Marching band sectionals

[chrislb98]

This fall I'm responsible for the sound of about 30 trumpet players, most of which are not the strongest players in the world. I haven't done this before and was trying to think of some exercises for a group like this to play. I would think that things like scales in round would be good for listening to eachother and playing them while articulating 8th notes would be good for articulation. And then maybe some breathing exercises working on deep, relaxed breaths. Anyone have any suggestions of exercises or things to focus on with a group like this?

When I heard the cadets perform this summer I was amazed at the ensemble sound coming from them, nothing like any marching band I had heard. Has anyone here marched with a group like that? What do they do in their sectionals to sound like that?

Chris
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Schilke B1
Bobby Shew 1.5

[mafields627]

I don't know exactly how the Cadets do it but, I'm sure playing 12 hours a day for most of the summer helps sound like that. Also, a lot of corps run in breathing blocks. The form up a block and run a mile or two and do breathing exercises at the same time.

Whenever I teach a trumpet sectional, before I ever have them play a note, they do breathing exercises. No fancy gadgets: just blowing through the horn with all three valves down. I do about ten repetitions of in for 1 out for 8, then move to in for 1 out for 12, a set of 1 & 16, then back to 1 & 8. There should be a noticable difference between the first set of the 8 count one and the last set. Have them do these while standing at attention. Emphasize posture.

I also have them do some slurs. The band director that I work for has a set put out by Yamaha, arranged by Wayne Downey and others but, I don't like them all that much. I usually use some of the simpler slurs out of Schlossberg or Irons. Just make sure that the pattern is easy enough for them to learn after you demonstrating it one time or else you'll be wasting too much time.

For tonguing, I just use whatever pattern happens to be in my head or find a rhythm in the music they happen to be having trouble with and use that, on the concert Bb scale.

Something else that's kinda cool is to end every warm up with some kind of chorale/chord progression. The high school I teach uses Precious Lord, Take My Hand. My school uses Blue Devil's F Tuning. Other good ones are Salvation is Created, Sweet Sweet Spirit, Send in the Clowns, or even your school song. That's always kind of a hype -- lets them know that we're down to business.

Edit: Here's an afterthought. I was going to march with Magic of Orlando this summer but didn't. Wish I had now but, they do a lot of mouthpiece buzzing. Might be something to look into. Also, every brass player had a BERP hooked up to his lead pipe. You can buzz through the music like that or buzz scales while doing basics. I know the BERP is not really practical for your situation since they're $15 and you can't buy them for everyone or make them buy them. But, when ever ya'll are doing basics I would have them doing breathing exercises on their horns and mouthpiece buzzing their parts on non horn set cleaning.

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--Matt--
http://mafields627.tripod.com

[ This Message was edited by: mafields627 on 2002-08-11 21:37 ]

[Vessehune]

I would suggest doing breathing exercises!! These will be the most important things to do to get people in shape for playing and marching. Check out the Claude Gordon forum for some good breathing exercises! I marched in the Washington State University marching band, and only wish our section leader would have done something similar.
_________________
---Brian Vessey---
Calicchio 1s-7 Ultra; ML Bore
Mouthpiece = ?????

[Greatest Trumpeter]

Well if your school is anything like mine I would have them learn and eventually memorize all the major scales because no one seems to have that done. Do about one scale a week. And what everyone else said.
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SCHILKE
"O Music, sphere-descended maid
Friend of pleasure, wisdom's aid" -William Collins

"So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell." -Anon

[ByroTrumpet]

matt was right...

chord exercises are really good to hype up the section. Especially the lead players. I know when I marched drum corps the soprano section was jumping at the chance to totally rip apart every chord progression. Have your section listen to blue devils do their F tuning and you'll see how cool it can be!
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Byron

If there is anything that I stated here that someone doesn't agree with or if it is just plain wrong. Let me know (be professional about it), because I want to learn more. Have a great day everyone!

[chrislb98]

Great ideas so far!

Hmm I think I have that F tuning in a finale format, maybe I'll arrange it for 3 trumpet parts and print it out.

As far as the breathing exercises and aside from emphasizing posture, what parts of the breathing exercises should be emphasized? Using the entire breath? Using your abs for compression? I was thinking about emphasizing taking as big of a breath as you possibly can every time you have to play and to stay as relaxed as possible while playing (except corners & abs). Most mediocre players take puny breaths and tense up playing tuning notes so this could help. What do you think?

Chris

[ByroTrumpet]

yeah. the biggest misconception new people have when they come into marching band is that they can take puny breaths. They need to understand that they need to take humongous breaths in order to get through the show without feeling like they've run 1000 miles, instead only about 2 . Anyway, emphasize everything you can about breathing because its one of the most important things you can do for your section.
_________________
Byron

If there is anything that I stated here that someone doesn't agree with or if it is just plain wrong. Let me know (be professional about it), because I want to learn more. Have a great day everyone!

[limits_unknown]

Thanks for posting this, I'll be in the same situation next year! I actually cant wait! I got a to taste a bit of leadership this year, and it was like a warm apple pie... good!

Anyways, I've written out something that's kind of like the Blue Devils' F Tuning. It's not quite as long. It only goes through 2 phrases, instead of 3 or 4 like the BD's does. I plan to have them play that first thing. Then we go on and do the breathing exercises. Then they play the exercise again. Just so they can hear the difference, and hopefully they'll recognize the importance of taking huge breaths in tiny ammounts of time.

Someone once told me, that to get the sound they need for the field (or any playing) you open your throat wide enough to shove a bowling ball down(taking in air), then hurl it back up again(pushing out air).

Also, make sure they realise it's not necisarrily VOLUME they want, but DISTANCE! This will keep them from blowing their lips apart, and blatting even more notes than the sousaphones. It will also give a more in tune sound. Give the analogy of blowing out a candle 50 yards away.

Don't worry about them hitting correct notes. Stress the articulations, slurs, dynamics, ect. They'll get the notes eventually. But it usually takes quite a bit more ingraving to get them to play the articulations.

Thanks for bringing the topic up!

[ This Message was edited by: limits_unknown on 2002-08-18 16:46 ]

[PH]

The point you make about taking enormous breaths is a very good one!

As far as ensemble goes, I think most amateur groups are careless about how and where they cut notes off. Bad cutoffs can be really glaring when you are playing outdoors. Somehow when you play indoors the room reverbration can help hide imprecise cutoffs.

I never cease to be amazed at how people are so careful about when and how they start the sounds (rhythm and attacks) and how careless they can be about when and how they start the silence between the sounds (cutoffs and rests).

[trjeam]

yesterday we had sectionals and I ran it. Some of the people were weak. I had them doing basic long tones, work on posture and breating and lip slurs for a little bit. Then we rested for 5 minutes. And worked on the marching band music.

[_trumpetgod_02]

hey,
I was trumpet section leader at my school for two years in a row. This is after I had seen my section go from 21 my freshman year to 23 my sophmore to 15 when i took over as section leader to 11 in my senior year. But the most amazing thing about that is that those last two years especially the last one. Were the best trumpet lines that our school has ever seen. But what really works to get them into shape is to:
first play long tones on 2nd line G(play as long as you can, until your stomach begins to shake and the even longer). Then do that on F#, G#, F, A, Eb, A#.
Then have every one take out their MPC's you then play a concert f, then have every one play that pitch on their MPC. Works wonders for learning to listen.
Then have everybody put back the MPC's in and take out their main tuning slide. Play a concert Eb(with your slide in) and then have them play it with just the lead pipe. ( and tell them that they don't have to use valves because the don't make a difference.
Then have everbody have a copy of the first couple pages of Schlossbergs Daily Drills. Go through those.
Then if you can get a copy of the 1994 blue devils warm ups. All they are is lip slurs. And drill them with those.
This may sound like a lot of work but it is worth it. I took a section that wasn't known too much for their screamin'. and we had 4 people just blowing down the walls on double G's at the END of our show. And that is after most of the show was written above the staff and we took several trips to high D's and E's. Not too shabby for a H.S. band of only about 100 people.
P.S.- If your a fan of pedal tones have them work on those as well. In MY opinion they fix ALL aspects of playing, not just range but, tone, power, flexability and control.
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[phantom_phrenzy]

tell them to make the horn vibrate in their hands.

practice long tone-blast chords.

and.......in drum corps, you dont play 12 hours a day....duh


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