WEBVTT

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Welcome to our podcast. Band BFFs. The podcast

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where we make your music selection less complicated.

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On today's episode, we're going to be discussing

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Union March by McKell Rogers. Cheers to starting

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the conversation. Okay, if you are looking for

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a bite -size, adorable little march, this is

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your piece. It is a minute and 15 seconds. The

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key of concert E flat. It's only, what, 60 measures

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long in two fours. Two four times, so basically

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30 measures. I mean, it is great. There are no

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split clarinet parts or trumpet parts. The low

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brass part is combined. Bells, snare, bass, and

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crash are the only percussion. And in typical

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Michael Rogers fashion, I feel like like it's

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written really, really well. A very catchy little

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melody. And it's like very Marchy March. Yes,

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there's a melody, a counter melody, a motor,

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and there you go. You've got it. Yeah. So this

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piece is marked at March tempo, 120. And what

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I like is that there are very sparingly used

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staccatos. They are written every once in a while

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at the end of a phrase, but I might even like

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just teach like, that's not really that short

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everybody, just to make sure that it doesn't

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start to sound too short. Of course, marches

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are gonna be a little bit more of a firmer front,

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but I hate hearing marches when it's like, everything

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is just so short, there's like no resonance.

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That's my biggest pet peeve when it comes to

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marches, and it is a huge issue with younger

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ensembles for sure. So I tell my kids all the

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time, it doesn't matter what level or what piece

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you're doing, need to end unless it's jazz band

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that your notes need to end in a vowel sound

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so we like we will even write like in this in

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the opening phrase here it's one two and one

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two and one and two and staccato note right there

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I would write above that ah like we want our

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notes to end with ah Ah, it has to end with a

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vowel sound otherwise they close their throat

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and they get that, huh, that little hiccupy sound.

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Oh yeah, totally. So as Laura mentioned, the

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melody starts off in trumpet. and um flute and

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oboe and bells and if you um don't have enough

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players the bells part doubles the flute and

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oboe part the whole time um so it starts out

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one two and three four and one and two and three

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and like she said sorry it's in two four i'm

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just counting it in four um that's the note that's

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short but you could honestly still just make

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it be like a normal quarter note because you're

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gonna have to breathe there because the melody

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line keeps going there's a to pick up into five.

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Two, one, two, and one, two, one, two, one, two.

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And it's just like a little scale. It's just

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adorable and easy and a great key for everybody.

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At five, after the intro, the melody again is

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in the same people. The counter melody line is

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in the alto and horn and it's a long. Upper D

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for French horn, which is not the friendliest

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note so if your horns can't You know hit a high

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D and sustain it and stay in tune Just let that

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be an alto saxophone moment and then they can

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come in on their little scale a C D D Maybe they

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can do that where they're like leading up to

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it instead of just like hitting it right away

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that is what I would do if my second or third

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band horns struggled with playing a D over and

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over and over, but if they can do it, great,

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because this is a cool little counter melody

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moment. And that's the highest note that there

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is in the piece for horn, but that is the only

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instrument that I feel like the range is a little

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pushing what you would want for an ensemble of

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this level, but that is it. And it always doubles

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the alto. And like low brass low reeds here are

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just going, one, two, one. One, two, one, two,

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one, two. One, two, one, two. One and two and

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one. And even that note is marked staccato two.

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One and two and one. I might just tell the kids

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to ignore the staccato I would one and two and

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one off and then The the melody keeps going in

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the flute oboe. They have the pickup two one

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And so now their new phrase is one note higher.

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So it's gonna go up to that concert a flat but

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that's You know, I think the maybe there's a

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B flat in the flute part somewhere or the a flat

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might be the highest note Yep, a flat is the

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highest note for them. So that's great You know

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if you're if you have a really young flute section,

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so the other cool thing that mr. Rogers does

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is That so now we've got the melody again at

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13 and flute oboe clarinet trumpet again Same

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little line from horns, but now that we've gone

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up a note. It's it He took the horns down to

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a C. Yes, so now it's more in like a normal ish

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range for them But he does these little like

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terraced Is that terrorist dynamics? Is that

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right where everybody comes down at the same

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time terrorist dynamics? It means immediate dynamic

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change. Okay. Well not gradual Yeah, not like

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a crescendo or decrescendo. Yeah, so everybody

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at 17 gets softer the whole band and then you

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have and it's well written where everybody's

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got quarter notes and you're going to do a crescendo

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just for two measures and so I feel like in a

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younger band that's easy that's attainable everybody

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can learn how to go level three level five level

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seven level eight level nine or whatever you

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know yeah and talking about like each foot tap

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is just a little bit stronger, but not a lot

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stronger and we're all gonna crescendo the same

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way. And the snare drum part, by the way, is

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just eighth notes. I was just about to say something

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about it. One and a two and. So it's also not

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ridiculously gonna take over your band or anything

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like that. And it's also written in a way, I

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also think this is really smart, it's written

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in a way where there are accents on the downbeat.

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One and two and, one and two and. Which is what

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most young players are gonna do on their own

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anyway. So it's nice that it's in the part. The

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crash cymbals do double most of the bass drum

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like a traditional march in this so you would

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just want to make sure that would probably be

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the part I would be most concerned about is making

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sure that you have a strong player on the crash

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cymbal part who can consistently crash good crashes

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you know repeatedly because it plays the whole

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time for sure once we get to measure sorry 13

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14 15 16 17 18 19 um everybody's at that forte

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level because we've done our crescendo and low

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brass and low reeds get this cutesy little part

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where they go one and two and one so it's not

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that's the most active part they have in the

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whole piece and it's easy it's you know three

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different four different notes then we take over

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the melody again with flute trumpet and oboe

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clarinet this time. Two one two and one two and

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we're back to that horn on the upper D and sax

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doubling them. So it's literally just like the

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beginning again. Yep and the same little one

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and two and one. Now the lows instead of going

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down on the eighth notes now they're gonna go

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up a little bit and they land on an A flat. So

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just making sure that that cadence point on beat

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one of 28 is totally in tune and lines up is

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important. then this part is like the, I think

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it would be like the dog fight section, right?

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I would consider it, yeah. Even though it's not

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a lot of back and forth, it really wins V percussion

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instead of brass V woodwinds. Yeah, it has accents

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for the whole band now. Two one two one and then

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rest one two one and then it goes back to normal

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articulations Two one two and one two one and

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that's the end of that moment So it's kind of

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like a little bit of a dog fighty type thing

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and then not oh, no This is it 37 never mind

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that that's like a second strain. I guess yeah,

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okay, so 29 is just a little accent II but not

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Not too too much, lows kind of have a little

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bit more beef here too. And Katie mentioned early

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on in the piece, but the thing that I think is

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really important is the firmness of the fronts

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of articulation, right? So I would not, you know,

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even if you subscribe to the idea that accents

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have space in them on a march, I would not do

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that with a younger band. I would just emphasize

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the front of the note, the firmness of the front

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of the note, and not create any of that. space

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after the notes for them. I think that's gonna

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make them sound more mature. And one of my other

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like wonderful people that have taught me before,

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Dr. Trent, he always told kids that to play an

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accent well you say the word tau. I love and

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I use this all the time. We do too because tau

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Doesn't have a ton of space or anything, but

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it has that natural decay that you want from

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an accent I can't remember towel towel you linguists

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out there forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I

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think I think that's a diphthong I think that's

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what that's called when the vowel that creates

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a different sound But I love that towel towel

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towel towel. That's exactly what an accent should

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sound like Yep, so we use that a lot and it Translates

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well when you say that to kids they can they

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can do that. So that's Little helpful hint for

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everybody and then the trumpet clarinet and and

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flute or not clarinet But the trumpet flute and

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oboe keep going with the melody Like I said,

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and then there's like a hard cutoff for everybody

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on beat one. Then we have the dogfight at 37.

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So It's basically like Laura said winds versus

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percussion one and two one two and one and that's

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this is the only little Accidentally type part

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where they're just going to like a half step

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down So like flutes are gonna have to go to the

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B natural side here just for like one measure

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But they're coming they're coming from a C. So

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it makes it's pretty they're not having yeah

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And then on the next moment they go back to be

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flat D, C, B flat, B flat, B flat, A, B flat.

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So that's good that they don't have to like switch

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a bunch. Trumpets are doing D, D, C sharp, D.

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So this is like super critical to make sure that

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they're kicking their third bounce slide so that

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the tuning is not a mess here. Snare does finally

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have a little bit more of like a fun part. One

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and a two and one and a two. And that's it. That's

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all she wrote. Well, you know, that's good. And

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then the whole band goes down a step and plays

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the same thing. One and two, one, two and one.

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and then everybody comes in one and two it's

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like the high people and then the lows come in

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one and two and then together one two one and

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then you get the melody again and it's back to

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the first train yeah this time though the horn

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and alto doesn't have the super duper high note

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and just chillin and stuff they have a different

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counter melody line that's a bit more a bit more

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active but not super active which i would prioritize

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this time for sure because you've heard the melody

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already So this time let's try and feature one

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and two and one two one two and then the big

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jump up to the D D before Yeah, it's really cute.

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Yeah, really cute and I would give them that

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moment. Yeah, you know that moment in the sunshine

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Yeah, I'm like yeah so then at 57 the melody

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keeps going the same counter melody is important

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lows are back to their one two one two easy peasy

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there's another one of those uh where we all

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go back down to like mezzo piano mezzo forte

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and we crescendo up again to forte and the lows

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get their little one and two and one again 65

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same melody in the upper people same little getting

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softer again and we build it up for four beats

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and then a little accidental And clarinet. And

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clarinet, yep. And then we get lows again, one

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and two and one, back up to that same thing from

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before where they're landing on an A flat. Then

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73, everybody's got accents. One, two, one, crash.

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One, two, I hope it's a crash. No, it's not.

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I just made that up. One, two, one, two and one,

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two, one. And then long again, no accents. Two,

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one, two and one, two, one. Stinger. That's the

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whole piece. It is so cute. It's very cute. It's

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a great March. Teaching tool right like you're

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gonna teach them about the different parts of

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a march you're gonna teach them about how snare

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bass and crash That's really what you need on

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a march You know you can teach them about how

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to sound good without going way out of people's

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comfort zone You know and I also like that it

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is sometimes when you have something that is

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is really easy it it doesn't sound very catchy

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or it sounds, it sounds young. And I feel like

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this melody is a little melody that kids will,

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you know, sing in their head and latch onto.

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And there's like not resting. There's like not

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a lot of rest. Yes. Like they're playing. the

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whole piece which is good yeah you know it's

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like sometimes you get those easy cheesy marches

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and then like percussion gets a percussion break

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for like 12 measures and everybody sits there

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or whatever right yeah this one everybody's playing

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everybody's having to listen do balance considerations

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all that good stuff it's yeah it's adorable yes

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well we hope you will consider programming union

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march in the future and thank you for joining

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us us on this episode of band bffs