Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be discussing Cumbia
by Jorge Vargas. Cheers to starting the conversation.
This is a very fun Latin piece. Lots of cool
colors and textures in the sound. It's in the
key of concert B flat 4 -4. It's about two minutes
long and it's a publisher grade one and a half
and I... absolutely think that is spot on. Split
clarinet parts, split trumpet parts, trombone
and euphonium don't have the same part all the
way through, but often it is very similar. Lots
of percussion. So you really need, in order to
pull off the Latin style of this piece, you really
need eight percussionists. If you didn't have
a, you could potentially flirt with leaving out
the bell part. It is not like a bell part that
just doubles the flute. the whole time but it
does usually have the melody wherever that is
happening so if you had to leave something out
you could do that but I would try to keep as
much of the latin percussion in as possible.
Relatively new piece published in 2025 so this
would be a cool piece to possibly program like
on your spring concert coming up or for next
school year doing it at a fall concert or some
or even you know a spring festival or something
like that. It's, oh go ahead. This one, I was
just gonna say this one is really all about style.
There's not a ton of really overly complicated
rhythms. There are some independent parts, but
it's about style. And I talk to my kids all the
time about style being where the flavor comes
from. Like if you think about food, I like using
popcorn or a baked potato as an example. Like
you can have a baked potato and it's just fine
by itself, but I want mine with butter and salt
and pepper. and I want my popcorn with salt and
butter and maybe some sort of flavoring on it,
right? I use a Christmas tree instead of food,
that's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a
Christmas tree is great all by itself, but when
you have the lights, it's even better, or the
ornaments, or the star, or the tinsel, so. That's
exactly right. Whatever you use, yeah. That's
where this piece is gonna shine, if you can really
make that flavor of the style come through. Yep.
um it's uh it's marked festive at 152 bpm um
and it starts out with just the upper woodwinds
one two and three four and one two and one two
and one two and so it's got easy rhythms and
easy style here easy articulations then we add
in uh much like a little dance flavor now we've
got alto and tenor coming in one two and three
four and one two and same thing vibra slap congas
all kinds of cool percussion happening underneath
they're kind of starting out the cumbia dance
now we've added in another grouping and And then
as we go into measure eight, the lows come in
one, two, three, four, along with timpani, bells,
et cetera. So it's thinly written and scored
much like a cumbia dance. It's just one person
and then another group and then another group.
So then at nine we have everybody in. Now, I
would be really, really particular, like pay
close attention to where he writes the staccato
markings. They are on lots of quarter notes,
but not all quarter notes. So you want to make
sure that the kids are aware of that and are
observant of that so that quarter notes that
don't have that marking are full value and a
little more weighted. Right, like here, the low
voices have one, three, four, one. three four
but the trumpets have one two and three four
and one two and that's like the beginning yes
and that's a quarter note that one two and three
four and those are all staccato but one two and
yeah exactly you might even as you're like marking
your parts draw a tenuto on the quarter notes
to just show them that um as well. At nine, the
trumpets take over the melody with saxophone
and then flute, clarinet, and oboe go to the
background music and we still have, like I said,
the lows playing kind of like an accompaniment
part. Those upper voices are the cha -chas. So
we have the melody and the trumpet and alto and
then we get the half, cha -cha -cha, half, cha
-cha -cha. Yep, it continues on like that for
eight measures to measure 16 now you've got a
cute little percussion feature on crash cymbals
one two crash and the crash is where the trumpets
come in three four one and Then the highs have
rest two and three four and one so they're a
new little part But the lows get to have the
cool part here. So at seven they have one, three,
four, three, four, one, three. And that accent
is so important. And it comes back over and over
and over and gives it that syncopated feel. Percussion
always have the accent with them. So really bringing
that out and leaning into it and teaching the
kids how to do a good accent without it being
overly like splatty or whatever is super important.
And I would think about making that staccato
quarter note before the accented tied note just
a little bit softer. That way they don't clip
it too short. them to close their throat off
and clip it too short if they think about making
it softer so you know more so than making it
shorter I think it'll help make the accent more
effective. Yep the trumpets I think technically
have the melody here but I would make that low
part and the horns have it with the low people
be kind of brought out next and then just like
I always call like the woodwind part here like
a little sparkly feature so it's not like super
important but it's there. And the trumpets by
the way are the only people who have the melody
here it is not covered anywhere else yep at measure
24 as we're going into the next block at 25 the
trumpets continue on this part the highs now
just have a different sparkly part one and two
and three foot eight or sorry one and two and
three four two and three so this like syncopated
accent part is now being added in on upper people,
but just in a different way. And for younger
players, those ties across the bar lines are
gonna feel weird. They're gonna feel weird. You're
gonna have to make sure that you count this with
them repeatedly, that they feel very secure in
the rhythm before you start worrying about adding
notes to it or changing notes here. Just get
that rhythm really solid. Yep. At 30, the lows
kind of are finishing it out with a little mini
scale moving downward. One, two, three, four,
one, three, four. then we have a little percussion
break 33 the melody is in the low voices they
have long one three one and three four one and
two three four one so they have like a cool little
melody part again i would draw tenudos on the
quarter notes and it is truly a feature so the
the rest of the winds are clapping on two and
four even the percussion are stick clicking or
clapping yeah so there's not percussion motor
going on behind them to support this so it really
is a low brass feature low brass low reed feature
so make sure that again that they match and it's
just mezzo forte too this isn't crazy loud right
but make sure that they match style they match
energy and we can play that full phrase which
phrasing really shouldn't be an issue here because
of all the rest yeah and then they finish out
their melody with just another mini scale going
down one two three and then the upper woodwinds
and upper brass come in with four and one two
three four two three and four two three so we're
getting this accented beat four tied over feel
from like the whole band here everybody percussion
as well yeah so 41 it's like a 2d it's almost
like this is the this is the most um this is
the pinnacle of the cumbia dance um everybody
has that together and then um we're finishing
out again with another mini scale in the lows
this time going up with a decrescendo 49 um the
high brass drops out or the trumpets drop out
and um upper woodwinds and mid voices have one
and two and three four one and two and three
four so we're just playing kind of softer we're
backing off again lows get an arpeggio one two
three four same people all back to the trumpets
this time everybody one and Four and one or there
is no one the one is beat is the bass drum because
they have had one and three and before so this
is different right one and rest rest four and
bass drum and then snare two and three and four
57 full band coming back in trumpets have the
melody again but the counter melody cool part
that you want to feature is in the flute of a
clarinet part one and three and four and one
and three and four and they can get louder each
time and three and four and so i would write
that in the part that they're even though it's
marked forte I would like start it a little softer
and kind of grow it up all the way to 62 where
that little Section ends they have one two and
four and one along with the trumpets and the
bells Then they have that little melody one and
three four one and three four One, and three,
four, and one. Percussion. Percussion. Four,
sixty -seven. One, two, and three, four. One,
two, and three, four. I am convinced that Jorge
Vargas did that on purpose. I made the six -seven
motion. I am convinced he did it on purpose.
I didn't think you would even say anything because
I just did it for you. Yeah, no, thank you. Thank
you. But I'm, you will not. convince me otherwise.
Yeah well I mean this was printed in 2025. Yeah
it's that year so here we go six seven everybody's
in one two and three four one two and three four
one and two three four one percussion two and
three and one cha -cha -cha yeah so yeah thank
you it's so cute so this piece is adorbs I would
be I would would not be surprised if it shows
up in a lot of band halls in 2026 and beyond,
because it's well written and fun, but you do
need to have a lot of percussion, so that's a
factor for sure. And again, you need to be really
mindful about the style. But a lot of great teaching
tools. For sure. for sure, but some independence
in this. So just making sure that your kids are
confident counters and confident with the style
independence. But the hardest rhythm is dotted
quarters and the tied beat four to beat one.
Right. That's it. Yeah. Well we hope you will
consider programming Cumbia in the future and
thank you for joining us on this episode of Band
BFFs.