everybody matching, it sounds weird because then like all the chords are not aligning up perfectly.
So spend some time on this. If you happen to see us at TMEA, we actually talked about this moment
being a good thing to do on a Remington so that you can match up the style throughout your whole group.
Then on 18, it's a 4T piano note. And that is like I've still this from Laura. She always
tells the kids on every time to think of it like a bell tone and then circle the piano. Like
you got to come way down. It even has a crescendo 4B later. But it has to stay soft. Right? So we
use the word zoom all the time. Right? We say zoom. And I will make the kids actually say that
and to emphasize the staying soft part of it. Right. And especially right here, often a 4T piano
crescendo happens immediately. This here it does not. Because this is where the percussion
get featured. They have 1 to n and 4. 1. So this is where they get to be featured and the band
has to come down underneath them and not crescendo over them. Also when you do add in the
crescendo on this long cord, I'm going to suggest that you encourage the kids to listen
down to the tuba. Absolutely. They can get very noisy if like the higher instruments crescendo more.
In fact, we actually crossed out the crescendo in a lot of the upper woodwind parts so that that
way it was more from the low people. And it's a unison concert F. Right. It's not even a cord. It's
like unison notes. So this is somebody's buying water. It's like okay, come down in our band
hall. It's the horns. So we're always like okay horns calm down and they're on a sea of course.
So it's out of tune and they're getting sharper. All right. So then percussion keeps going to town.
Woodblock comes in and there's a really fine open and closed triangle part. So they get to do this
cool. It sounds kind of jazzy. And they love it because it's cool. Something different that they
haven't ever played before. And the clarinet's come in with a melody alone pick up to 22.
Now it is marked meant so forte. So we've been telling the kids like don't force come in really
calm. Okay. And then they get a cool feature all the way until the flicks come in.
When the flutes come in the flutes come in with this little austenato bells double them. They
had the same rhythmic austenato that we had before but without the accents. Right. So we get that one
to in and for this needs to be really subtle. Oh yeah. Like they need to like twandling exactly. It needs
to be really subtle. The autos come in to thicken up the clarinet part but still this should not
be overly loud. Everything should be really calm and just let the flutes kind of come in and and
be that special effect. This is more of a smooth to muteotype section to no access change. No
accents. Yep. So everybody is smooth. There's a few slurs thrown in. And then there's a really cool
high-hat part that comes in in 29. So this is fun for your percussion because they're going to do
things they don't normally get to do. Then there's a pickup into 30 with again the trumpets are now
doing that austenato Laura spoke about. So they are not very loud and now the mids and the lows get
to join the clarinet's and the autos on the melody. Actually autos don't play it there. It's
still just clarinet. So this is a moment where clarinets can come down a dynamic and the mids and
lows can play out a little more like horn, trombone, ephony, and tuba. And while we are not currently
working on this in my band haul I have a have judged a couple of bands already playing this and I
find it this point especially if you have a strong number of trumpet players it's real easy for the
trumpet to blanket just smother everything else right here. So they even though they are the only
one the only wind players that are playing that austenato they cannot be the dominant voice.
Right. This is still smooth connect in calm we're just kind of working our way back up again.
So even the lows even though they have the melody they should not come in really loud.
It shouldn't be form and it already everybody else comes down a notch.
Then the flutes finally come in with Obo. Obo was already playing the melody but now flutes double them
coming in pick up to 34 and now they have the melody so the last ones to kind of add in.
So they can shimmer but they are up above the staff so be really careful about tuning and also
making sure that they use good vibrato. Then almost the whole band has 1 2 and 3 4 1 3 4 and then we
go in to 38 with a day crescendo. And 38 we kind of change we shift gears here so we have
alto and flute and Obo on moving quarter notes you do have a melody that is the melody we do have
the the accompaniment in the low brass all of the low brass are playing but it's marked piano so
that is something that very likely may need to be thinned out and I love the bell part here the
bell part gets kgc the one swing really close but they're doing 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 into it's a
really cool little part that provides pulse and just adds that really cool twinkling effect like
Kd said here which I think is is a really a really cool effect in this little part.
This is also a moment where your low brass if they don't re-articulate firmly you can
lose the rhythm they have a dotted half note tall tall tall tall tall tall so it's not like
they're going to accent or staccato but they do need to tongue firmly so you can hear those changing
notes the horns get a little like um call and response here with the upper woodwinds so they have
1 2 3 4 1 3 4 1 2 3 French horn plays there so whenever you guys work on this make sure that
that clarinet tenor sax and horn part is brought out only for those two measures then they back
down again while the trumpets now get to have the melody so now flute no bow have gone away
and this is really the only part where I feel like there's really like some staggered
entrances like where you're not entering like trumpets we're coming in on beat three right there
horns were just making sure that everyone's accountable for for counting correctly and entering
at the right time and you gotta tell the lows to mark out the MP at 42 they're going to stay quiet
it does have them coming up a level I would not do that they don't need to do that especially
the range the trumpets and altos have the melody here and the range that they're playing in
is low enough in the trumpets that projection isn't issue it's all the low brass come up an
notch with them yep and then the tenor has that same little response along with ufony in this time
at 4 1 2 3 to the trumpets then the trumpets keep going with the melody and flute in
Obo and clarinet 1 add in with them now the clarinet one part has people being able to play
the lower notes and the higher notes I would highly suggest you make that an audition and only one
student plays the upper notes if nobody because it's way high and that has the ability to
detract from the rest of the group because this is another full band crescendo moment here where
we're leading up again to measure 52 and this is right here this the flute the Obo's and if you
put a clarinet on those upper notes are all in the exact same octet and that can be a tuning
night and the trumpets up there too so yeah I agree with that this is the first moment where we get
those accents back so they got 1 2 3 4 smooth tall tall tall tall tall we bring that same
step back and then the people with the whole note have another 4 tapiano they got a back out of the
way then we all have like a similar rhythm again same little austinato then we're leading up to 52
and we have the low brass getting the melody 1 2 and and 4 1 2 no breath yep that's right
so kind of the same thing is before you can have them find little other spots to take a
breath and market in their parts for them so they're not trying to breathe on the barline
then the upper's come in again with the melody we do the same thing 58 is more flowy again we have
another accent at moment the same thing where there's a 4 tapiano and we have the austinato
that needs to be in tune and matching style together the full band at 64 and 65 has the same thing
then we have a really fun percussion break so one thing real quickly this this this austinato
the casinato I've been referring to that happens over and over one two and in 4 1 2 3 this thing
happens the the tendency I think what I have heard is for people to play the unaccented notes
staccato and it is intentionally marked to Nudo right so we like I mean if you listen to our podcast
you know I'm big on vocalizing I would make my students say da do da do da da da so that they're
actually getting the duven set of da da da da da da da da da da make them be really clear on that
Tannuto note link yeah style is a big deal in this piece so that's something great to think about
and then percussion break yeah yeah tempo needs to be featured you have a cool two wood blocks
being played by a person you've got the snare drum you've got the the the times coming in it's so fun
and this is their own little like moment so treat it like that like they should play it like an ensemble
that's exactly right every time sometimes when we have percussion features it just sounds noisy
because directors don't give listening assignments in the percussion section the same way that you do in
your wind section it has to happen there is a melody now you can decide what you want to
prioritize but they need to balance to it and it need they need to adjust to it just the same
way you would expect your winds to otherwise it's just gonna sound noisy I like the tympany and
the chimes part that's what I've been talking to the kids about balancing too and then we have a
day crescendo when when they're not as important anymore and we come in with a new low brass statement
it's like what the clarinet's had before it's smoother it's quieter then the upper people have the
ostinato again they need to stay soft again way underneath the low brass and this is a low brass
tuning nightmare yeah it's a nice cheese and cheese above the staff yep and a natural so
this is a moment where like if you have sectionals I would work on this really quick and out the
gate when you're working on it so that way you can really get that tuning to be a hundred percent
in a small group setting before you put it all together and it's exposed right I mean it's really
exposed there so tuning will be real obvious there's also lots of skips in this section which
that's another reason to really spend some time on it in sectionals they're going from G's to C's
and like lots of skips it's not really stepwise motion at all yep then we come back with the
trumpets only having the melody at 80 one two and and four one three four and then now the
flute skit the melody at 82 with saxophone it's very smooth the bells get to do their twinkling
thing again we're starting to just kind of repeat material the lows have a little at 85 a little
harp in back to the one two and and four so that's kind of a fun little spot and it is marked
staccato here yeah just like we talked about all of that it's different it is different here at 86
we continue on with the smooth part trumpets have now joined them in and then we lead back up
exactly like we did before at 90 everybody is smooth and then two accident notes at the end of 91
that need to be brought out with tympany helping and then big crash symbol and everybody has one two
and and four big tympany and mallet moment and then same thing and then everybody comes in together
at 96 now the flute skit the melody alone and they have the long one like Laura was saying
Doodie doody doody or whatever she said do do do do do do do yes and then the clarinet
skit a little counter melody and it's the first time we've heard this count melody and they're not
very good at counting it because it's a time note so it's a time note for six beats and then they
have three and four and one which leads while the flute's have a long note so you want to work on
this little spot just counting it's got a lot of tied stuff making sure that if you're marking
their parks you should write in the counts for them so they know and they feel really good.
Everybody's off on beat four at 99 with percussion leading us into a hundred the full band again
has the melody and the same style and rhythm at a hundred and a hundred and one then we get a
little moment of some slurs at 102 and 103 and then we all have a pickup into 104 and it's
accented again. Accented 2D rhythm here so accented quarter half rest 2 and 3 right. One and
everybody has the same thing so style is important then we get the austinado again at 108 they have to
back out of the way the lows get to have a long tied note now right in their counts for them
then they have accents more tied note more accents and then at 112 the whole band again one two
and and four percussion break then the whole band again then the percussion again then this part's
really fun there's a 4TpN0 for most of the band I crossed out the crescendo until the end of 1117
because the middle voices clarinet horn sax they get to have a little moment of glory and
time so I like I love the time period yeah two three four one two three one and so if that
forte piano gets too loud too soon which is of course what they want to do then you lose that
part and then they're having a force to try to sound better so you might even want to write it
we're like only half the band plays in 1116 on the long note and everybody else adds in and does a
crescendo 1117 whatever works best for the instrumentation of your band but this part is important to
stylistically line up but also not overbalance them so this is a long piece I mean we're talking you know
118 measures in four four time for a grade two piece but it goes by really fast it is a kid I mean
I can only imagine kids so they haven't so much they practice hard every time we say we're going to
play you know so you know you're winning at that well we hope that you will consider programming
blues guy horizon in the future and thank you for joining us on this episode of band BFS