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Jeff Girard and Midwest Sheet Music present
The Wind Band Report
High School / Middle School Edition:
New Resources
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Vol. 4, No. 4 Jan. 2016
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This is the High School/Middle school edition of the Wind Band Report. If you want to see a copy of the Collegiate level edition which I sent out the other day, click here.
Welcome back - or if this is your first time, welcome. I wanted to get this newsletter out before it got too late in the year mainly because of one book that just came out, which is the first thing I mention below. I wanted to share a few more resources you could use before the year ends as well, or at least give you thoughts for your next cycle in the fall. If this is your first time reading the Wind Band Report, you can look at past issues in the archives, maybe you'll find something there you didn't know about.
Here's the topics I'll be talking about today, in case you want to just skip to one of these:
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Web site update
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First, don't forget that any order billed to a secondary school through our website gets 10% off. Details here.
Our website is developing well and we're starting to get some regular orders placed through it. Being able to type in information on a piece you can't find turned out to be a really good addition to the site. However, while the wind band data is really thorough, you very well have noticed several gaps if you were looking for solo and ensemble music. Well now that our trial run is through, we're going to add most of the other small to mid-level publishers this spring. By next contest season we should have nearly all the standard contest lit available to search for and select on our site.
Also, secure credit card transmission will be handled in about a month as well, so if you are placing a personal order or you school uses a credit card, you can safely transmit that info at the same time you place your order. We will not charge the card until we send out the music though, and if any significant price discrepancies pop up we'll let you know first.
I have a list of other cosmetic changes we'll tackle, so hopefully by this fall the web ordering process will be smooth and clean. |
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Rehearsing the High School Band
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The original book Rehearsing the Band compiled by John Williamson has been a staple of directors for a long time. Featuring brief, sage advice from some of the best band conductors around the country, the book is full of ideas you can think about and incorporate to make you a rehearsals better. Two months ago the sequel, Rehearsing the Band Vol. II, brought a fresh new set of short articles in the same style. (See links for more details)
A few weeks ago though the third book dropped - Rehearsing the High School Band. The high school band has its own unique issues that differ from university and community or professional concert bands. In this book 12 teachers who have each taught at prominent high school programs for decades, including Richard Saucedo, Greg Bimm, David Vanderwalker, David Gorham, and others, share their insights on how they work on improving their band and the students' musical education. There's a wide variety of insights and opinions, and it's all geared specifically toward High School directors. With all the multiple viewpoints being offered, there are bound to be insights that you haven't thought of before that will inspire you to implement in your own rehearsal.
I've got copies of all three books on hand, but I think the Rehearsing the High School Band book was a great idea and I'm glad it came about.
Book: $19.95
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My "best of band" list for 2015-16
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| I listened to a lot of pieces this last year. I tried to take note when a piece stood out for me musically for some reason. It would take far too long for me to talk about them all, so instead I'll make this simple. You can download a copy of my file and look for yourself. I included a sound link for each piece, so you can listen to them as well. Maybe there's a piece from a publisher on there that you overlooked this year. I hope you'll find a few gems to use either now or later from this. |
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Michael Colgrass for Young Band
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About 10-15 years ago Michael Colgrass wrote a series of 4 pieces for young band published by Carl Fischer, The Beethoven Machine, Apache Lullaby, Mysterious Village, and Gotta Make Noise. Now there are two more new works in the series, Phantom Moon and Ghost River. Both are around a grade 2.5.
 Ghost River was originally mentioned in Volume 9 of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, but only now came off the press. It's an atmosphere piece that uses a lot of aleatoric writing to create the image of a mist-shrouded river flowing slowly through a mysterious, timeless forest. Much of the work is transparent in nature with only 1 tutti section at the climax. This recording was done by the University of Central Oklahoma on a recent CD, but you may need to turn up the volume at the beginning and end, it's very quiet.
 Phantom Moon is a very dark and moody work. It uses traditional notation, but the harmonization is a more dissonant at times. It's a very slow 6/8 work, and many times the main line is all off the beat, so your students will have to focus on internally counting the subdivisions. I haven't been able to find any program notes on this yet, and the only recording thus far is of the world premiere at a Middle School Band Festival, and the quality is not as great as I'd like. I'm sure a professional recording will come later, but you can get an idea for the work here.
Ghost River: $75 Phantom Moon: $65 Scores, each: $19.99 |
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New for Spring "Pops" concerts.
All the Grades 2-4 new Star Wars: The Force Awakens music is available now, I won't go into details here but call me if you want to hear sound clips or to order.
With the recent passing of David Bowie, I was able to find a few band setting of some of his iconic works. They are European publications, so my stock is limited and the price is a bit higher than most US publications, but it's available if it works for you. If I run out it can take 2-4 weeks to get more, so check soon if you want to do one of these.
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Life On Mars
David Bowie / Frank Bernaerts
Considered by some to be Bowie's best song and covered by numerous artists over the years. Grade 3
Set: $85
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Nature Boy
David Bowie / Henk Ummels
David Bowie brought this classic tone to prominence for the soundtrack of Moulin Rouge. Grade 3.5
Set: $120 |
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Hello
Adele / Michael Brown
From the new monster album "25" from Adele. Grade 3
Set: $55
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Leroy Anderson: A Legacy in Sound
Arr. Robert W. Smith
Includes Syncopated Clock, Blue Tango, and Bugler's Holiday. Grade 3
Set: $75 |
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Uma Thurman
arr. Michael Brown
A quirky tune recorded by Fall Out Boy about Uma's movie roles with the lick from the 60's show "The Munsters". Grade 2.5
Set: $45
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Transylvania Lullaby
arr. Douglas Wagner
From the opening of the iconic movie "Young Frankenstein", featuring your trumpet soloist at the beginning. Grade 2
Set: $62
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Resources from NAMM
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These three NAMM publications, Tips for Success: Guide for Instrumental Music Teachers, A Practical Guide for Recruitment and Retention, and Bridging the Gap Between Middle School and High School, used to only be available as a pdf download from NAMM. Now their documents are available in a bound format for easy reference. Click on the image to see more details of each. Book, each: $14.99
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As always, thanks so much for your interest and orders. I've got plenty of other resources I can share, so contact me at any time. Well, I'll actually be out of the store all this week and as I attend a CBDNA conference in Reno (it's work, really it is), but I'll be able to monitor my email occasionally and the rest of the staff will be here in the store to help out on any calls. Hope you have a good close to your school year and I'll drop another line when I have something to say again.
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 Thank you much!
Jeff Girard Instrumental Specialist Instrumental Music (my direct line): 314/942-1522 General phone line: 314/291-4686 Fax: 314/621-4166 |
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1234 Main Street, Awesomeville, MA � 555.555.5555
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