Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
where we make your music selection less complicated.
On today's episode, we will be discussing Fandango
by Carol Britton Chambers. Cheers to starting
the conversation. All right, this is a new piece.
It was published in 2025, so brand new. This
is pretty challenging. It's a publisher grade,
three and a half. It's about four, three and
a half or four minutes long. It's really fast.
It's in the key of A flat or F minor. It has
split flute parts, three clarinet parts, a split
alto part, three trumpet parts, a split horn
and trombone part that is different from the
euphony. part and a slew of percussion. You really
need six or seven, I said it, percussionists
to pull. all of this off. This is a really fun
Spanish, I mean, Fandango tells you it's a dance,
but challenging. Yes, and also it goes back and
forth between 3 -4 and 4 -4 a ton during this
piece. So it's a good challenging, it's not on
the Texas PML currently, so it'd be a fun challenge
for like fall concerts with a high school band
or maybe a spring concert. Really good, really
good, you know, middle school band or a high
school band for sure. A region band, this would
be super fun to do with as well. So it's in the
key of A flat. So obviously the key signature
causes issues just to begin with. And then as
Laura mentioned, like all of the different split
parts, a lot of times the parts are written to
do like a major second next to each other as
well. So, or a minor second. kind of just depends
on where you are, but it's a little bit challenging
with just knowing all the different like partials
and chord structures and everything. So you gotta
make sure you have a band that can pretty much
read. And I swear every other note or every note
has a style marking on it. So she, I mean, she's
incredibly intentional about what she wants the
music to sound like. So, you know, obviously
as we're teaching it, we owe the integrity of
that, you know, to the music, be very, very intentional
about that. So it starts out, it's marked conenergica,
an area. With energy. Yeah, I know, but how do
we say that word? And are here and are here.
That's right. That was terrible. Don't judge
my Spanish accent So like it's marked 176 so
it goes really really fast It starts out at the
beginning with upper woodwind melody and some
saxophone One two and three and one two three
one two and three and one two three So you get
to teach the kids about how in three four one
is the big beat? Beat ones don't always have
accents a lot of times they do but then they'll
go to staccatos one tongue slur slur slur staccatos
staccatos staccato so it's supposed to sound
like different dance steps I would imagine yeah
and this it the challenge of coming out of that
slur really fast and articulating the downbeat
one two and three and tongue tongue tongue one
two and three and tongue tongue tongue those
eighth notes are slurred so that I mean the clarity
of that has to be super super clear yeah which
of course as you're learning it slower you're
not going to learn it at 176 beats Right. You
can be real particular about that. Yep. And then
the brass have hits usually on one, sometimes
on one, two. So it's just, you got to be really
careful about counting so that you don't play
during a rest. Then it switches quickly to four,
four in measure seven. And it goes on with some
percussion. Bongos, and this is really, really
important. Bongos, hi -hat, all of this in this
little section are really important to be super
crisp, really clear, very accurate rhythms throughout.
Yep, then there's a fun bass line that starts
up at measure eight with obviously tuba and low
reeds. One and four, one and four, one and. four,
one, and it kind of keeps going. So that's fun
because, you know, it's just very much a baseline
that you would normally hear. The trumpets have
the melody alone at measure eight, but again,
they are in split parts. Two and three are together
and only split on certain chord notes. The students
have like more of a lyrical type playing here,
not as many staccatos, but still, like Laura
mentioned, lots of specific accents that they
need to put into their melody to make sure that
it kind of comes out of the mix. A lot of dotted
half notes in this with the trumpet melody so
one four and one two three four one lots of dotted
half notes through here and the tendency is going
to be to let those decay. Obviously we want those
to almost feel like there's a little mini or
micro crescendo at the end of those so we get
that forward momentum and movement there. Then
the upper woodwinds and horns and altos come
in with a little counter melody about four measures
into the trumpet feature. Yep the xylophone comes
in as well a measure later to kind of join them
and kind of give a little bit more of that timbre
and then the trumpet melody is continuing on
it goes up the trumpet First trumpet part is
pretty high on this piece. So we didn't mention
that at the beginning But it about is about to
get up to like a high G above the staff at one
point It goes up to a high B flat clarinets also
really high and above the staff Yeah, so the
range is a little bit higher. You just have to
make sure you can play it with control So going
into 16 now the melody it goes to the upper woodwinds
They have the same thing the trumpets had before
And now the trumpets are kind of in the background
with these little conversational hits and it's
the same as the trombone and tenor sax part.
And then same obvious thing is what Laura said.
You don't want the kids to decay on dotted half
notes. All the accents, like there's a rhythm
in measure 18 that goes one, two, and four, and
one. It's one, two, and. And so everybody in
the band has the accents on those beats minus
the baseline. So it's just good to kind of line
up that style. and make sure that that really
pops out when the students are playing it. This
is a classic example of a piece where I think
a melody sheet would be a super helpful tool,
a rehearsal tool, because almost everybody at
some point is gonna have that one, four, and
one, two, three, four, one, two, and four, and
one. They're gonna have that. So writing that
out in a melody sheet and getting the style exactly
like you want it, unison with everybody will
make the process of you know, applying it to
the music easier. And same with the three, four
melody, one, two, and three, and one, two, three.
And then there's another little melody that comes
in too, but you can write all of those out and
teach those as a melody sheet to your whole ensemble.
Same with these little accompaniment lines as
well. Yeah. And then everybody's learning how
to count too. So at 23, we're leading into 24.
That's where we go back to three, four. Now the
low people have the melody, one, two, three,
one, and, and, and one. And then now the upper
people, one, two, three, one, and, and, and one.
So it's like a cute little back and forth. They're
gonna wanna slow that down. Right. They're gonna
wanna slow those upbeats down. So just being
super precise and there's not like there's time
going on in the percussion. Yeah, no. In this
section. They're playing what the winds are playing.
Yeah, I mean it has to be locked in. completely.
Yep at 30 everybody has a forte piano and then
percussion has a little bit of stuff underneath
and we're leading into 32 which is where we go
back into 4 -4 and this transition is kind of
tricky because we just came out of 3 -4 with
not a lot of pulse and stuff going on and then
you go into a rest at the beginning of 32 in
the melody. So this starts with the upper woodwinds
in the melody and again no percussion helping
out with pulse just colors. rest two and three
and and and one three four rest two and three
and and and two three four I counted the wrong
rhythm there but it's the rhythm is a little
complicated and once again there's a style marking
on every single solitary note that's articulated
yep So you gotta be particular with it. Then
the brass, it's just the upper woodwinds that
have that. It's only four measures. So I mean,
once they get it, it just has to be really clean
and really clear. Everybody else is just playing
four, one. There's a cute little vibra slap moment
and stuff like that. A little castanets coming
up. Some mallet little interjections, yeah. And
then at 37, we're back into it's that that's
kind of like a little transitional moment. Uh,
now the low reads have that part from before
one and four, one and four and horn and sax have
melody alone. And, um, it's obvious you gotta
have really good French horns because they're
all by themselves, right? Um, it's not written
high or anything. It goes up to an upper E flat
upper F at one point in the horn. So not a. huge
deal, but just something that you wanna make
it sound really flowy. Just like the trumpet
melody from before. That's exactly what I was
gonna say. Even though it's not quite as many
slurs as what the trumpets had in their line
before, it is definitely intended to be a little
more legato. And it certainly does not have any
staccatos and accents and stuff, so yes, this
is gonna be a little bit more fun. There's like
a little timpani and triangle moment. There's
some, like I said, some cool castanets. It's
very percussion, but it's like... like little
interjections. So it's not like percussion's
playing a pulse the whole time. It's just like
little cute, you know, ooh, check me out, one,
two, and one. Like it's just very randomly put
in there. Right here at measure 41, the clarinets
come in and join the alto trumpet and horn with
the melody and then flute, oboe, and some of
our percussion add a clapping part. Now, I know
sometimes clapping may scare people away from
doing a piece. I certainly don't think it should
be anything that that scares you or shies you
away from doing a piece but you absolutely have
to make sure you practice it yeah right like
I mean it's written again it's written to accented
it's a certain rhythm with yes and it's meant
to be visual like she's very clear yes but head
high yeah we want this to look the same it's
meant to be not only aural but visual as well
so you have to work on it yep So this melody
continues on. We have another little interlude
from the timpani and the triangle, which is really
cute. And then we're building up to 45, which
is where most of the band comes in. The hand
clappers kind of stop and get their instruments
ready. Everybody else has one and four, four
and one and four. three, one. And I'm like, oh
gosh, that would be kind of difficult because
they really have to count those ties like really,
really well. And then right here coming out of
it, it flips the rhythm instead of that dotted
quarter eight, that hemeola feel that we're getting.
Now it flips. It's an eight dotted quarter. So
you come out of that little line with one, three,
and one, three, one, which feels weird. Yeah,
this is definitely a rhythmic challenge. You'd
have to work on that a ton. But this part at
least does have a snare drum pulse underneath
it. The flutes and the upper clarinet get to
have like a little counter melody here. Actually
no, this is the melody with the trumpets and
the trombones. And then lots of accents happening
here. We're kind of building it up again. And
then now we're going to be in this little cool
soloistic section at 53. So it has a trumpet
one solo. There's time being kept from the bass
line and some hand clapping in the percussion
and then like there will be these interjections
of claves. Now the solo is written for trumpet
but it is cued in alto and flute so you can choose
to to move it wherever you would like but obviously
it is designed for trumpet. Your trumpet player
needs to have a really pretty sound. I mean they're
holding at one point they're holding a C for
for 12 beats, a third space C for 12 beats, they
need to be able to make a really pretty sound
and they need to have vibrato. This is 100 %
a vibrato section for the solo. The solo is not
technically hard at all, but they need to sound
like a million bucks. agreed and then two measures
later the trombone one has a solo and again it's
cued also in euphonium and tenor sax and bassoon
so you could choose to do somebody else if you
want but it's just like a little back and forth
solo between them for the next 10 -ish measures.
So it's got the long trumpet solo, the long trombone
solo, just some little small hand claps, and
the bass line. That's it. So it's like very exposed
here. The trombone keeps going. So does the trumpet.
They're building up to measure 61. No, sorry.
59 and then they're getting a little bit softer.
Oh, it's depending on which part it is. And then
now the oboe and the clarinets are gonna come
in at the very end of their decrescendo. And
xylophone, which adds a nice color here. Yep.
And then we're basically just trying to do a
transition back into the 3 -4 time. And it's
like supposed to be really quiet, like it's fading
away, fading away, and there's barely anybody
playing. All the winds are fading, but then suspended
cymbal is crescendo -ing. So they are helping
get you across that bar line and back to the
one two and three and one two three. It's just
like the beginning again including going straight
into four four time about four measures later.
So at 72 we're back to the trumpet melody with
sax this time. Everybody else has just got the
bass line or a little counter melody. We do introduce
a new little counter melody at 76 in the flute
and oboe and clarinet. It's real cute. It's all
the parts that we do. did before, but now, yes,
but now we're putting it, now we're layering
it all together, right? So like the bass line,
that trumpet melody, that tricky four measure
transition. So now all of that is layering together
here. and we're building up to 80, and 80 is
a big moment. Now the upper people are having
the melody again. And this, the upper woodwinds
right here, like you are gonna have to take some
of this down an octave. Your altos are above
the staff, your flutes are on high E flats and
Ds, you've got your oboes are above the staff,
your first clarinet is above the staff here.
It can be really shrill if that is not balanced
correctly. Yeah, the first note in the first
clarinet is a Second ledger line C. So yes, that's
like that's an octave above. normal range. So
yeah, for sure. And the second and third clarinets
are doubling what's happening in the trumpet.
Right. So you might just want to have one kid
play that or something. Exactly. Yeah. And then
we go back into 3 -4 time at 84. It's what we
had before. Same style markings are super important.
Percussions kind of doing the same thing. Then
we have the full band has a 2D rhythm 1 and 1,
2, 3, 92. and now we're in four, four time again.
This is really a low brass moment. I think, you
know, low brass, low read moment for just four
bars. They get to kind of trombone, euphonium
get to have the cool part. Yes. The baseline
is still happening though in like very sax and
tuba. And then we build up and add in the mid
voices like horn, trumpet, oboe, clarinet. And
then we build up again and add in the flute part
coming into a hundred and the trumpet one part.
So this is at 100 where the trumpet is playing
above the staff G and A and B flat. So it gets
really... gets really high here, and of course,
it's the end of the piece, so you gotta make
sure your brass players can handle it. They've
gotta pass in the tang. A cool timpani moment
at 101, the whole ensemble is one and four, four
and one, and timpani gets a... Two, three, four,
and one. Like a cool little solo in there, so
cool percussion and timpani moment. Yep. Lots
of accents happening again with all the hemiola
rhythms, and then we've got just some straight
up chords here, one, three, one. two and like
we had or sorry one three and like we had before
one four then we're back into three four and
it's just like the beginning one two and three
and one two three and some of those chords some
of those big like half note chord hits don't
be afraid to rewrite those as needed for your
ensemble to make it sound you know balanced like
it needs to and you know the right number of
parts covered all that don't be afraid to to
rescore that if you need to yep 112 is the ending.
We're still just in this three, four time. Kind
of ends with the upper people doing a cute little
one, two, three, one, and, and, and one off.
And everybody just ends with that last part and
a little bit of fun percussion thrown in there
with Tiffany. And down. And down. That's kind
of what it feels like. So it's very cute. I mean,
it's got a lot of, a lot of great. teaching opportunities.
Lots of style is challenging, but kids will love
it. The melody is catchy. It's fun. There's a
lot thematically that you could do with it or
programmatically if you wanted to add, you know,
whatever. And if you were considering doing some
sort of like Spanish March for UIL, this would
be a great one to do in the fall so that you've
already kind of exposed your kids to some of
that style stuff. Yeah, absolutely. So, so much
fun. Well, we hope you will programming Fandango
in the future and thank you for joining us on
this episode of Banned BFFs!