Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be discussing Sleigh
Ride by Leroy Anderson, arranged by Michael Story.
Cheers to starting the conversation. So Katie
and I just had the realization, this was a piece
that I suggested that I play with my beginner
band every year and so we pulled up the score
and Katie looked at it and was like, you've got
to be kidding me. I do this with my beginner
band, so we were just laughing. But they were
different pieces. Different. Mine was part of
a Michael Storey multi -movement winter piece,
but we always play the sleigh ride movement.
And Katie was like, oh my gosh, look at this.
obviously it's by the same dude yes yes yes yes
so anyway obviously we both like this now this
would be considered I think a little bit more
challenging piece for winter concert for your
beginners something totally appropriate for a
sub -non varsity obviously it's sleigh ride so
everybody knows the melody everybody loves it
I like playing it because instead of we also
do you know like an easy Jolly Old St. Nicholas
or an easy up on the housetop something like
that but this is like Everybody knows Sleigh
Ride, right? Of course, everybody knows those
other ones, but this is one you hear on the radio,
so I love getting to play that. It is about two
minutes. In 15 seconds in length, it's in the
key of concert B -flat throughout, though there
are some accidentals. It does not have split
parts anywhere, a fair amount of percussion,
so you definitely, but again, that's one of the
reasons I think it's good for a beginner band,
because you normally have more percussion, but
we've got bells, snare bass, sleigh bells of
course, and then temple blocks, all that fun
accessory stuff. And this was came out of the
fact that Laura and I were both like talking
to some people this week about You know, what
are you programming for your beginner band for
winter concerts or even your performing bands?
So it is definitely tis the season to be choosing
that music So hopefully this might help you guys
with choosing some great pieces for the future
So this version of sleigh ride is in a bright
four four at 136 marked and you can really go
as fast or slow as you need to go. So if it's
not quite up to tempo just go 120 and no big
deal. No problem. Still sounds like sleigh ride.
The low people part is not always the same like
tuba, euphonium, and trombone are not always
exactly the same, but a lot of times they are.
Here at the very beginning all the lows have
one, three, one. three, one, three, one. And
I like it because we can teach long quarter notes
touching the rest. And then the last note is
an accented. note and that lines up with the
melody that's happening above them. Of course
all the melody people have 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2,
3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 accent and then they keep going
2, 3, 4, 1, and 2, and 3. Yeah. Yeah. So 1, 2,
3, and 4. Sorry. There we go. We're in 4, 4.
But it's nice. It's a good intro. What I love
about it, especially for beginners, is that it
gives the woodwinds. So the flute, the oboe,
clarinet, and alto are the ones that are handling
the bulk of the responsibility of the melody.
So the brass players, who of course move a little
slower at the beginning, do not have as much
technical demand on this piece as a typical arrangement.
At measure five, well at measure four, Katie
was just talking about the melody is in flute
and oboe and they have a pickup phrase into measure
five, two, three, four, and then measure. one,
two, three, and four. It is flute, oboe, and
clarinet only with the melody. The low voices
continue with their one, three, one, exactly.
And then we have the cool harmony part that is
slurred half notes in the horns and altos. One,
three, one, three. So great for teaching. And
I always tell them you're like the background
track. Like you're really important, but you're
not the melody. So you don't want to play too
loud over the melody. That's exactly right. And
the range, like the range in the upper woodwinds,
it doesn't go above a third line B flat for clarinets.
I think flutes go up to a B flat at one. Yes.
But that's it. So the range is not high. So you
want to make sure that all of the accompaniment
part is not covering up that very middle of the
range melody. For sure. And I like that the clarinet
part is written in a way that, again, it doesn't
go up above the break in case you haven't been
able to get there yet. Most people probably don't
do that in November, December. Or at least not
playing it in a piece. Yeah, in a good way, right.
And then it ends with a whole note on the melody.
One, two, three, and four. One, two, three, and
four. One. Rest. Two, three, four. So it's written
in a nice way where the kids can have built -in
breath marks. You do want to make sure that your.
Background music is not breathing in the same
spot as them. So this is a good opportunity to
teach even stagger breathing. I have done that
before on this piece. Like you two French horns
are gonna breathe between measures six and seven.
You two are gonna breathe between eight and nine
or whatever. She did just say six, seven. Oh
no. People will listen to this now and not understand
that reference. Yeah. Well, anyway, I had to
interject. Thanks, middle school band, director.
Yeah, thank you. OK. So and then the nice thing,
like Laura mentioned, is the trumpet part is
minimal. They are also the background track.
And then they do nothing again now. They do have
a little bit of a fancy part here in the first
ending So what's nice is also on this piece?
We have a ton of first and second endings So
it's a great teaching tool for like how does
this work in real music? Okay, and I will always
write in my kids parts like I will draw an arrow
back I do the same thing and then I'll say You
know above their music right before the first
ending at measure 10. I'll say skip to second
ending second time or something as like just
their first introduction to how a first ending
and a second ending will go. And there's a lot
of them in this piece so it's a good idea to
write that roadmap for them so they're not confused
when they're first learning the piece. There
are some skips in the eighth notes in the woodwinds
and so it is a little more technical. Flutes
go F D B flat and so do oboes. that's that's
kind of tricky at the beginning of the year that
fast. It is and if it need like I have had oboe
players before that I have had to modify and
take the D out and have them go F B flat and
just play quarter notes F G F B flat right so
you can like you can modify if you if you need
to if an individual player is not up for it.
But like Katie mentioned I do love the repeats
in this as well the first first ending because
there are multiple. The first first ending I
think is the most challenging for the trumpets.
They get this cool little part all by themselves
and y 'all it's okay I think to make this a feature.
If you've got three trumpet players that sound
fantastic then man just let those three trumpet
players play it. It goes up to a B natural so
you want to make sure that they sound good. It's
tricky. They have to end on a high B. I mean
And it was pretty tricky, yeah. And the harmony
parts are really cool here too and they change
a little bit. So like horn, sax, they go, two,
three, one. three. So it's like very chromatic
-y and sometimes that's hard for kids to like
hear and wrap their ear around this early on
in their playing career. So just the more you
can practice that and make sure they can audiated
the better. On the second ending now the trumpets
don't have to do that mess now they're just going
two three one two and then percussion percussion
two three one two and pretty much the whole band
comes in at that point with that same part where
the lows though are playing one Four one three
so making sure again that the lows keep those
quarter notes really full value We are seeing
we mentioned before in the first ending accidentals
in the trumpet now We're seeing more accidentals
in some of the other parts the woodwind parts
clarinet alto So yeah, so be just be mindful
of that and of course your kids at this point
know what Accidentals are and and how to interpret
them when we get to measure 17. This is another
section that has another rip in it but this is
the da da da da da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da
da play the C make it be kind of fun like oh
you got you got first chair on the last couple
tests you get to do that and I do the same thing
with my flutes if they can't play the upper B
flat with a beautiful sound where it doesn't
sound like you're literally just spitting it
out then we just go down an octave and that's
not a big deal either yeah yeah the articulation
a very occasionally there we talked about slurs
like in the quarter notes and half notes there
are this is a place where you have some slurred
eighth notes and the articulation is ta ta ta
ta ha ta and I that I think can be tricky sometimes
for kids making sure that they tongue that third
note their tendency is to go ta ta ta ta so that
again another good teaching thing yeah right
and the percussion is real fun here because we've
got the jingle bells going and then we've got
the temple blocks One, two, three, four. One,
two, three, four. One and two. Slapstick funnel.
Nice job, us. I hope that was not too loud. Sorry.
But it's cute. I mean, it sounds literally like
the real sleigh rides, so that's fun for the
kids to hear. Then the same phrase with the upper
people doing those connected quarter notes, lows
playing on one and four. And then we end with
a dotted half note. One. And we've got to touch
beat four, because beat four is... is where the
clarinet and the sax and tenor sax take over
the melody. This is the four and one and two,
three, four, one, two, three, four, that section.
And this part is trickier. I think this is the
hardest part of the whole piece, but it's also
- And the low part is hard too. It is too. It's
weird, yeah. It's too. In the melody, in the
clarinet and sax, it's really low, so the clarinets
are playing low A's, B flats, down in that range.
Saxes are low E's, F's, G's. but the articulation
is challenging. Keeping their fingers even, not
compressing four and one and two, three, four.
So we learn it all articulated first to make
the rhythm very, very even. Then we go back in
and add the slurs. And you don't even have to
do that if your kids need to keep them tongued.
Then you do it. Then tongue it. This is a section
my kids have to pass off. Oh me too. They absolutely
have to be able to demonstrate that they can
play this correctly. And then the low brass,
as Katie mentioned, the challenge here. It's
weird. It just sounds interesting. It's chromatic.
Yeah. And it's not easy in their ear all the
time. Accidentals, E naturals right here. E E
F B flat. And then G G C. See, so it's kind of
jumping around, you know? And like Laura just
said, it's just hard on the ear. It's not a scale.
That's right. It definitely jumps around. So
like we said, this is a little bit more of a
challenging piece for beginners. Then right before
the next first ending, before we go back and
repeat this section again, the clarinets. This
is probably, I think, the single trickiest measure.
Nobody ever comes in on time. There is this C,
B flat, A, G dot. Oh, I thought you were talking
about the four one. Oh, no that the clarinet's
going from C to throat tone B flat Yeah, you
always hear their entire hand going You do you
do you absolutely do so that I love it because
we use it as a technique exercise for sure we
practice going from C to A C to A now C to B
flat C to B flat to get their fingers really
used to that technique totally and then the first
ending keeps going and then this part I've found
children are just not good counters because this
is a hard rhythm to come in on beat four apparently
so they just played the one two three four one
and then floor one that's where flute oboe and
trumpet come in with this little moment for one
two three four one don't breathe one two three
that measures the hardest one in the whole piece
32 because the trumpets have to go see C, G,
C, which a lot of them cannot do that at this
point in the year, which is fine. So again, you
can have a hot shot, play the C, and then everybody
else can just go C, G, C, or they could go C,
G, C, and just play the low C. And then the flutes
have the exact same thing, high B flat, F, low
B flat. So you could do the same modification
to make it not sound like. I'm screaming my high
notes at you, if that is the case. And then,
that's a hard articulation. So they go, one,
two, three, ta -da -ta, and there's like no place
to take a breath. So we talk about how, and we
practice, and it's hard. They have to go one,
two, three, four, and one. That's where they
have to take the breath, because their phrase
doesn't finish. Four and one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four, one, and then they get
to take another breath. But they have to make
it all the way from. there in a like you have
to take a breath so we talk about practicing
that we do it without the flute just one two
three four and one and we'll count it just like
that and then we'll do it on air and then we'll
do it on the real notes so this this measure
to me takes a lot of cleaning to make it sound
really mature and then we go back to 17 play
the whole thing again, and then we have a second
ending, which this time the trumpets alone come
in on beat three. So we've ended that melody
that they had before, which was one, two, three,
four, one, three, four, one, and the trumpets
have it alone. Then we're back to exactly what
we had at the beginning of the piece. One, two,
three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two,
three, four, one, then it's the exact same thing.
At 38, it's literally the same, another first
ending, going back to 38, and then on the second
ending, it's just like the beginning now. So
it's one, two, three, four, one, two, three,
four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three,
four, one. And the whole band has just tons of
quarter notes. You want to keep them on the beat,
long, tenuto markings if needed. Firm fronts,
but connected. Yep. At 50, we all hit beat one.
and then we have a rest on two and then the lows
come in with their big long chord three and then
the wood block, wood block, tempo block, sorry,
one slapstick. Everybody and they all have a
concert B flat now we always Give a trumpet player
one trumpet player. We teach one trumpet player
how to do the horse Winnie It is not written
in the music, but we do it the kids have a blast
with it So we love getting to pick a kid it sometimes
we've had years. We've done the entire trumpet
section It just depends but this let me tell
you what I did one year Had my Super awesome
assistant high school band director Kent Wallace
Come over because he was there to be a great
high school supporter and so ahead of time I
asked him if he would be the horse Winnie in
the piece and the kids Adored getting to hear
their their future high school band director
play the horse Winnie on sleigh ride. It was
awesome He stood up and played it and all the
kids just like Fangirled out that you know he
could fanboyed that he could like play the horse
Winnie So there's there's options if nobody can
do it in your trumpet section and speaking of
options We know that this is is long all of these
the the three multiple endings you have like
You can completely take those out if you want
and take second endings all the way through.
If you want to make this a little bit shorter,
right? So you have some flexibility with that
if you don't like all the repeats or whatever.
So encourage you to kind of, you know, make this
your own. I know Katie and I have talked about
lots of things that we do to modify if necessary.
Right, for sure. So don't be afraid to do that.
I love this. We both do, apparently. I like that
it's a little bit of a challenge for the kids,
but also some... very recognizable. Absolutely,
yes. Well we hope you will consider programming
Sleigh Ride by Michael Story in the future and
thank you for joining us on this episode of Band
BFFs!