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 Groovy by Richard Sauceto. Cheers to starting
the conversation. Okay, Groovy is a recent addition
to the Texas PML. It is a Grain 2. It's concert
B -flat 4 -4 throughout. It does have split clarinet,
split saxophone, split trumpet. parts the low
brass like the trombone euphonium tuba part is
not all unison all the way through lots of percussion
and as the title indicates the percussion i think
is really important to set up that whole groovy
feel of the piece but you need minimum four to
five percussionists to make this piece effective
So it even says at the beginning of the piece,
by the way, this piece came out in 2010, so quite
a while ago. Have you you have played it? Yes,
absolutely I have played it with my own band
and I've done it with region bands before like
I think so It's like it's been out for a long
time, but it was just recently added to the PML
So this would be a good one to possibly go back
and look at if it's been a while since you have
programmed it So it says relaxed and groovy at
the beginning. The tempo is 160 I think one of
the major things to remember when playing this
piece is to start it way slower and work your
way up because the style and articulation is
so critical. The accents are so critical in this
piece and the staccatos that if you start it
too fast you can't go back and fix all of those
little details later on. And there are going
to be several opportunities where your students
will fall into traps if you do not. prep them
for it. Yes. So it starts out with just percussion
for four measures with xylophone setting up the
groove at the beginning of the piece with a little
tambourine behind it and then at measure five
the bells come in and have the same thing as
flute and clarinet. The clarinets are split as
Laura said. In this part clarinet one is above
the break but only C and B. So it's not like
super high. Real quick on the percussion. These
xylophone mallets, it doesn't address the type
of mallets to use here. Find what you like, what's
gonna be your own personal preference, but for
me, I like a rubber mallet and it can be a slightly
harder rubber mallet for this, but I think when
you start to get into plastic or... god forbid
acrylic, something really shrill like that, this
ostinato will become super abrasive and it will
be difficult if they're playing with a really
hard mallet, they're gonna have to keep their
stick height really low and that requires a lot
of control at this faster tempo. So you can make
it a little bit easier on your xylo player by
playing with a harder rubber mallet. So make
sure that it's articulate enough but it will
make the technique easier for them. Okay, going
back to the clarinet part at five They have the
melody along with the clarinet one flute and
bells. It's a very like legato smooth opening
Everything is tenuto marked and then at measure
eight. We have our first little moment of style
so it goes one and four one and You're supposed
to make that be very very syncopated and that's
the first little you know, glimpse into the groove
part of the piece. It comes back several times.
Oh yeah. And then it keeps going. It's long for
three measures, the little syncopation for a
measure. At 13, that part keeps going, but it's
not the focal point anymore. So now you would
mark in your parts or tell your kids to come
down a level. Now the new part is horn and sax
and the lows finally come in. Um, and we're,
so we're just kind of layering, uh, horn and
sax play a new part. And again, it's very smooth
and connected, got tenuto markings. Um, and then
we're kind of building and building all the to
measure 21 at 17. the trombone and euphonium
join everybody and their function is just to
kind of help build up the suspension and they're
getting stronger and stronger and then they have
the the Accented portion with the highs at measure
20 as we lead into 21 now when you make it to
21 like it's this really cool effect It started
soft and we've built up. It's still even just
ensemble volume mezzo forte then you get to 21
There's a little push right before 21 and you
expect it to go somewhere and the bottom kind
of falls out of it and it goes back. The winds
drop out completely and it's back to percussion
and they're like tapering the volume down just
a little bit before you start this new idea that
comes in at measure 25. At 25 we come in with
the melody the first time that you hear it. Now
this melody happens several times throughout
the piece. almost every instrument will have
an opportunity to play this really syncopated
melody. Low brass don't have it. They have like
a reference to it. One or two measures, yeah,
but that's it. Low brass don't have it. I don't
think horn and alto do either. Horn and alto,
I think you're right. But most everybody has
this. So this is an opportunity, this melody
that you see at measure 25. One and three, four
and two and three, four. One and three, four
and two and three, four. repeats over and over.
This would be a great opportunity to write that
up in a melody sheet, teach it to the whole entire
ensemble. It's great for your low brass players
and horns and altos to move their fingers and
learn this articulation and style right along
with everyone else. It will keep everyone engaged
and it will allow you to be intentional and diligent
in drilling this. Yes, so Laura just mentioned
the style is of utmost importance here. Your
young players are going to be tempted slur into
beat three so it's tongue slur tongue tongue
slur tongue slur tongue tongue and each time
that they tongue it's marked staccato so really
driving that home is super important for clarity
it is Only the clarinets playing here and it's
not above the break so they can sound fabulous
All together and it's got to be a hundred percent
perfect It does and this is like Katie mentioned
really early on in the piece about starting the
tempo slower So that you can be really picky
about this stuff now. I think that is super important
I do things maybe a little differently than than
other people do while I would play this melody
with my whole entire band and I would play it
super slow maybe even, I mean, it depends on
the caliber of ensemble, maybe even at half speed,
at 80 or 90, I mean, but I would play it, I wouldn't
get overly caught up in the note length of the
staccato note, but I would absolutely be... diligent
about making sure the tongue was right. Ta, ta,
ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Stop, do it again. Get that
right, and then as you start to speed the tempo
up, add in that staccato. If they're really stressed
about playing staccato at 80 or 90 BPM, you're
gonna lose all sense of tone quality by the time
you get to 160. So just bear that in mind, but
I would be like... I would be, I would spend
the time on this. It's so important. 31 and 32,
it changes slightly. So you have a staccato beat
too. Ta ta ta. And the last note is an accent.
And really making sure that that lines up 100
% is perfect, and they should not breathe between
32 and 33. And they keep going with the melody,
but you have to make sure that you draw an arrow,
no breath. They need to find other spots. As
Laura mentioned, there's two staccato quarter
notes. That's perfect. Some of them can breathe
after one. Some of them can breathe after the
other. And then the, oh, I was completely inaccurate.
This is where the altos take. cover the melody
yes they do have the melody so alto and tenor
sax join the clarinets on the melody part but
they are marked mezzo forte because you want
to now feature that um timbre and color and then
tell the clarinets to just take a tiny chill
pill um also the the low people uh trombone euphonium
berry sax Bassoon they come in at 33 with this
cool little like half note chromatic Figure and
it's really cool sounding but they don't need
to play it super loud But they do need to play
it super in tune and it's got G flats and E flats
So you just have to make sure you kind of spend
some time on that and then the flutes and oboes
have this cool little like So like mysterious
little part Little just like grace notes. They're
not very loud, but make sure that their part
goes all the way to the rest. They don't die
away. Bells have it as well. This continues on
for quite a while. Trombones go up the chromatic
scale and then back down the chromatic scale.
So just making sure that your kids can play perfect
on that part is really important so that it sounds
quarterly really nice. And then everybody's gonna
push through all the way to 41 and then we have
a new little section. to 41 this ostinato that
has been going on in the xylophone the whole
time one one and two three and four one two and
and four this now we add the flute and the oboe
to that ostinato so it is still happening in
the mallet percussion but now it goes to bells
so you want to be careful about making sure that
it doesn't get too shrill between bells flute
and oboe it is just an ostinato you should really
feel it more than hear it band has gone quiet
again. That's right. This is way soft here, and
even though that's the most rhythmic thing that's
going on, we have added in all of the low brass
and the altos. And they're playing what the clarinets
did before, the tenuto stylistic... Just that
chord or harmonic function. They're just laying
down these whole notes and half notes exactly
what the clarinets did and the flutes at the
very beginning of the piece. They keep going
on this, but the style again is very important.
Notating the difference between a tenuto and
an accent for the low people, making sure that
that ostinato is playing the staccatos and the
accents different from each other. Playing the
notes that are not accented softer and lighter
will help the accents be stronger. One thing
I think that flute players sometimes will do,
and oboe, is they'll see the accent and go, I
gotta play louder, and then they crack and it
doesn't sound right. Instead, play that note
a little stronger, but not a lot stronger, and
play the other note softer. That's right. And
that makes the accent just kinda happen easier
without making cracks occur. So if you're looking
at a score with us, one of the things you're
gonna notice is that there's not these articulation
markings in the mallet part. But now when the
flute and oboe come in, we have staccatos and
accents, di di da, di di da, da, di da, di da.
But it is up to you, like if you listen to the
reference recording of this, I feel like they
play the accent quarter notes like staccato quarter
notes but it matches what's happening in the
mallet percussion so it's it's up to you if it
were me personally I think the quarter notes
are too short like when you hear the reference
recording I would give them a little more body
of sound and do what Katie talked about make
the staccato eighth note softer give a little
more emphasis to those quarter notes you can
even mark that in on the mallet part just a slight
accent on the quarter notes would help the mallets
support what's happening in those upper woodwinds
as well. Yep. At 49, that ostentato part is now
going to... level down and be softer because
the clarinets come back with their melody and
So we want to hear that again the lows continue
the same thing They were just playing so they
need to come down and volume a little bit too
This time instead of the clarinets being alone
the whole band is playing except except trumpets
So you really have to tell everybody to back
off so that we can hear the clarinet section
So they don't have to force to be heard and then
we crescendo up again going into 57 and And then
we have an attack on beat one of 57. So it's
different from before where it was like loud
and then drop out. We do have a downbeat, but
this is another percussion break for three measures.
And the snare part is more active here. It's
very important to add in all the accents. And
then this is kind of like the, like starting
to be like close to the jam out session. So then
you have the winds come back in. measure 60 and
mallet percussion has this really cool part that
nobody else has that's like more wiggly and movie
with notes and everybody else has accents on
one and four one and then we're still going with
the low with the percussion timpani now get to
have the cool like what I consider to be the
wiggly part like the mallets and so they get
the melody which is fun because timpani like
rarely ever gets the melody and then the band
comes and again three measures later one and
four one and then the part at 65 literally says
rock out. Which is super fun. It is really I
think it's adorable and this is where like the
trumpets really have been very chill up to this
point. Right. Just occasionally coming in adding
a little interjection but their part like so
this is not very difficult. It's not. This is
a piece if you have a young trumpet section.
Or not a lot of trumpets. That's right it might
be something for you to consider. So here at
65, this is the trumpet moment. So trumpet altos
and clarinets have the rock on part one, two
and three, four and one, two and four. Two and
three, four and one, two and four. And the lows
just have little interjections. That's right.
But the trumpets need to be the ones leading
the charge. So this is the new color. We've heard
clarinet and alto. But this is, they can open
up a little more. Now the way this is written,
it's written tongue tongue slur tongue tongue
slur tongue every time that your kids will cheat
you will have cheaters yeah don't let them do
it don't let them get away with it agreed and
then the whole band comes down at 71 to mezzo
forte so we've had this rock out moment and then
we're like trying to build it up again and it's
Katie's favorite a high woodwind trill Like,
she loves those. She loves those. I would even,
if I were you, man, throw it in the bells. Just,
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Don't do
that. That was for Katie. Sorry. That's really
funny. Okay. I hate nothing more than a bell
trill, actually. I mean, other than a high D
flute trill. You know, you got like eight flute
players. That's awful. Like, come on. Okay. So.
If you've ever listened to any episode, maybe
one part should be playing the upper D trill.
The oboe is also trilling, so that's super fun.
And that's not the important part, they're just
getting us excited about the next part. The saxophone
has a really cool nod back to the chromatic feature
that the trombone and euphonium had before, but
now they're doing it in quarter notes. The trumpet
and the clarinet are continuing on with the rock
out. The bells also have the chromatic E thing
with the altos lows are just doing an ostinato
bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb So we're just getting
everybody excited 73 trumpet and alto and clarinet
keep going with the rock out and now flute and
oboe for the first time get to have the the regular
melody one and three four and two and three four
so now it's like everybody's got their own cool
little moment low brass are pretty not important
here and nothing is difficult they're they're
supplying harmonic foundation is all they're
doing now everything they have is accented sure
there's a lot of white notes a lot of dotted
half notes in this so get them out of the way
treat them like forte pianos get out of the way
yep and then uh so we're rocking out we're continuing
this we're layered then we've got a crescendo
from 79 to 83 the whole band is kind of getting
more and more and by the way this this time on
the melody the flute part is written to be a
divided part a divisi part where you could have
one or two players play it up an octave to be
heard a little bit over the like trumpet and
alto part but if you don't have someone who can
play it in tune you don't have to have them play
it up if you can still hear it but what I would
probably do is maybe put two eighth graders or
something on the top part and then put everybody
else on the lower part so it doesn't become too
screechy and then we've got lots of like crash
cymbal stuff is coming in here we're getting
more and more excited and we're leading up with
lots of accents to measure 83 and this is marked
Triple F so we want to make sure kids like maybe
I would like maybe take out of them. Yes, so
they don't get too excited Yeah, play triple
no no, and then we have a hit again, and then
we do the decrescendo in the percussion It's
just like before we have a recap at 87 of that
same like in the beginning of the piece The altos
and the horns have their little moment again.
We're building it back up to 103 and at 103 trombone
and you funny we start this like little reverse
waterfall and yes like instead of starting in
the highs and going to it starts in the lows
and works its way up so the lows get it first
then the horn alto clarinet then the trumpets
finally there's a big old long trill going on
this whole time i would do one person on the
trill please goodness and now we've added in
clarinets on top space e like don't want to hear
it so you know just don't do too many kids there
please and then we crescendo up and at 107 we
have everybody basically all the high people
on that ostinato one and two three and four one
two and and four that's not the melody so make
sure they just play it confidently underneath
and listen that's happening in flute oboe clarinet
alto trumpet horn horn so I mean you know it's
marked fortissimo too so take your pencil and
mark their parts ahead of time That's a forte.
It needs to be the lows here. They have one,
three, one, and four, one, three. So they're
building us up. They're getting excited. We have
a forte piano at the end of 110. So everybody
is getting out of the way. The mallet percussion
has a cool moment. Again, alone, little active
snare part. And we're building up at 113. Now
we've got everybody's back in, percussions rocking
out, going all crazy with like... arpeggios,
timpanis playing some cool stuff like the Lowe's
did before. As you're doing, I'm sorry to interrupt,
Katie, as you're doing this crescendo from 111,
112, landing into 113, you have some people that
have half note parts on this. I would go in,
I would physically write in dynamic changes on
each of those. I would build in the crescendo
dynamically because when you have so many people
that are playing an eight count, like a double
whole note that is supposed to be forte, piano,
crescendo, they have no concept of how to make
that last for eight beats. So I would write in
those dynamic changes. changes every two beats.
Or if you do like a number system, you can write
like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Great, great feedback for
sure. And then at 113, the horns get this cool
little moment along with sax and clarinet 2,
3. Which needs to be featured. Bring it out.
Bring it out. It's like just a cool little moment
for them. Then everybody has the same rhythm.
Literally the same rhythm except percussion.
So make sure the style is lined up there. This
would be a great Two measure thing to do in your
daily drill. One 15 and one 16, because the whole
band has it. One, two, and four, and two, and
three. This is the last two measures. So doing
that like on a Remington. like then you can get
the whole band getting the style lined up, the
rhythm lined up, they can feel very confident
about the counting. I haven't ever heard this
piece obviously at a contest because it was just
added to the pml this year for us and Do remember
though that at the beginning of the year whenever
we are when we played this with my band a long
long time ago We had a couple kids who had trouble
with the last measure because it's not on different.
Yeah different and it's just it's a tagline at
the end So just trying to build that in is a
great idea. So this piece is super fun and kid
-friendly it is and listen, I mean It is, the
kids will love it. Katie and I even talked about
it. The melody is like a little earworm. It just
gets stuck in your head. So you'll have kids
singing it around your band hall, which I mean,
we love that. We want them to be excited about
the music they're playing. And this is a great
piece that you could program with a varsity band
at the beginning of the year for a fall concert.
You could use it as an all -region clinician
with an all -region band, as Laura mentioned.
You could do it as a UIL piece. with a varsity
band or a non -varsity band you could use it
as a spring concert piece with a non -varsity
band to give them something a little bit beefier
at the end of the year leading into the next
year. So it's very, very versatile. And as we
mentioned, well written where there's not just
a ton of stuff that you have to kind of be aware
of. That's right. That's right. Well, we hope
you will consider programming Groovy in the future.
And thank you for joining us on this episode
of Band BFFs. you