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
Union March by McKell Rogers. Cheers to starting
the conversation. Okay, if you are looking for
a bite -size, adorable little march, this is
your piece. It is a minute and 15 seconds. The
key of concert E flat. It's only, what, 60 measures
long in two fours. Two four times, so basically
30 measures. I mean, it is great. There are no
split clarinet parts or trumpet parts. The low
brass part is combined. Bells, snare, bass, and
crash are the only percussion. And in typical
Michael Rogers fashion, I feel like like it's
written really, really well. A very catchy little
melody. And it's like very Marchy March. Yes,
there's a melody, a counter melody, a motor,
and there you go. You've got it. Yeah. So this
piece is marked at March tempo, 120. And what
I like is that there are very sparingly used
staccatos. They are written every once in a while
at the end of a phrase, but I might even like
just teach like, that's not really that short
everybody, just to make sure that it doesn't
start to sound too short. Of course, marches
are gonna be a little bit more of a firmer front,
but I hate hearing marches when it's like, everything
is just so short, there's like no resonance.
That's my biggest pet peeve when it comes to
marches, and it is a huge issue with younger
ensembles for sure. So I tell my kids all the
time, it doesn't matter what level or what piece
you're doing, need to end unless it's jazz band
that your notes need to end in a vowel sound
so we like we will even write like in this in
the opening phrase here it's one two and one
two and one and two and staccato note right there
I would write above that ah like we want our
notes to end with ah Ah, it has to end with a
vowel sound otherwise they close their throat
and they get that, huh, that little hiccupy sound.
Oh yeah, totally. So as Laura mentioned, the
melody starts off in trumpet. and um flute and
oboe and bells and if you um don't have enough
players the bells part doubles the flute and
oboe part the whole time um so it starts out
one two and three four and one and two and three
and like she said sorry it's in two four i'm
just counting it in four um that's the note that's
short but you could honestly still just make
it be like a normal quarter note because you're
gonna have to breathe there because the melody
line keeps going there's a to pick up into five.
Two, one, two, and one, two, one, two, one, two.
And it's just like a little scale. It's just
adorable and easy and a great key for everybody.
At five, after the intro, the melody again is
in the same people. The counter melody line is
in the alto and horn and it's a long. Upper D
for French horn, which is not the friendliest
note so if your horns can't You know hit a high
D and sustain it and stay in tune Just let that
be an alto saxophone moment and then they can
come in on their little scale a C D D Maybe they
can do that where they're like leading up to
it instead of just like hitting it right away
that is what I would do if my second or third
band horns struggled with playing a D over and
over and over, but if they can do it, great,
because this is a cool little counter melody
moment. And that's the highest note that there
is in the piece for horn, but that is the only
instrument that I feel like the range is a little
pushing what you would want for an ensemble of
this level, but that is it. And it always doubles
the alto. And like low brass low reeds here are
just going, one, two, one. One, two, one, two,
one, two. One, two, one, two. One and two and
one. And even that note is marked staccato two.
One and two and one. I might just tell the kids
to ignore the staccato I would one and two and
one off and then The the melody keeps going in
the flute oboe. They have the pickup two one
And so now their new phrase is one note higher.
So it's gonna go up to that concert a flat but
that's You know, I think the maybe there's a
B flat in the flute part somewhere or the a flat
might be the highest note Yep, a flat is the
highest note for them. So that's great You know
if you're if you have a really young flute section,
so the other cool thing that mr. Rogers does
is That so now we've got the melody again at
13 and flute oboe clarinet trumpet again Same
little line from horns, but now that we've gone
up a note. It's it He took the horns down to
a C. Yes, so now it's more in like a normal ish
range for them But he does these little like
terraced Is that terrorist dynamics? Is that
right where everybody comes down at the same
time terrorist dynamics? It means immediate dynamic
change. Okay. Well not gradual Yeah, not like
a crescendo or decrescendo. Yeah, so everybody
at 17 gets softer the whole band and then you
have and it's well written where everybody's
got quarter notes and you're going to do a crescendo
just for two measures and so I feel like in a
younger band that's easy that's attainable everybody
can learn how to go level three level five level
seven level eight level nine or whatever you
know yeah and talking about like each foot tap
is just a little bit stronger, but not a lot
stronger and we're all gonna crescendo the same
way. And the snare drum part, by the way, is
just eighth notes. I was just about to say something
about it. One and a two and. So it's also not
ridiculously gonna take over your band or anything
like that. And it's also written in a way, I
also think this is really smart, it's written
in a way where there are accents on the downbeat.
One and two and, one and two and. Which is what
most young players are gonna do on their own
anyway. So it's nice that it's in the part. The
crash cymbals do double most of the bass drum
like a traditional march in this so you would
just want to make sure that would probably be
the part I would be most concerned about is making
sure that you have a strong player on the crash
cymbal part who can consistently crash good crashes
you know repeatedly because it plays the whole
time for sure once we get to measure sorry 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 um everybody's at that forte
level because we've done our crescendo and low
brass and low reeds get this cutesy little part
where they go one and two and one so it's not
that's the most active part they have in the
whole piece and it's easy it's you know three
different four different notes then we take over
the melody again with flute trumpet and oboe
clarinet this time. Two one two and one two and
we're back to that horn on the upper D and sax
doubling them. So it's literally just like the
beginning again. Yep and the same little one
and two and one. Now the lows instead of going
down on the eighth notes now they're gonna go
up a little bit and they land on an A flat. So
just making sure that that cadence point on beat
one of 28 is totally in tune and lines up is
important. then this part is like the, I think
it would be like the dog fight section, right?
I would consider it, yeah. Even though it's not
a lot of back and forth, it really wins V percussion
instead of brass V woodwinds. Yeah, it has accents
for the whole band now. Two one two one and then
rest one two one and then it goes back to normal
articulations Two one two and one two one and
that's the end of that moment So it's kind of
like a little bit of a dog fighty type thing
and then not oh, no This is it 37 never mind
that that's like a second strain. I guess yeah,
okay, so 29 is just a little accent II but not
Not too too much, lows kind of have a little
bit more beef here too. And Katie mentioned early
on in the piece, but the thing that I think is
really important is the firmness of the fronts
of articulation, right? So I would not, you know,
even if you subscribe to the idea that accents
have space in them on a march, I would not do
that with a younger band. I would just emphasize
the front of the note, the firmness of the front
of the note, and not create any of that. space
after the notes for them. I think that's gonna
make them sound more mature. And one of my other
like wonderful people that have taught me before,
Dr. Trent, he always told kids that to play an
accent well you say the word tau. I love and
I use this all the time. We do too because tau
Doesn't have a ton of space or anything, but
it has that natural decay that you want from
an accent I can't remember towel towel you linguists
out there forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I
think I think that's a diphthong I think that's
what that's called when the vowel that creates
a different sound But I love that towel towel
towel towel. That's exactly what an accent should
sound like Yep, so we use that a lot and it Translates
well when you say that to kids they can they
can do that. So that's Little helpful hint for
everybody and then the trumpet clarinet and and
flute or not clarinet But the trumpet flute and
oboe keep going with the melody Like I said,
and then there's like a hard cutoff for everybody
on beat one. Then we have the dogfight at 37.
So It's basically like Laura said winds versus
percussion one and two one two and one and that's
this is the only little Accidentally type part
where they're just going to like a half step
down So like flutes are gonna have to go to the
B natural side here just for like one measure
But they're coming they're coming from a C. So
it makes it's pretty they're not having yeah
And then on the next moment they go back to be
flat D, C, B flat, B flat, B flat, A, B flat.
So that's good that they don't have to like switch
a bunch. Trumpets are doing D, D, C sharp, D.
So this is like super critical to make sure that
they're kicking their third bounce slide so that
the tuning is not a mess here. Snare does finally
have a little bit more of like a fun part. One
and a two and one and a two. And that's it. That's
all she wrote. Well, you know, that's good. And
then the whole band goes down a step and plays
the same thing. One and two, one, two and one.
and then everybody comes in one and two it's
like the high people and then the lows come in
one and two and then together one two one and
then you get the melody again and it's back to
the first train yeah this time though the horn
and alto doesn't have the super duper high note
and just chillin and stuff they have a different
counter melody line that's a bit more a bit more
active but not super active which i would prioritize
this time for sure because you've heard the melody
already So this time let's try and feature one
and two and one two one two and then the big
jump up to the D D before Yeah, it's really cute.
Yeah, really cute and I would give them that
moment. Yeah, you know that moment in the sunshine
Yeah, I'm like yeah so then at 57 the melody
keeps going the same counter melody is important
lows are back to their one two one two easy peasy
there's another one of those uh where we all
go back down to like mezzo piano mezzo forte
and we crescendo up again to forte and the lows
get their little one and two and one again 65
same melody in the upper people same little getting
softer again and we build it up for four beats
and then a little accidental And clarinet. And
clarinet, yep. And then we get lows again, one
and two and one, back up to that same thing from
before where they're landing on an A flat. Then
73, everybody's got accents. One, two, one, crash.
One, two, I hope it's a crash. No, it's not.
I just made that up. One, two, one, two and one,
two, one. And then long again, no accents. Two,
one, two and one, two, one. Stinger. That's the
whole piece. It is so cute. It's very cute. It's
a great March. Teaching tool right like you're
gonna teach them about the different parts of
a march you're gonna teach them about how snare
bass and crash That's really what you need on
a march You know you can teach them about how
to sound good without going way out of people's
comfort zone You know and I also like that it
is sometimes when you have something that is
is really easy it it doesn't sound very catchy
or it sounds, it sounds young. And I feel like
this melody is a little melody that kids will,
you know, sing in their head and latch onto.
And there's like not resting. There's like not
a lot of rest. Yes. Like they're playing. the
whole piece which is good yeah you know it's
like sometimes you get those easy cheesy marches
and then like percussion gets a percussion break
for like 12 measures and everybody sits there
or whatever right yeah this one everybody's playing
everybody's having to listen do balance considerations
all that good stuff it's yeah it's adorable yes
well we hope you will consider programming union
march in the future and thank you for joining
us us on this episode of band bffs