Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be discussing March
of the Hobgoblins by Randall Standridge. Cheers
to starting the conversation. This is a relatively
new piece. Let's see. It was published in 2024.
It is a publisher grade one and a half. key of
concert E flat or C minor and in six eight time,
um, which I love cause I think it's a great both
love this piece. It's so good. I think it is
a really, really good introductory to six eight
type of piece in typical standards fashion. There
is lots of percussion and you really do need
all of the percussion parts. So, uh, it's best
if you have seven players, you could eliminate
one. Oh, Oh, Katie's making that, I'm sorry.
You could do it with six or seven, everybody.
I did it with six last year. I just left out
the bells part and kept the xylophone part because
they're always covered in other wind players.
But I think that the xylophone color sounds more
like impish, like the hobgoblin. So that's why
I kept that one in. But you could do whatever.
Cannot leave out timpani. Yes, timpani. Yeah.
I mean, most of that percussion is really, really
important. So let's dive in and talk a little
bit about this piece. It's so super cool. We
both just love it and it's so easy to put together.
So both Laura and I played it for a fall concert
and we actually included this piece in one of
our like new to, um, or maybe it was like far
pieces or something. Yeah. At some point we did
a little intro to this piece, but we wanted to
make a standalone for it because both of us think
it's great. And many times on like, You know
social media people ask like what's a good six
eight piece to do as an introductory piece for
your band I'm I'm always gonna say March of the
Hobgoblins now because it's fun. The kids love
it They want to like go home and practice it
so And it's got like it's just it's easy to put
together and it's very much like a march in its
style and form So it's easy to talk to about
how a march works and all of that good stuff
too at the beginning of the year I I do my very
best to try and program something in a compound
meter for our fall concert. If we are unable
to make that happen for the fall concert, at
least by the winter concert. So something in
the first semester I try to program in a compound
meter so that the seventh grade students are
getting some exposure to that if they didn't
get to that at the end of the sixth grade year,
which often we don't. about this is that all
of the rhythms are repeated in here. It basically
is. You either have a measure of eighth notes...
One lolly, two lolly. Or you have... One lolly,
two. Yes. Or you have two dotted quarters, or
you have the one, three, two, one. Yes. Yep.
Um, so speaking of, so Katie and I count six,
eight differently. Let's talk about that for
a sec. I actually do both. So when I teach six,
eight, I will write one, two, three, four, five,
six with six eighth notes on the board and explain
why it's called six eight is because of this.
Right. But then I will say, but Sometimes when
you're counting quickly, it's easier to say one
lolly, two lolly. And that's how we count triplets
when we do articulation exercise and things like
that. So I just will show them on the board.
We take one, two, three, four, five, six, and
we change it to one lolly, two lolly. So when
our foot taps, we're tapping on one and two,
which is an easy way to keep counting in your
head. And I, of course, tell the kids if it makes
more sense for your brain to count it like one,
three, four, six, do that. But Miss Lewis is
gonna teach you and the Lees and everything because
also our feeder high schools count that way.
So I'm just kind of trying to set them up for
like Laura said success and account a compound
meter in future programming. So like Katie, I
start off with 123456. And I will tell you, I
have changed recently and how I count six eight
with my students on the suggestion of the very
brilliant David Puckett. and I have found this
to be like my kids latched onto it really, really
easily. We learn it first in one, two, three,
four, five, six. Then we learn it, or then when
the tempo gets faster, like Katie said, we talk
about the fact that we do tap our foot two times
per measure. And I used to, before David made
this suggestion, I used to do the one, three,
four, six, one, three, four, one, two, three,
four, one, four, five, six, one, whatever it
happened to be. we would still count the full
six beats in the measure. But I found that some
of the kids would have trouble, okay, where's
beat five? Where's beat three? Like I'm losing
those inner beats like that. So what we started
doing is counting in one, two, three, one, two,
three. One, two, three, one, two, three, one,
three, one, three, one. And I have found, I mean,
I could put a more complex rhythm on the board.
And when they only had to chunk it in threes
instead of sixes, it immediately cleaned up their
counting and their comprehension of the rhythm.
There's no right or wrong way to teach 6 -8.
You do what works for you. You do what works
for your kids. But that is what has worked for
Katie and I. Yep. Perfect. So the beginning starts
again with everybody playing a straight measure
of eighth notes. It has a forte piano at the
beginning with a crescendo all the way to forte.
one lolly, two lolly, one, and then in the rest
is the timpani part. So the timpani is huge in
this piece. Pick like your very, very best player.
Let them go to town because they're going to
have so much fun with it. And again, a hobgoblin
is like a little elf or a sprite that's like
mischievous. So a lot of this piece is written
like Laura mentioned in like a minor tonality.
So it's kind of fun just to see all the chromaticism
and everything too. And you can talk to your
students about that. and why he would compose
this way for something that is mischievous. Anyway,
back to it. And then it does the same thing again.
One lolly, two lolly, one E2, one lolly, two,
one lolly, two, one, two, two, one. And those
all have accents. One lolly, two, one lolly,
two. So it gives the kids another advantage to
like bringing out the accents and understanding
where the foot tap falls and everything. I love
the forte piano crescendo on the measures that
have six eighth notes. eighth notes in them.
I think that's easy for kids to latch on to.
It's a great way to teach a four tapiano crescendo.
Okay. We're going to be at a level eight and
then you're going to drop to a two and then it's
a eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven that
you're welcome. Yes. Okay. But like I think that
having the straight eighth notes makes that really
easy. Every eighth note gets just a little bit
louder. It's an easy way to teach that for sure.
Um, and then we reach measure nine, which is
the first, uh, you know, The beginning is the
introduction, uh, just like in any March. So
you can teach that to the students for like form.
Um, at nine, this is the, the first time we have
the melody and it's in flute, oboe, clarinet,
and trumpet. And it's very crisp and trumpet
is not split in parts here. So they're all on
the same part. And then bells and xylophone as
well. Yep. It's one. Yeah. One three one or one
Lee, two Lee, one Lee, two Lee, one Lee, two
Lee, one and they're marked staccato. So you're
going to teach the kids to make everything very
lifted and light, like the little hobgoblin is,
you know, bouncing around. The low people all
have one, two. one two one two one two lolly
one but they have a lot of chromatic or chromaticism
is huge in this piece so making sure that your
students all like this is a great introduction
again to like and harmonic notes and you can
review that with kids you know at the beginning
of the year or end of the year with a band that
is is still developing um it goes back and forth
between a natural and a flat and the trombone
part a lot and d natural and d flat so really
honing in on like fourth and fifth position and
second and third is a big deal in this piece
and that's why I think I like it so much is because
it's not difficult rhythmically, but you can
then go back and focus on things like are we
truly in fifth position on this D flat? I have
two things in this section to be mindful of.
The baseline has those dotted quarter notes and
they are marked staccato, but I would really
treat those more like lifted notes. They should
not sound like da, da, da. They need a little
more, yeah, a little more resonance to them.
So be mindful of that. And then what your students
are going to want to do, this is phrased in four.
It's written in four bar phrases. One, three,
one, three, one, three, one, three, one, three,
one, three, one, one, three, one, three, one.
They're going to want to breathe after every
dotted half note for sure. Making sure that you
address that with them and have them thinking
about the phrasing from the beginning. Yeah.
And you can even stagger that and say half of
you get to breathe after. the first dotted half
note in 12, and some of you can breathe after
the second dotted half note in 14. Or if they
can make it all the way to 16, they can breathe
between two dotted quarter notes. So again, yes,
that's a great way of teaching like how to take
in sneaky breaths in six, eight time, because
you're going to usually have rhythms like that
and whatever you play. Whenever the long note
happens in the melody, the lows always have one,
two, lolly, one, one, two, lolly, one. bringing
that. It's like a back -and -forth conversation
between the highs and the lows, which I think
is really fun, too. At 17, now the melody changes
from being simpler with one, one -lee -two -lee
to one -la -lee -two -la -lee -one. So they have
to tongue. But it's basically subdividing. That's
all of a sudden. It's the same melody, but now
it's subdivided. But it's faster articulation
for young developing players. But I think it's
great because it's not like you're moving on
every single note. It's the same three notes.
on the beat, so it's like CCC. D D D E flat E
flat E flat F F F for like the flute part. So
that's nice because then they just have to focus
on the articulation, but they're not having to
move their fingers on every single beat with
it. Um, so it makes them feel really successful
when they can do that. And it's fun to tongue
fast for those kids. And I think it's a, I think
it's a really good teaching tool as well for
articulation. Like do all six of those eighth
notes sound exactly the same, right? As your
tongue touching in the same place every time.
Yep. Um, then we go to, uh, a big timpani solo
in measure 24 at the end of that phrase. And
now we have a new section at 25. The whole band
has one, two, one, two, and then Lowe's have
one, Lee, two, Lee, one as a response. Everybody.
everybody than the low brass. So like your lows
are going to really like this piece because they're
not their piece or their part is not like sad
town. It's not the accompaniment the whole time
they get to have responses. They get to be important
and kind of stand out. All of these notes have
accents on them. So most of them have the Marcato
accent and then some of them have the house top
accents. So it's just good to make sure again,
you can teach those differences and how stylize
that. I would, I found in this section that my,
even though like the first note is written accented,
the second one is that Marcato accent, right?
So we should have da, da, da, da, but they wanted
to like crescendo, da, da. That's what I found
like my kids wanted to do. So we had to like
talk about, okay, wait a second, look at the
shape of the note. That's the opposite direction.
You're ballooning the note and not putting that
accent on there. So, um, but again, that it's,
uh, it's, it's great for helping them identify
that. Look at what you look at what you see on
the page, interpret it and execute that. Yeah,
it's very stylistic, but it's again, a great
teaching piece in between. Um, each time that
the lows would go one Lee to Lee one, Tiffany
goes one Lolly to Lolly. one. So it's like this
big piece where it's just people talking back
and forth basically. And the timpani is really
important. Then we have the same little moment
again at 33 and then at 37, the whole band comes
down to mezzo piano. I know that when I played
this piece, I make them all cross that out and
we changed it to mezzo piano instead of mezzo
forte to keep it really, really low. One, two,
one, two, then another forte piano, just like
the beginning. One lolly, two lolly, one lolly.
two lolly one two. two one and so it's kind of
like the intro back again then it's a percussion
feature which is really fun yes and like it's
you don't always have a percussion feature in
a march so this is makes it really cool for your
percussion feature is timpani i mean like of
course one loli two loli one loli one they have
a whole they have a whole melody that timpani
does here so there's no mallet percussion playing
in this section you have your snare drummer your
bass drummer and then the timpani is really featured
here, so it's really, it's a cool little percussion
feature. As we get into measure 51, this is what
you would consider the trio of a traditional
march, which I like, even though this is a little
bit different, called March of the Hobgoblins,
we did talk about that this would be... this
would be considered a trio. Um, it is softer.
It features the clarinet section, the melody
changes here. Um, and it's more like woodwind
and some thinned out low brass. Um, it goes to
wood blocks, kind of like you could do like a
traditional March triangle. Um, so the clarinets
have the melody and then we just have like chords
from low brass. Um, and then the mids are just
doing long chords as well. It's very, Very, very
smooth. No more accents in this section. And
then the clarinets are finishing out their melody
at measure 63. And then it's like the little
mischievous hobgoblin showed up again. Then it
goes back. Sneaky in there. And then now it's
just, it's right underneath the long note in
the clarinet. And it's marked mezzo piano. I
mean, it just needs to be sneaky. then at measure
67 the flute and oboe add in with the clarinet
joining on that melody now we have in the bells
and the bells now we have full ensemble playing
and the trumpets are doing a little interjection
yeah like a little heroic fanfare and theirs
is written staccato so why we have two one two
one two one two one two one two one two one just
a cool little uh back and forth yep And then
at 75, everybody basically has... something you
either have the melody or you have the accompaniment
part, but the whole band is finally playing here.
I don't think we were all playing before. Yes,
we were. Okay. So it continues on. And then we
crescendo up again with help from snare drum
and timpani. And we have the same as what we
had at the beginning at 79 for tapiano back down.
One, Lolly, two, Lolly, one, two, timpani, one,
Lolly, two, Lolly one. Just like the beginning.
And then 87 is like, Thank you. the final, I
guess, hurrah. So now the trumpets have the melody
with clarinets and xylophone, but the flutes
and oboes get this cute little and bells, this
cute little chromatic like line above them. And
yeah, it's so cute and it's easy. It's just one,
two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two,
one, two. So it's just on the beats while the
melody is still happening in the back and forth
is happening with the low brass. And it is the
new thing. So I do think it's important to make
sure that it's heard, but you don't want it to
completely be a wet blanket over everything else
that's happened. It is really important, but
they're like, I know my flutes would always get
excited about this part and get a little, you
know, like, okay, let's calm down a little bit.
We still got to, we still got to hear the other
parts. Yeah. At 95, we get the same articulated
rhythm from the beginning. One, Lolly, two, Lolly,
one, Lolly, two, Lolly, one, Lee, two, Lee, one.
So it's the same thing again. Flutes are continuing
that little chromatic thing with oboe and then
they finally joined back on the melody at 99
And then we have another little timpani interlude
at 102 but this time The timpani is decrescendoing
because the full band is gonna come back in at
a piano dynamic at 103 and that's on snare Yep.
Oh, I'm sorry. I said timpani, but yeah, snare
drum there. And then the band has one lead to
the one lead to the one to timpani again. Then
the full band has dotted quarter notes going
on and then big timpani moment at 111 timpani
solo along with tambourine kind of like backing
them up in the background. One lead to lully
one lead to lully one two and the full band has
that at the end. So it's, it's so much fun and
like we just basically sang for you. There's
only like four different rhythms in the piece.
So it's a great, like we said, intro to six,
eight, without it getting too complicated to
where they're like, I don't know, is that on
the law or the Lee or whatever? Um, you know,
there's it's just makes it come together so quickly
and you can go pretty quick on it. And so the
kids really enjoy doing that on a march. Yeah.
And I love kind of related to the speed, like
Katie was talking about. Um, it doesn't have
to be like, I think you have a little flexibility.
on the tempo for sure. Right. It's not like a
locked in at one 20 and that's what it has to
be. So if you want to push it a little more,
make it a little more energetic and exciting,
you have the opportunity to do that. Yes. Well,
we hope you will consider programming March of
the Hobgoblins in the future. And thank you for
joining us on this episode of band BFFs.