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
6-Note Santa arranged by Joseph Compello.
Cheers to starting the conversation. This adorable
little piece would be wonderful for a beginner
band winter concert or a sub non -varsity It
is just over a minute long about a minute and
a half in length. It's in the key of concert
e -flat for four time It has no split parts anywhere
lots of block unison. Yeah rhythm and Melody
lots of good percussion too, but not Not too
much. There's mallet and timpani, snare bass,
crash cymbal. You can double what you need to
double leave. The timpani part is really minimal.
But plenty of percussion to keep your percussion
section entertained. Laura and I were just talking
about how, you know, it's getting to that time
of year for us where we're thinking ahead about
what we're going to play for our winter concerts.
And of course that would include beginner band
for at least our two programs. So this is a wonderful
piece that I personally played with my beginner
band last year for the first time and my kids
enjoyed it a lot and we were very successful
quickly because again, it just uses those first
six notes of the B flat scale. So the kids all
felt really excited to do that and it wasn't
something super hard to put together. And of
course it's got jolly old St. Nicholas in there
and so all the parents love it too because that
just makes it more fun. I think the range of
this for all instruments like I said Katie said
six notes is very very reasonable with the possible
exception of horn. Horn does go up to third space
C so you just need to you know consider you may
need to modify that if your horns are not ready
for that. and speaking from experience all of
my horns were ready to play the C except one
so what I did for their part is we just didn't
play that one note so for instance at the very
beginning and this happens again at the end the
horns go ta ta ta ta ta ta ta then they go up
to the C so I just had that one student not play
the C so they just did nothing A F, and so they
just left the one note out. I'd rather them do
that than try to force it out before they're
prepared to do that. So do whatever you need
to do to make sure the kids feel successful on
their first winter concert. Definitely. So it
starts out with a jolly tempo, that's literally
what it says, 112 to like 132. So you could take
it slower, you could go a little quicker to make
it more exciting if your kids get it up to that
speed. The whole band starts out with those quarter
notes. just a little cute little introduction
that I just sang for you. Then we have one, three,
one, and teach that all along. Absolutely. It
needs to touch the rest. I drew tenutos on all
of those notes. in the kids' parts before passing
them out to make sure that they played them full
value and didn't try to make them staccato or
too short. In fact, I don't believe there are
any staccatos written in the whole piece. So
it's just all long and connected. That's what
we should be teaching kids at the beginning of
the year. That's exactly right. So at measure
five, the lows get a little intro. One, rest,
rest. Four, one, then they get softer. Four,
seven is where the melody comes in with the jolly
old St. Nicholas. and all the lows should come
down in volume. Now I really like that even though
this is really simple rhythmically, it's really
simple note wise. There are still some things
that are going to be a challenge maybe for some
of your students. That counting, the playing
on one and four, resting on two and three is
not gonna be easy for everybody. It also gives
you an opportunity to talk about note length,
like Katie referenced earlier on that arpeggio,
making sure that all of those notes touch the
rest. Here, their tendency is. going to be to
go short, rest, rest, long, short, rest, rest,
long, short. So teaching them that we need to
have the same length exactly. I also like that
the percussion is the opposite of the low brass.
So you have the low brass, one, cha, cha, cha,
four, one, cha, cha, cha. That I think is kind
of cool, but can also be a little bit of a challenge.
Throw them off if they're not able to count it.
Yeah, for sure. So at seven the trumpet, flute,
oboe, clarinet, and saxophone come in with the
melody. And then they have a dotted half note
at the end. This is a perfect opportunity to
teach what a phrase is because they're going
to play a four measure phrase. They're not going
to breathe. in the middle. Jolly old St. Nicholas
won't you come bring your ear this way bring
your ear this way I don't know the words sorry
but Talk about that a lot with my beginners and
I'm sure a lot of you guys do too Teaching them
what a phrase is early on is so critical. So
that way they they understand You know why we
don't play Mary had a little lamb because that's
not how you sing it either So that's not how
you would play it on your instrument. So just
works better when there's lyrics for the song
like this one So they have a dotted half note
at the end where the lows have one, two, three,
and so we want to make sure all the sound cuts
off on before at exactly the same time. So that's
another reason why what Laura just said is so
important. The last quarter note for the low
people has to go to the rest, and the dotted
half note has to be off right on the fourth foot
tap. And that's where they're going to take their
breath. And then percussion keeps going underneath
though. I do like that it's written that way.
I mean, this is very likely your beginner band's
first time to play a full band piece. So we have
to start introducing some of those ensemble skills,
right? 100%. I love that he wrote that as a dotted
half note instead of a whole note. Right. Where
you know you would take a breath there anyway,
but I like the visual of this. It's a clear place
for them to take a breath. Yep, I agree. And
of course the next phrase is literally the same
thing with a little bit of a cooler harmony coming
out of the French horn section. And then at 15,
we're still doing the exact same thing. They're
literally playing the same form as your phrase.
And then same thing again going into 23. Same
things matter. Making sure we're off on beat
four. At 23 there's a little drum break. Super
cute our percussion beginner class is usually
pretty large You know 10 to 12 students usually
so we typically will put a few kids on the mallet
part So that way they're all getting Exposed
to reading music and learning how to do that
and not just the rhythms that you know tend to
take up a lot of time in the beginner first semester
But there's also a crash cymbal part and it might
be fun to make that be like double the jingle
bells part you know just to put a little Christmas
wear on there so that's that's a fun choice that
you could choose to do too. So 23 like I said
is a percussion break for three measures and
then we switch parts. So when we come into 27,
there is like a pickup measure rest. 2, 3, 4,
1. I think that's really cute. But I can imagine
that that's challenging making sure everybody
comes in right on time. Now we flipped it at
27. The low brass and low reeds get the melody
which, okay, let's be honest. In a beginner band,
winter piece, that doesn't happen very often.
That's really cool that those kids get an opportunity.
play the melody yeah so the upper voices and
middle voices are doing that accompaniment the
lows were doing before one rest rest four one
rest rest and now the low voices get a chance
to show off I love this yeah that's really cool
and it's a good opportunity to teach the kids
about balance because like Laura just said this
is their first opportunity to play as a full
performing group And so in their parts, I mark
all the upper people down to like mezzo piano,
because it's, when you think about a typical
beginner band, you're gonna have an arm, you're
gonna have clarinet and trumpet. Four rows of
the quote unquote high people and maybe one row
or one and a half rows of the quote unquote low
people. So. we have to make sure that all those
other parts balance to the melody. It's not hard
when the upper people have the melody, but now
the lows have the melody. And isn't that just
like in a band setting when you're in seventh
and eighth grade? Of course it is. That's right.
So we're teaching them those skills early on
so that, and then stop them too. Like when you're
playing it, be like, okay, we just played that
one time through. Flutes, could you hear the
two buzz? No. okay well then let's try it again
you know and give them those those like applicable
skills so that they can listen for the melody
section that's what they're going to have to
do so much in the future this continues on uh
until measure 35 so the lows have the melody
that whole time and the uppers still cutting
off on beat four all together like we talked
about before Then 35 all the way until 43 is
still the lows having the melody But now the
uppers have a little their part is a little yeah
It's a little a little more harmony mixed in
right? Yep, and then at 43 we literally have
the conclusion. It's just like the introduction
Literally exactly the same thing so it ends just
super cute. It's just a crowd pleaser because
everybody gets to be special and important. Everybody
gets something fun. The rhythms are ridiculously
easy. It's just quarter notes in the winds or
dotted half notes. And no style markings to give
future young players like just... It's a perfect
teaching piece for a winter concert where the
kids can just shine and feel really successful
and happy and that's what you want on your beginner
concert. That's exactly right. Well we hope you
guys will consider programming Six Notes Santa
in the future for maybe a beginner winter concert
or sub -non -varsity groups and thank you for
joining us on this episode of Band BFFs!