Percussion

I was wondering if anyone knows of any concertos where the soloist part is difficult but the band accompaniment is grade IV or less.

Thanks in advance

By Sam Hazo, I’m not sure if I’m describing it correctly but these chords sound as if they’re wrong but it’s written that way on purpose and I find it to be really nice. An example of this would be at time stamp 5:03 on the Hal Leonard video, I would like to know what kinds of chords would be called, like as in major, minor, augmented, etc.

If we were to get a few string instruments would we be called an orchestra?

Marching season ended and my bd is going to start chair testing 1 or 2 weeks after thanksgiving break and I need help choosing a solo and it has to be under a minute and 30 seconds please and thank you

Okay, so I played in band for 8 years. My daughter is 13 and has only been playing for about a year. She's really good and they put her with the high school kids in advanced band. I help her in the afternoons but I think I'm approaching all this wrong. I'm gentle with her but I don't lie to her either. She gets so frustrated bc she thinks she can't do something. They're playing sleigh ride in cut time and I tried to explain that if she takes it slow at first and increased her speed a little at a time she would get there. She's so hard on herself. She started out in band on her own at her dad's. No one there knew anything about music and she did fine. She says she wants my help but it feels like she doesn't. She will literally ask me to help and she doesn't take anything I say constructive very well. I don't want her to hate playing, she absolutely loves it. But her jump in classes has given her more difficult music and she needs help. Idk. I feel like I'm talking in circles. What do I do?

Played a song in high school that sounded like America from WSS. Please help my friends and I remember the name it is driving us crazy!!

Heyoo everyone I’m an intermediate flutist and I’m interested in learning oboe, do you guys know any good beginner oboe brands that aren’t extremely expensive, but good quality?

In high school we had these little Christmas/Holiday tune booklets about the size of a half sheet of paper, they weren't for specific instruments but for voices...i.e. a bass booklet (played by tuba, trombone, etc.) or a voice 1 booklet (played by flute, trumpet, etc.) I believe all the songs could be played pretty well with 4 or 5 people playing the different parts. I'm trying to find them but am not having any luck. Does anyone maybe know what I'm talking about or have any ideas for finding something similar?

I am in love with this piece! We just practiced it last Thursday. This is an amazing arrangement from Johan de Meij. I am totally in love with the themes and Irish influences. Anyone here played it yet?

It was a high level piece for a high-school band, fairly long, 2-3 pages. Big identifier was the long and low flute solo that started at the beginning for about 20-30 measures that started below the staff. I know its not likely ill find it, but its worth a shot to see if someone knows/ can guess it. Thanks!!

I saw a post a few months ago about someone else asking about seating arrangements so I thought I should ask here :)

This year our Symphonic Band (Gr 11 + 12) contains nearly 80 people and the seating situation is currently an absolute mess. Our current seating arrangement has been working for about 2 months, but recently we had some Gr 10s move up from their ensemble creating seating problems. I've had some of the other seniors come up to me (the resident band geek) to make a new seating chart but I genuinely have no idea what to do with the numbers we have currently.

The main issue is the width of the rows- it gets very cramped especially as the instruments get larger, but we have space both in our band room + our regular performance venue to add more rows further back. I'm just unsure which sections to move band & shift around. Attached is our current numbers by section, our current set-up, and the set-up I proposed for our Wind Ensemble. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :3

https://preview.redd.it/f5nehxo2cn0c1.png?width=748&format=png&auto=webp&s=35d9a551b26ced4705431cbb46103040d4f9d266

Current situation for Symphonic, very cramped width-wise due to dimensions of our band room + location of grand piano infront of the right side

Proposed Wind Ensemble seating arrangement, would ideally like Symphonic to have instruments placed similarly?

Grade 9 band

So my school is doing a Winter Concert and we don’t know what to name it. Do you guys have any ideas?

At school I’m in both concert and jazz band. I love guitar a lot more than percussion so I love jazz band. Recently I’ve been having a lot of trouble learning songs for concert band on mallets. I’ve been practicing them for a couple months but I still can’t keep up with the band. When I practice for concert band it just doesn’t feel fulfilling and fun. It’s so stressful. This is where I got to the idea of just quitting concert band. I don’t find the joy of practicing for concert band that I do when I play guitar.

It’s selfish, they’ll need to figure out someone to play the parts I leave behind, but the mental stress of concert band is taking its toll on me. I love being there, but I just can’t handle the stress of having to learn all these songs. I guess I could try switching to something easier like bass but they already have so many bass players. I struggle to have fun these days because I always have the thought that I need to practice for concert band in the back of my mind. If it’s not fun, is it really worth becoming a better musician for it?

So I was one of the few kids that my bds decide to take to region auditions (in 7th and 8th grade concert band. I'm in 7th) and I'm super nervous. I'm not the best flute player, but I'm pretty good, so I'm not worried about my skill (too much.) Any tips on how to calm my nerves? Auditions are on Friday.

Hey guys, I am thinking about going out for solo and ensemble this year as a freshman. I plan to do it with my french horn friend and either another alto saxophone or tenor saxophone. I am a tenor sax player. My director said that french horn can play with saxophones only if the trio has the french horn part written in. My question is if anyone has any Horn, Tenor, Alto OR Horn, Tenor, Tenor Trios that are at a intermediate level that some freshman could play. I am struggling on finding some. We aren't planning on going to state and only want to take in a group 2 and have some fun.

Hey I need help trying to cope with what happened to me and try to get my passion back. I was a percussionist and I was pretty good at everything percussion wise, I even got a beat musician award at my magnet middle school for arts. Skip to 9th though.. and everything changes.

My band director was a complete dick. Closest comparison is a less intense version of J.K. Simmons that hates percussion. My director did NOT treat percussion good as the winds and brass or even color guard. He would always blame everything on us, tell us contradicting directions and then yelling at us, and just thinks percussion is batshit easy but he fails to even play a simple rudiment. On top of that, the percussion section genuinely was pretty bad. I was the only dependable player so he dumped everything on me. EVERYTHING. Keep in mind I have just moved from Nevada to Florida and he just didn’t care for my mental state. He gave me these incredibly difficult parts last minute, blamed it mainly on me, “didn’t practice enough”, had to put all the percussion instruments away with no help in 3 minutes, and I was stressed out to the MAX.

I’m not sure if this is common knowledge but it’s hard for percussionists to keep playing and keeping time when extremely stressed, anxious, and/or tired. All the kids were on the directors side so I left this year. And so far I genuinely never want to touch a god damn instrument in my life.

So I recorded myself playing the fist few measures of "Rhapsody in blue" which is my absolute FAVORITE piece ever (I play clarinet btw) My band director told me that it is very rare for people my age to know how to play that particular song on my instrument. I jut wanted to know if my BD is pulling my leg or am actually talented

Oh I'm 16 years old, in grade 10, been playing clarinet for 5 years

Hello,

For ensembles that use instruments that don't get parts in certain pieces, like contrabass clarinet, contrabassoon, etc., what parts do you give to them? I was doing some research and saw that if there exists a Tuba in Bb Treble Clef part (mainly occurs with Alfred World Parts) I think that would be a good alternative for contrabass clarinet (if no contrabass clarinet part available in the piece).

I know it probably makes sense for a contrabass to play the bass clarinet part, but because of the contrabass's range, I just think it makes sense for them to play something along the lines of the tuba, especially if the bass clarinet part has more complicated passages.

What about alto clarinet? Would it make sense to give them an alto sax part? Just curious about others thoughts particularly with contrabass clarinet, alto clarinet, contrabassoon, bass saxophone, or any other obscure wind/brass instrument that isn't super common in ensembles. Thank you!

Does someone know a duet that can be Played by trumpet and clarinet for Wind band? It's for me and my sister and our local wind band. I trink we two are rather proficient on our instruments, so we don't mind if the duet parts are a bit harder but the parts for the band shouldn't be too hard.

Let me know if you know something live that.

I've been trying to solidify a proper roster size for a standard sized wind band and I'm seeing very little clarification on the subject. I spent what feels like hours doing a headcount on all of the top bands I could find video of, (President's Own, UT, etc.) but have found lots of conflicting info.

I put together an approximation of a balanced ensemble based on what I could find and what ensembles I played with in high school.

This is the size I came up with, in score order:

(Roman numeral denotes more than one player per part)

Piccolo (II)
Flute 1 (II)
Flute 2 (II)
Oboe 1
Oboe 2 (Doubles on English Horn if needed)
Bassoon 1 (II)
Bassoon 2 (I've seen 3 bassoons in ensembles before. I could be wrong about firsts being doubled)
Contrabassoon

Eb Clarinet
Clarinet 1 (II)
Clarinet 2 (III)
Clarinet 3 (III)
Bass Clarinet (II)
Contrabass Clarinet (Either in Eb or Bb)

Soprano Saxophone (Plays Alto 1 if not written for)
Alto Saxophone 1 (Plays Alto 2 if principal doesn't play soprano)
Alto Saxophone 2
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone

Trumpet 1 (II)
Trumpet 2 (II)
Trumpet 3 (III)

Horn 1
Horn 2
Horn 3
Horn 4
(UT has 6, I've not even tried guessing which parts the extra 2 play but I like the concept of 6 horns)

Trombone 1
Trombone 2 (II)
Trombone 3 (Played by second trombone 2 if written for)
Bass Trombone

Euphonium (II)
Tuba (III)

I'd appreciate any adjustments or clarifications if anyone has them. Thanks.