WEBVTT 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:10.460 Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast 00:00:10.460 --> 00:00:12.699 where we make your music selection a little less 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:15.039 complicated. On today's episode, we're going 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.879 to be discussing The Skeleton Crawl by Jason 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:20.160 Nitsch. Cheers to starting the conversation. 00:00:21.259 --> 00:00:23.219 All right, so Katie and I were just sitting here 00:00:23.219 --> 00:00:25.140 having a conversation and discovered that we 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:27.800 are both playing this piece. Right now. Right 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:30.219 now with our groups. This piece is so much fun. 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:33.100 It is a publisher grade two. It is about two 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:35.159 minutes and 40 seconds. It's in the key of E 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:41.039 flat or C minor. Very accessible. It's so adorable. 00:00:41.179 --> 00:00:43.539 Your kids are going to be singing it when they 00:00:43.539 --> 00:00:45.960 leave your band hall every day. Literally. Yes, 00:00:45.979 --> 00:00:48.100 yes. Yeah, it even has speaking parts. Yeah. 00:00:48.219 --> 00:00:50.659 Yeah, I love this. Okay, so let's let's get started. 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:54.979 skeleton crawl. So it is percussion heavy. There's 00:00:54.979 --> 00:00:58.780 a drum set part that could be broken up into 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:01.939 multiple players. How are you doing it? We have 00:01:01.939 --> 00:01:06.439 not rehearsed it with percussion yet, but it's 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:08.420 very possible we'll use a drum set player. It 00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:10.560 just depends. We are playing it with a drum set 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:14.319 player. So we have a little great girl drum set 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:16.859 player. She's awesome. So she's playing it. And 00:01:16.859 --> 00:01:19.680 then all the other parts we divided out. We ended 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:22.799 up putting several people on the xylophone part 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.760 because it becomes very important later on and 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:28.180 we'll get into that. But just know you have to 00:01:28.180 --> 00:01:30.650 have a very strong percussion section. for this 00:01:30.650 --> 00:01:33.109 piece. I mean, they're featured for an extended 00:01:33.109 --> 00:01:37.469 period of time. And it is swing style, which 00:01:37.469 --> 00:01:41.129 also I think is great fun. And my teaching partner 00:01:41.129 --> 00:01:44.790 who leads our jazz band, Mr. Fowler, he was so 00:01:44.790 --> 00:01:47.049 excited when I programmed it because we don't 00:01:47.049 --> 00:01:48.950 kick off our jazz band until October. He was 00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:51.049 like, this is great. You're basically teaching 00:01:51.049 --> 00:01:53.409 swing style for me before we even get to jazz 00:01:53.409 --> 00:01:55.950 band. And my jazz kids were like, do we get to 00:01:55.950 --> 00:01:58.049 do tongue stopping? And I was like, no, no, we're 00:01:58.049 --> 00:02:00.189 not doing that yet. You got to wait till October 00:02:00.189 --> 00:02:03.650 to do it, but but they are super excited. So 00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:06.469 the whole piece starts off with just the drum 00:02:06.469 --> 00:02:10.990 set part and the band, the upper woodwinds and 00:02:10.990 --> 00:02:13.810 the brass are doing snapping. So we just got 00:02:13.810 --> 00:02:17.150 and it cooks, man. And I'm talking that our our 00:02:17.150 --> 00:02:19.830 generation version of cooks, not the kids generation 00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:23.909 of cooked. It is way fast, way fast. We are not 00:02:23.909 --> 00:02:26.229 going that fast right now, but eventually it's 00:02:26.229 --> 00:02:30.039 going to go with 180. So So the band is snapping 00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:33.960 on two and four and the ch ch ch ch ch in the 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:37.580 drum set. It's very cute. At measure five, the 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:40.840 low people come in and it's just tuba, timpani, 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:44.180 bari and bass clarinet. And they just have one 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:48.090 and... Three four one and and everybody else 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:51.210 is still snapping so you can do cutesy snapping 00:02:51.210 --> 00:02:54.289 We're gonna do we we discussed it this week. 00:02:54.310 --> 00:02:56.490 We're gonna do cute little like you can't see 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:59.389 me. So I don't know why I'm doing it Like the 00:02:59.389 --> 00:03:02.229 arm is extended and then comes back in. So it's 00:03:02.229 --> 00:03:04.430 like, it's choreographed, right? Like it's going 00:03:04.430 --> 00:03:07.550 to be very gross. I told my kids, I see sunglasses 00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:11.150 and fedoras. So I'm like, we, we will, we will 00:03:11.150 --> 00:03:15.189 hand it. That's cute. Yes. Um, and then they 00:03:15.189 --> 00:03:17.750 have this extended part. It goes on for eight 00:03:17.750 --> 00:03:20.909 measures. Little alto and tenor sax come in with 00:03:20.909 --> 00:03:27.110 a tiny little piano trill and measure. Um, Sorry, 00:03:27.370 --> 00:03:30.389 it's okay measure eight. They just trill for 00:03:30.389 --> 00:03:32.909 four beats and then the lows keep going Then 00:03:32.909 --> 00:03:35.289 they have another little trill and I like telling 00:03:35.289 --> 00:03:38.949 them to play it really quiet at 13 the rest of 00:03:38.949 --> 00:03:41.330 the lows come in So this is like trombone now 00:03:41.330 --> 00:03:45.289 we had tenor voice right tenor saxberry bassoon 00:03:45.289 --> 00:03:47.729 Everybody else is still snapping drum set still 00:03:47.729 --> 00:03:49.669 going. We have like some other little effects 00:03:49.669 --> 00:03:52.710 happening tambourine comes in and we had xylophone 00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:55.430 So now you start here. It's it's not quite a 00:03:55.430 --> 00:04:00.740 melody that it is melodic, right? I have three 00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:02.879 people on xylophone. I have one on xylo and two 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:05.300 on marimba, but I told them we're gonna have 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:09.159 a little bit of a solo challenge as we get closer 00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:11.419 to the concert, who's actually the xylophone 00:04:11.419 --> 00:04:13.620 player, because it's really, really important. 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:17.699 And I told them, and maybe I'm just old, but 00:04:17.699 --> 00:04:21.500 back in the olden days when we watched cartoons 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:24.839 at this time of year, the skeletons would take 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:28.339 their ribs out and play themselves like a xylophone. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:30.920 Like a washboard. Yeah, and so I told the kids 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:33.019 about that and they were blinking at me and I 00:04:33.019 --> 00:04:35.480 was like, okay, well your parents will get it. 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:39.000 So, but that's why the xylophone I think is featured 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.579 because you think of a skeleton as like. It sounds 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:45.399 bony. I mean, yeah, it makes sense to me. Just 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:47.779 more of a way for you to be sounding old when 00:04:47.779 --> 00:04:50.259 you teach things, I guess. But anyway, so we 00:04:50.259 --> 00:04:52.519 come in and they're adding in, we're still snapping. 00:04:52.660 --> 00:04:56.060 Now the trill is including the flute and oboe 00:04:56.060 --> 00:04:58.160 and clarinet part. But we're still just laying 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:00.259 the found. We're still quiet. It's still just 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:02.480 the same, the same thing going over. We're just 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:04.079 building and adding a little more people until 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:08.199 we get to measure 19. Yep. At 19, they have the 00:05:08.199 --> 00:05:12.250 melody. Come on, do the skeleton crawl. So that 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:16.569 melody comes back over and over. And at 21, now 00:05:16.569 --> 00:05:20.589 the low people, the mid, the tenor voices back 00:05:20.589 --> 00:05:23.550 out again. So we're back to the bass line, but 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:26.910 now we have horn and alto coming in with the 00:05:26.910 --> 00:05:29.959 alto line, but they have a new... And this is 00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:32.339 the first time you're hearing this little melodic 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:36.079 line. One and four and one and two, three, one 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:39.680 and four and one and two, three. Very singable. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.639 It's an earworm. And it is the melody. Yes. And 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:45.339 it doubles that horn and alto, but nothing else 00:05:45.339 --> 00:05:48.399 going on except that bass line. You do have xylophone 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:51.879 playing along with the horn and alto as well. 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:55.339 We still have those trill effects coming in and 00:05:55.339 --> 00:05:59.709 out, but really just very simplified. Yep, and 00:05:59.709 --> 00:06:04.550 then at 29 now we switch and the clarinet and 00:06:04.550 --> 00:06:07.920 trumpet have what the alto line just had. And 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:10.639 the alto line goes to a little bit of a different 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:12.959 counter melody that's not as important anymore. 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.839 Bass line is continuing on and now the tenor 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:19.639 line is getting to do some little like glisses 00:06:19.639 --> 00:06:23.879 on the trombone part. Which are really cool and 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:26.339 the kids need to bring those out. Xylophone changes 00:06:26.339 --> 00:06:28.720 here. So xylophone goes to like a little just 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.279 accompaniment thing. It's not what the alto and 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:32.920 horn are playing. It's totally different than 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:35.660 what anyone else is playing. and it really still 00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:41.939 adds that jazz feel to the melody. Yep. And then 00:06:41.939 --> 00:06:46.639 we have the trumpet part and clarinet part finishes 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:50.800 with adding in flute and oboe and xylophone with 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:54.019 that same, come on to the skeleton crawl. So 00:06:54.019 --> 00:06:58.579 they have the melody part at the very end. It's 00:06:58.579 --> 00:07:02.310 like a tag and that tag comes back. regularly. 00:07:02.709 --> 00:07:05.790 Right. And then we hit the shout section at 37. 00:07:06.269 --> 00:07:09.889 So very jazzy. Everybody's in and it's finally 00:07:09.889 --> 00:07:13.949 forte. The shout instruments are the trumpet, 00:07:14.189 --> 00:07:18.029 flute, clarinet, oboe. Xylophone is not a part 00:07:18.029 --> 00:07:20.449 of the melody here. They're doing doo doo doo 00:07:20.449 --> 00:07:22.410 doo doo doo doo doo. They're doing a little like 00:07:22.410 --> 00:07:26.790 jazzy background music. Bassline, a walking bassline. 00:07:26.949 --> 00:07:29.170 And it's really fun for them. They get to be 00:07:29.170 --> 00:07:32.579 special. and then everybody else just has the 00:07:32.579 --> 00:07:35.240 melody, rhythm, but a background accompaniment 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:39.000 part. It's so fun. The alto and horn part is 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:41.060 slightly different here. Oh yeah, yeah. And I 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:43.199 love their part. Oh, and they love their part. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:47.899 Yeah, they do. Yeah. Um, so it's the shout section 00:07:47.899 --> 00:07:51.079 and they're playing. This is great for teaching 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:52.879 y 'all because we're at the beginning of the 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:56.439 year and we're reviewing like, what does an accent 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:59.839 mean? What does a house top accent mean different? 00:08:00.339 --> 00:08:03.939 What does a staccato mean? What does a note without 00:08:03.939 --> 00:08:07.660 anything mean? So it being really intentional 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:10.660 about that, right? To be, uh, we, you know, we, 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:12.300 you've heard me talk about it lots of time, but 00:08:12.300 --> 00:08:14.240 we talk about like adding the seasoning or the 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:17.160 flavor. or my coworker calls it, adding the Alfredo 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:19.199 sauce. He was like, you gotta make, you gotta, 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:21.560 nobody wants to eat the plain pasta, which we 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:22.980 could have a whole other discussion about that. 00:08:23.339 --> 00:08:25.279 But the point is still, right, the same, add 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:28.139 the Alfredo sauce. And so whether you teach it 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:30.600 right away or you teach the rhythms and notes 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:33.259 first and then add it in, that's kind of up to 00:08:33.259 --> 00:08:36.809 you and your group and where they are. But it 00:08:36.809 --> 00:08:40.269 is really important to line up the style, just 00:08:40.269 --> 00:08:42.850 like you would in a jazz band. And there's not 00:08:42.850 --> 00:08:45.690 that many, I mean, there's three parts excluding 00:08:45.690 --> 00:08:48.070 percussion. There's three different wind parts. 00:08:48.309 --> 00:08:51.090 So they, I mean, they need to be stylized, right? 00:08:51.529 --> 00:08:54.049 Yeah. And so spending a lot of time on this is 00:08:54.049 --> 00:08:57.250 good because it comes back later. So it's not 00:08:57.250 --> 00:09:01.610 like it takes forever to get it good, but these 00:09:01.610 --> 00:09:04.429 skills you're teaching right now about how to 00:09:04.429 --> 00:09:09.460 align your style. you get to do later in every 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:11.899 piece you ever play. That's right. And we're 00:09:11.899 --> 00:09:14.080 taking it and doing some like with our fundamentals. 00:09:14.340 --> 00:09:16.659 So like the line that Katie said comes back often 00:09:16.659 --> 00:09:20.539 and often. Come on, do the skeleton crawl. Like 00:09:20.539 --> 00:09:22.600 there are style markings on that and we'll play 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.899 them on a concert F, right? Da da do ba do ba 00:09:25.899 --> 00:09:28.980 da da, right? Just doing it on one note to get 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:31.139 them really feeling the style. That's a great 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.600 little teaching tool anytime for any piece. Yep. 00:09:33.789 --> 00:09:37.230 And this piece is great for teaching phrasing 00:09:37.230 --> 00:09:40.149 too because it is written where kids are gonna 00:09:40.149 --> 00:09:43.710 want to take two measure phrases or four measure 00:09:43.710 --> 00:09:46.509 phrases unless you talk about it. Because there's 00:09:46.509 --> 00:09:50.350 a whole note at the end. But it is written really 00:09:50.350 --> 00:09:53.330 well where the baseline keeps pumping. So if 00:09:53.330 --> 00:09:57.090 some people do need to breathe on a bar line 00:09:57.090 --> 00:09:59.389 then they can. But we're trying to be intentional 00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:05.289 about Breathing after a tie. Ta, ta, ta, ta, 00:10:05.289 --> 00:10:09.409 ta. Don't breathe. Ta, ta, ta, ta. If you have 00:10:09.409 --> 00:10:11.850 to. Or make it all the way to the rest, because 00:10:11.850 --> 00:10:13.970 the rest is coming in the next measure. There's 00:10:13.970 --> 00:10:19.850 a cool bongos part. Crash cymbals come in. Suspended 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:22.450 cymbal rolls. Kind of like bringing out some 00:10:22.450 --> 00:10:25.570 more cool stuff. Timpani has a new part that's 00:10:25.570 --> 00:10:27.789 kind of following along with the trombone. So 00:10:27.789 --> 00:10:29.649 percussion is really important on this piece. 00:10:29.639 --> 00:10:33.100 and this whole shout section here at 37 is just 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:36.399 so good. Like Laura mentioned... Alto and horn 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:39.960 are different. And when the band does get to 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:42.600 breathe, at the end of that phrase, the horn 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:47.080 and alto get to have a cool part alone. And then 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:48.860 they have a little trill, which they're excited 00:10:48.860 --> 00:10:50.799 about. I'm telling them to not play very loud. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.639 If you know me, I don't like trills. The rest 00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:57.580 of the band has some house hop accented eighth 00:10:57.580 --> 00:11:00.610 notes. And then we have a little fall one. One, 00:11:00.809 --> 00:11:04.789 one and two, or one and and. We haven't done 00:11:04.789 --> 00:11:07.529 the fall yet, but we'll add it in eventually. 00:11:08.330 --> 00:11:10.909 But then it repeats and you have the shout section 00:11:10.909 --> 00:11:14.429 again. So it's kind of nice because once you've 00:11:14.429 --> 00:11:17.529 taught all those skills, it's just copy paste, 00:11:17.570 --> 00:11:23.049 right? We end this shout section at 53 with the 00:11:23.049 --> 00:11:27.350 extended percussion section. So percussion at 00:11:27.350 --> 00:11:31.299 53 has Nobody else do anything. We're not snapping. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:34.539 We're not singing. We're not playing. Um, it's 00:11:34.539 --> 00:11:37.519 a, it's a long time. It's like, I don't even, 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:40.899 I haven't even counted 53 to 69, however many 00:11:40.899 --> 00:11:43.940 math 16 measures. Okay, great. So they're alone 00:11:43.940 --> 00:11:47.039 doing their own thing. So literally it's like 00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:49.480 a percussion ensemble for 16 measures and it 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:51.279 needs to be treated that way. It needs to be 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:54.700 balanced that way. Um, and they're having a lot 00:11:54.700 --> 00:11:57.710 of fun. Personally, we've only done it one time 00:11:57.710 --> 00:12:01.419 as a full group. So I'm. Sure, it'll be so much 00:12:01.419 --> 00:12:03.779 fun once we do it more than once, but the xylophone 00:12:03.779 --> 00:12:08.639 part is the melody. And so doubling it on marimba, 00:12:08.820 --> 00:12:10.360 I think is a good idea because then you have 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:13.639 more than just one human playing it. But we've 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:16.299 got some cool effects again and bongos. We've 00:12:16.299 --> 00:12:20.179 got like a splash cymbal. We've got the drum 00:12:20.179 --> 00:12:24.259 set part. So there's so much going on. That's 00:12:24.259 --> 00:12:26.700 not just the xylophone, but the xylophone is 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:28.259 the melody. So they need to know how to play 00:12:28.259 --> 00:12:31.029 their part. pretty important, too, because it 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:32.529 acts as the baseline. It functions as the baseline, 00:12:32.549 --> 00:12:36.929 yeah. Yep. The xylophone gets to do this cool 00:12:36.929 --> 00:12:44.809 thing at 61, like a little chromatic... So the 00:12:44.809 --> 00:12:47.210 kids love it because it does sound very jazzy 00:12:47.210 --> 00:12:52.070 and it's fun. And then it rounds out with a cool... 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:56.100 A glyph, a xylophone glyph at the end. So leaning 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:58.940 into that is super important. And then the band 00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:01.840 comes in. Okay, now we get to measure 69 and 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:04.100 this you've got to have your band has to be really 00:13:04.100 --> 00:13:05.980 confident and they have to be really comfortable. 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:08.360 They have to buy in. Yes, they have to buy in. 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:11.940 So it is an extended speaking part. So Katie 00:13:11.940 --> 00:13:13.960 and I were actually just having the conversation 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:17.360 in my rehearsals. We are treating it more like 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:21.659 speaking right now. It says on the score speak. 00:13:21.740 --> 00:13:25.120 sing. So that's what Mr. Niche is kind of looking 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:27.860 for. And when you listen to a recording of it, 00:13:28.259 --> 00:13:32.169 they are speak singing it. So it's everybody 00:13:32.169 --> 00:13:35.070 in unison together, ooh wee, that's the skeleton 00:13:35.070 --> 00:13:38.690 crawl, ooh wee, that's the skeleton crawl. So 00:13:38.690 --> 00:13:41.490 they repeat this, and then the rhythm, you have 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:43.210 to be super, and I didn't sing the rhythm just 00:13:43.210 --> 00:13:45.970 perfectly right then, by the way. But you have 00:13:45.970 --> 00:13:47.789 to be real intentional about the rhythm because 00:13:47.789 --> 00:13:50.570 it's not exactly like what the rhythm was before, 00:13:50.649 --> 00:13:53.289 but it's unison for everybody. And then there 00:13:53.289 --> 00:13:55.629 just has to be buy -in. This might be a great 00:13:55.629 --> 00:13:57.970 opportunity for you to do something cross -curricular 00:13:57.970 --> 00:14:00.159 with your choir director. bring them in and teach 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:03.120 a little bit about diction to your kids because 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:05.700 in order for this to be effective, the audience 00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:06.840 needs to understand what they're saying. Know 00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:09.679 what the words are, yeah. And so I told Laura 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:13.600 that my band, we started it and I just was like, 00:14:13.659 --> 00:14:16.240 it sounds weird speaking it just because of like, 00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:19.340 to me, but although, I mean, we could try it 00:14:19.340 --> 00:14:21.519 again, we haven't done it both ways, but we're 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:24.960 gonna sing it. So we're gonna sing. concert see 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:29.240 the whole like moment. And so this to me is a 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:32.279 great opportunity for me to teach my kids about 00:14:32.279 --> 00:14:35.000 being confident in their singing skills, which 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:38.480 I think is only going to help me more in the 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:41.019 future. Now, the first time we did it, of course, 00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:44.100 you know, we got our our little immature seventh 00:14:44.100 --> 00:14:47.259 graders that are like, they're singing really 00:14:47.259 --> 00:14:50.100 loud and being dumb about it. It's not like the 00:14:50.100 --> 00:14:53.320 right note or they were like looking around like, 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:55.580 are we really doing? That's how my kids, my kids 00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:58.000 would be more timid and shy. Yeah. What? I'm 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:01.399 sorry. Yeah. So, but I was, I'm lucky to have 00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:03.779 a lot of eighth grade leaders who took it really 00:15:03.779 --> 00:15:06.120 seriously and did it right the first time. And 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:09.120 so that's why we decided to just sing it. And 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:13.179 then Mr. Niche was intentional. There is no xylophone 00:15:13.179 --> 00:15:16.149 part for the first eight measures. It's just 00:15:16.149 --> 00:15:19.529 the band coming in and saying real soft piano 00:15:19.529 --> 00:15:22.970 and then and drums Yeah, and then that little 00:15:22.970 --> 00:15:25.490 brushes type part on the drums It's not brushes, 00:15:25.509 --> 00:15:29.809 but it sounds brushesy to me then at 77 The dynamic 00:15:29.809 --> 00:15:32.450 level is written to go up in the speaking part 00:15:32.450 --> 00:15:35.470 and the xylophone comes back in on one and two 00:15:35.470 --> 00:15:39.029 and three and four and one and two and And so 00:15:39.029 --> 00:15:42.269 we're singing louder now to make sure we can 00:15:42.269 --> 00:15:44.529 still be heard over the one xylophone player. 00:15:44.970 --> 00:15:47.730 And then we get louder and louder. So it's mezzo 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:49.929 forte and then forte. Every time it builds. And 00:15:49.929 --> 00:15:54.990 then at the end, it's always written to be either 00:15:54.990 --> 00:15:59.129 speak sung or real sung. The melody. Come on 00:15:59.129 --> 00:16:03.669 to the skeleton crawl. So that part is fortissimo 00:16:03.669 --> 00:16:07.250 and there's no percussion. So that's the first 00:16:07.250 --> 00:16:10.700 time that we've sung it. And then we're back 00:16:10.700 --> 00:16:15.299 into the shot section. So it's just so fun because 00:16:15.299 --> 00:16:19.340 the kids love getting to do something different. 00:16:19.460 --> 00:16:21.480 Like, how often are we getting to sing a bunch 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:24.519 in a piece? Right? Yeah. And I love that teaching 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:27.100 wise, there's great teaching tools, but there's 00:16:27.100 --> 00:16:30.200 like content. It's a lot of copy paste. Oh yeah. 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:32.419 It's a lot of copy paste. So even at two minutes 00:16:32.419 --> 00:16:34.779 and 40 seconds, man, you're featuring percussion. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.740 You're doing some vocalizing. Yeah. There's the 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:41.440 melodic content is pretty approachable and easy 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:45.240 to teach, but you get to focus on style and phrasing 00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:48.090 and all those types of things. So just such a 00:16:48.090 --> 00:16:51.730 fun fun piece. Yep 85 we're in again we have 00:16:51.730 --> 00:16:53.870 the shout section it's literally the same as 00:16:53.870 --> 00:16:55.649 before. Literally repeat of what we did before. 00:16:56.049 --> 00:16:59.909 And that goes on for 16 measures then at 101 00:16:59.909 --> 00:17:03.909 we kind of back out again and it's just the baseline. 00:17:05.339 --> 00:17:08.400 with tambourine and the alto line. So this is 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:10.259 very similar to what happened earlier when the 00:17:10.259 --> 00:17:12.920 alto and horn came in and we were building. Now 00:17:12.920 --> 00:17:15.180 we're doing the reverse. We're yeah, we're de 00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:17.400 -building. Yep, that's right. Then I don't know 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:21.140 what the answer is. Yeah. At 109, the snaps come 00:17:21.140 --> 00:17:23.420 back in. So we're de -building it even more. 00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:26.380 The trombones and euphoniums and bassoons are 00:17:26.380 --> 00:17:28.779 then coming in with the bass line. So we're ending 00:17:28.779 --> 00:17:31.660 it with them, but it's pianissimo again or piano 00:17:31.660 --> 00:17:34.950 again. So we're kind of just being The xylophone's 00:17:34.950 --> 00:17:37.670 doing the fun little chromatic key part at the 00:17:37.670 --> 00:17:42.410 very end. And then at the very end, we have the 00:17:42.410 --> 00:17:46.869 jump scare. The whole band plays the melody one 00:17:46.869 --> 00:17:50.009 more time. Come on, do the skeleton crawl. And 00:17:50.009 --> 00:17:52.349 the xylophone's doing something different. And 00:17:52.349 --> 00:17:56.059 then we sing, speak, sing it again. And then 00:17:56.059 --> 00:17:59.359 the last pitch is played. So it's really fun 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:01.140 because you get a chance to like do everything 00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:04.660 at the end. And then the xylophone is still featured 00:18:04.660 --> 00:18:06.900 with the drum set all the way to the end. I like 00:18:06.900 --> 00:18:10.559 picture this whole piece. I picture this as like 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:13.680 I could see some parade on the streets of New 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:16.700 Orleans with people all decked out in their Halloween 00:18:16.700 --> 00:18:19.200 garb or skeletons or something like for Day of 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.619 the Dead. You know, I mean, like you could hand 00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:27.250 this up as much as you wanted for a concert performance. 00:18:27.609 --> 00:18:31.069 Yeah. And we first heard this at Midwest from 00:18:31.069 --> 00:18:34.809 Ross Patterson's band. And so this was what made 00:18:34.809 --> 00:18:37.349 her and I choose it without even talking about 00:18:37.349 --> 00:18:39.750 it. Like we both were just like, this piece is 00:18:39.750 --> 00:18:42.650 so cute, you know? So I had it on my list of 00:18:42.650 --> 00:18:45.150 like, I'm going to play this in the future. So 00:18:45.150 --> 00:18:51.470 this is just perfect. If you do a spooky theme 00:18:51.470 --> 00:18:55.269 concert, this is like a really good one to choose. 00:18:55.349 --> 00:18:58.390 And it would be totally appropriate to do with 00:18:58.390 --> 00:19:03.029 a sub non varsity high school piece as well for 00:19:03.029 --> 00:19:05.829 anything. I know that they don't usually do concerts 00:19:05.829 --> 00:19:08.809 till like November or so, but still, you know, 00:19:08.809 --> 00:19:11.009 this would be so much fun or end of the year. 00:19:11.369 --> 00:19:13.509 But anyway, we hope that you will consider programming 00:19:13.509 --> 00:19:16.529 Skeleton Crawl in the future. And thank you for 00:19:16.529 --> 00:19:19.869 joining us on this episode. of Banned BFFs.