Drums and Bass

In the rhythm section, your main focus needs to be on the drums and bass. All instruments (including piano, guitar, vibes, etc.) are important and have unique roles, but the drums and bass are most important from a listening and style standpoint. 

The bass is, in essence, the timekeeper, as their parts typically consist of steady quarter notes, eighth notes, or a similarly repetitive pattern. That’s typically something everyone can follow from a time perspective and gives us a clear anchor point with which to listen for tempo.

We know the drum set must also play with great time, but is even more responsible for feel, style, and dynamics of the music. The rhythms being played by the drummer usually go hand in hand with the style of each tune: swing, samba, funk, contemporary, shuffle, ECM, etc. Likewise, the dynamic range of any given band will often begin and end with the drumset. 

Where to Listen

When the wind players are listening to the rhythm section, they have to key in on the relationship of these two voices. While the bass is the primary timekeeper, it’s important that the bassist also puts their quarter notes/patterns in time with the ride cymbal pattern and with “2 and 4” on the hi-hat. This not only helps overall time, but gives us the “groove” and “pocket” that is needed to produce a compelling performance. 

Once this is established, the role of the wind players is to listen across the band for this sound and consistency of time. As they get used to this approach, they will become much more sensitive to time and tempo overall. Because most jazz groups do not rely on a director to conduct for time, the listening responsibility is quite high in this type of ensemble. It’s very common for this skill to transfer to all ensembles they play in and is another strong reason why jazz ensembles provides so many positives for musicians and their development. 

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The Wind Section – Who Should Lead?

All of the first part players – alto 1, trombone 1, trumpet 1 – are a priority when it comes to defining style in the traditional jazz ensemble. However,  trumpet 1 –the lead trumpet – is the voice, the sound that most often has to guide the ensemble. Not just from a dynamic standpoint, but equally important, from a style standpoint. 

It’s the one instrument that’s going to speak above the rest in the texture. In addition, it’s often the highest melodic instrument sound in the ensemble. The projection level of the trumpet along with the drums combine to dictate style, balance, blending, phrasing, and dynamics. 

It’s important to note that the trumpet player with the highest range may or may not be the best selection for the primary lead trumpet voice. 

Ideally, in the case of the lead trumpet, the player who plays with the best style and has the best understanding of jazz interpretation should be the one leading the section. The legendary trumpeter, Bobby Shew, spent much of his career as a jazz player before being forced into the lead chair of a very prominent big band by happenstance. Because he was such an accomplished musician with great style and phrasing, this ultimately became a natural fit for his career. We now view him as one of the greatest lead players (and well-rounded jazz musicians) of all time.

If your lead player does not have much range in the beginning, you can get around this through careful song selection. Most jazz publishers list the highest written note for Trumpet 1 on their scores and this, along with some creativity, can help you fill in the gaps as needed. Ultimately, the player can/will develop range as needed, but having someone with great style in this role will make all the difference long term in the way your band plays and swings.  

Jazz Ensemble Rehearsal Tips

I have a couple of simple jazz ensemble rehearsal tips that I would recommend using with any group. One thing I will do in rehearsal is to have my just my lead players (alto sax/trombone/trumpet) play along with the rhythm section on certain phrases. If those lead voices don’t agree on style and phrasing, then the rest of the band will have a harder time playing as a cohesive ensemble. This also allows the rest of the band to hear how their parts fit in and to learn to listen more closely to the subtleties of style at the highest level of performance. 

If it needs to be even more clear, I may have just the lead trumpet play to hear how they’re interpreting phrasing.  It’s often been said that if you have a good drummer and a good lead trumpet player, you have a good band. I think in many cases, that still rings true with all levels of jazz ensembles. If both of these musicians agree on the aforementioned principles, then you are on your way!

Something else we will do often is to sing rhythms with specific syllables, like “doo-daht” and “doo-bah-doo-bah” making sure that the approach to style is correct before we turn these into sound and articulation on the instruments. Having a strong sense of articulation and swing eighth note subdivision is a tried and true way to develop style quickly with all levels of students. If your group can play swing style well, then most other straight eighth tunes should come together more quickly. 

Other tricks, such as “bopping” and “clapping”, have been discussed in previous blogs and are among other techniques that work across a variety of instrumental ensembles.

Balance/Hierarchy of Melody and Harmony

Also important in this discussion is the overall musical and ensemble balance. It may seem obvious, but if you can’t hear the lead trumpet, then chances are the balance between melody and harmony is lost. Jazz employs many unique colors due to the extended harmonic nature of the writing, but we still have to focus on the basic concept of a hierarchy of priorities. Is the melody clear? Is the harmony supporting well, but not overplaying? Can everyone hear the drums and bass? Are we blending within each section and across the ensemble? Are all of the “color notes” coming through the texture easily? Can we hear the soloists during background figures?

From a basic ensemble balance approach, all of the inner voices must support, but not overplay, the lead voices. If the lower voices are playing a lot louder or softer than the lead voices, the ensemble is going to be unbalanced and we run into more issues with intonation, volume, etc. If the rhythm section is much louder than the winds, that creates its own inherent challenges. 

Lastly, The delicate balance between acoustic and electronic instruments is another byproduct of modern technology. This must be treated as a factor in the overall blend and balance of a jazz ensemble. If you can’t hear the acoustic instruments or solos, the balance needs to be rethought and adjusted. The benefits both the performers and the audience. 

The next time you are thinking about asking the bass player to turn up the volume because you can’t hear them, instead have them turn up their volume of articulation and “dig in” more into their sound. Electronic volume is there to boost the inherent sound of the instrument, not make them sound better overall. Bass, guitar, and keyboard amps should be used on the lowest levels possible to still project the sound but not overpower the acoustic instruments.

In Closing 

In any musical situation, listening should influence everything we do and understanding our relationships to time, style, phrasing, and balance will go a long way in the growth and development of a musician. Jazz ensembles provide many opportunities and different environments with which to improve and develop these skills and will help improve all aspects of individual musicianship and foster quicker musical growth in your programs. 

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Blow Your Troubles Away

One of the most important things to focus on in brass playing is air production. Sounds simple, right? Wind instruments obviously need WIND to produce sound. However, most of the common issues associated with poor tone, weak technique and lack of range and endurance can simply be attributed to our inability to use air correctly. I have found that in my professional career, returning often to this foundation of air-flow and breath support is key for continued success.

Arnold Jacobs, the legendary brass pedagogue, advocated the concept of “Wind and Song,” meaning that by focusing on beauty of tone and air, all other aspects of performance will begin to follow. To play a wind instrument successfully, you must focus more initially on the wind aspect and less on the muscular aspect.

As building muscular strength is highly important for brass players, even more so is the approach to air and playing with a beautiful, resonant and relaxed sound. Let’s talk about some pedagogical tools, listed below, that we can use to improve our beauty of tone and our ability to perform efficiently as a brass player.

Simple Breathing Exercises

To promote this “beauty of air concept,” breathing exercises have become more and more common in band programs across the world. Having a simple routine that focuses on various aspects of the breathing process can aid in the development and improvement of tone at all levels. And, while we don’t have to do breathing exercises to play with a great sound, they can help us better understand how the body functions and how this relates to generating sound on a brass instrument.

I like to use exercises from the Breathing Gym (Pat Sheridan and Sam Pilafian) that focus on what we call “flows and therapies.” Flow exercises focus on our ability to move air evenly and consistently, aiming for open oral shapes and tonal resonance and relaxation. Therapies are designed to make us work harder, essentially overtraining our bodies to do something that is very simple in the long run.

I like to incorporate at least 1-2 of each of these daily with my students (and in my own playing). This can help us to further understand how the body and air work together to create a great brass tone.

Humming, Singing and Resonance Exercises

Understanding how our bodies vibrate and resonate when playing a brass instrument can also help us develop a fuller, more relaxed and rich sound. I like to start with some basic humming, thinking about a tall “AH” syllable. I combine this with matching pitch to a drone, which is also a great way to get the ears dialed in and teach you how to really HEAR what in-tune sounds like. Audiation is the concept of prehearing a note before you play, and should be stressed when beginning to hum and sing.

I typically begin with a simple concert F in the staff, which should be achievable by all levels of brass players. Once our hum is resonant and we understand the sound concept with vibration, I have them open up and sing a very full, yet still relaxed sounding, “AH.”

We then work on getting this sound to resonate and ring the room, listening for overtones and sonority. The goal is allowing the vocal sound to come out without force while maintaining fullness, a key component of great brass playing. Once we have begun to achieve good pitch and good resonance with the singing, we then will carry this concept over to the mouthpiece.

To Buzz or Not to Buzz, That Is The Question!

There has been healthy debate over the years on the value of mouthpiece buzzing. I subscribe to the philosophy that when buzzing is both approached and taught correctly, the positives outweigh the perceived negatives. We can learn much about balance and resistance through mouthpiece work. The key is to produce a very relaxed, free and somewhat “reedy” sounding buzz. If the buzz is tight and too focused, it can have negative effects on tone production and cause a pinched and thin tone. If under-supported, it will not create the same resonance or help us play in tune and project.

The ear training component is a byproduct, but one that can really pay off in tonal development. The more we are able to audiate the pitches before we buzz, the faster we will be able to hear in-tune and play in the center of the horn.  All of the aforementioned concepts fit neatly into the brass ideology that if you can “sing it and buzz it, then you can play it.”

Play in Tune = Play in Tone

I believe in a simple truth as a brass player: if my students are playing with their best sound, it’s very likely they are also playing in the center of their instruments. Likewise, if they are playing in tune, they are likely playing with their best sound.  Focusing on exercises that help us to play more “in tone” are a great way to improve individual sounds and develop a higher level of ensemble skills across your brass section.

To put this concept to use, have two of your students match tone. Ask one of them to play with the same sound and same sense of dynamic/intensity/energy as the other control model. After a few attempts, the students will invariably get closer to blending and, as often happens, playing more in tune together.

Many educators, myself included at times, fall into the bad habit of just sticking a tuner into a student’s bell and expecting them to play in tune across the horn. Such an approach takes student ownership out of the mix and encourages them to rely on the teacher telling them if it’s right or wrong. In contrast, matching exercises put the focus back on the students, allowing them to grow faster and really hear what in tune and in tone sounds like.

I’m always amazed at how quickly students will grow when we allow them the opportunity to improve themselves. Over time, those tuning slides that were all over the place begin to align much more closely as a true sense of playing in tune is developed in each player.

Modeling with Professional Recordings

While all of the above concepts are important tools in sound production, modeling is perhaps the most basic and crucial element to achieving a great sound. Simply put: PLAYING with a great sound requires HEARING a great sound. While we can certainly debate the merits of style and the appropriate sound for each musical setting, there is no denying that all great sounds have similar elements in common. Things like resonance, sonority, playing in the center, fullness, core and ringing overtones are all elements of a great individual sound. So how do we achieve this?

Creating sound models for students at all levels is important, and what may begin as simply matching older players in your band should develop into listening to professional musicians and recordings of the highest quality. As educators, it’s our responsibility to help provide students with these models. In essence, if your young brass players are listening to the likes of the Chicago Symphony Brass Section, Count Basie Orchestra and Tower of Power Horns, then they are much more likely to develop a stronger aural image of a great sound than those without these models.

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Through repetition, students become part of an acclimation process.  In time they’ll sound more and more like their models, as their brains and bodies figure out how to do some of this acclimation on its own. Modeling examples and recordings should be used from day one and can be very powerful tools in helping to develop a correct and appropriate tone.

In conclusion, developing young brass players comes down to a few simple, yet important, daily concepts. Find ways to promote improvement through breathing, listening, matching and modeling habits. Many of these concepts can be taught in interactive ways that allow students to improve and also have a good time in the process.  The faster the improvement, the more likely that your students will stay invested in your program. As a famous band director once said,” it’s fun to play music, but it’s a lot more fun when you’re good!”

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Let’s take a look at some of the challenges and discuss concepts and strategies to help us work through them.

What Are Your Inherent Ensemble Challenges?

Every program has unique needs and requirements when it comes to ensemble playing. Many marching bands have a front percussion ensemble, battery percussion, and an overall wind section. While the ideal band has a healthy balance of instruments within a wind section, this is not always the case. If you have an overabundance of woodwinds and less brass, this is one concern. If you have a large wind section, but a small battery and no front ensemble, this is yet another concern.

Once you have established your specific ensemble challenges, you can apply the below concepts appropriately.

Tuning with Percussion and Winds

In a previous blog post, I suggested that tuning becomes much more challenging when we leave the friendly confines of the concert hall and enter the outdoor environment. Maintaining basic indoor tuning skills are appropriate for the marching arena, but we must also give consideration to matching wind tuning with mallet and keyboard instruments. As all instruments have a wide variety of tuning tendencies in hot and cold weather, we must learn these quickly and how they affect the overall ensemble. Being able to relate these tendencies clearly to students is crucial for our ensembles to achieve great tuning and balance in the marching activity.

Battery percussion tuning is in its own right a very individual thing, and while there are many different sounds and preferences, the importance is that there is a clear approach and consistency to tuning them as an ensemble. At the very least, having someone come and tune them several times during the season will ensure better matching and blend amongst the battery.

As the overall art of outdoor tuning is not an exact science, try to use the following creed when approaching this topic with your wind players:

Above all else, winds should focus on matching and playing in tune together.

This will ensure that priority number one is always to play together within your tuning and your ensemble. If the weather is extreme, this will be the only way to achieve some semblance of sound uniformity and balance within the ensemble.

Understanding Timing Between Winds and Percussion

For those who utilize a battery percussion line, field placement will greatly dictate a group’s ability to play in time as a total ensemble. Due to this, the wind players must know how to manage tempo with both a static and fluid percussion ensemble on the field. The following is a simple formula or checklist that may aid you in achieving a better overall listening environment for your ensemble.

1. Drum major watches battery percussion feet (center snare)
2. Winds watch and/or listen back to the battery when in given proximity
3. Front percussion ensemble ALWAYS listens back to battery and/or winds, except when playing alone

At times, the wind section will not be able to listen and will have to rely heavily on their own sense of pulse and understanding of time. For wind players near the front of the field, they should listen back to wind players behind them. We typically want to think of time coming from the back of the field and is especially important for bands with a front ensemble.

Balance Winds and Percussion/Staging

From an acoustic standpoint, balancing the musical ensemble should always begin and end with attention towards the primary, secondary and tertiary musical lines. ALWAYS aim to give precedence to the primary musical materiaI. From a visual standpoint, you can really help your program out by making sure that important musical lines are staged in a way that helps achieve great clarity and transparency on the field.

Likewise, poor staging can play havoc with timing and the overall ensemble cohesiveness, requiring you to spend unnecessary time on sections that should come together much more easily with clearer communication between band director and drill writer. We should always focus on presenting primary melodic material in the easiest listening environment possible. In essence, much of your success as an ensemble can be directly affected by the quality and staging of the overall visual program.

Balancing Winds and Percussion/Acoustic vs. Electronic

Electronics are becoming a major component in today’s marching world. While they can add a wonderful element to your overall program, they may also present major problems if not balanced and approached correctly.

Balancing electronics to the acoustic performers should be a focal point of ensemble rehearsals. Waiting to add electronics at the last minute can be a recipe for disaster. Treat this as an additional section of the ensemble and work to integrate into your program as soon as possible. If all else fails, err on the side of caution when it comes to volume and dynamics, as it is much easier to “turn it up” electronically than to ask the acoustic performers to overplay. The reward can be great with this added element, but special care is needed if you plan to integrate within the percussion and wind ensemble.

Balancing Winds and Percussion/ Writing and Composition of Musical Program

Something else that can greatly improve the overall balance and clarity of your musical program is the approach of how the wind and percussion books are written. A wind book written with a lot of tutti parts and very few independent lines promotes one kind of sound, while a book written with more layers, textures, and colors may present a very different demand and approach. Likewise, a percussion book that is aligned closer rhythmically with the wind book can make things much easier, whereas a battery book written as an independent WGI type show that has little to do with the wind book can create quite a different challenge.

Making sure your arrangers are on the same page and have a consistent vision for the overall musical score is hugely important, and from an ensemble standpoint, can make or break your ability to present a high-quality music ensemble and program.

Achieving a successful and cohesive ensemble can be a challenging venture on the marching field. With so many variables inherently in place, we must work efficiently and clearly to make sure each aspect is thought out, worked on appropriately and given proper focus. By following the suggestions above, you will see great improvement in your band’s ensemble performance and create a much higher level of clarity and transparency in the process.

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One of the most challenging aspects of being a director is programming a concert. Balancing the interests of the musicians as well as the audience can be a large task.  A variety of concepts may come into play when putting together a concert. I believe the overarching goals are to provide your students with a quality program, and to entertain your audience who will likely have very diverse musical interests. Let’s discuss some basic ideas and approaches when it comes to selecting your program.

Use Your Strengths

A great way to select initial music is to look at the individual strengths within your group. Do you have a great saxophone section? Or do you have a great soloist?  A great drummer? How about a really strong lead trumpet player? Identifying your strengths can help you select a few pieces that will highlight the talent in your ensemble. Programming to your strengths is a great way to approach selecting music for any concert.

Does It Mean A Thing?

I always try to include something that focuses on the roots of big band training, swing music. Anything from the library of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sammy Nestico, etc. will not only give you music that is playable by a wide range of levels, but more importantly, music that requires great STYLE to play well.  Getting your band to swing should be one of the most important goals of jazz training and selecting music that focuses on this is always a great place to start.

Variety/Educational

Another important goal is to provide a variety of musical styles and a wide range of opportunities to grow musically. Creating a program with enough variety for your audience and members alike can be quite challenging. Selecting music with a variety of different styles, genres, meters, keys and tempos, is paramount to a successful performance.

Much like each musician has unique tastes, so does each audience member. While one person may love swing, another may love contemporary music. Their neighbor might prefer Latin-influenced music. The key is to create enough variety in your program so performers and audience alike can grow and enjoy a mixture of styles and influences.

From an educational standpoint, variety also allows your group to develop more musically and stylistically.  Having the ability to read and understand rhythms in a variety of styles is one of the chief benefits from playing in a jazz ensemble.

I’ve found in my career that many of the best sight readers I’ve encountered were in jazz programs during high school and were exposed to not only swing rhythms, but funk, rock, Latin, etc. These rhythms often look quite different from what we typically see in a concert band, so being able to pick these up quickly will raise your overall level of musicianship.

Length and Flow

One of the common mistakes with programming, is a lack of understanding how pace musical selections. Pacing has a direct effect on the overall flow of a concert. Jazz concerts can run into trouble quickly as many standard swing tunes fall into a similar tempo. As you begin planning your event, look closely at tempos and styles to create as much variety as possible. For example, opening with a ballad would not create the same level of excitement as a more uptempo piece would. Likewise, avoiding too many tunes at the same tempo will keep the flow of your concert balanced.

Understanding the length of your program and how your audience will stay engaged is equally important. Be sensitive to their attention span. Luckily, most jazz arrangements are short (4-5 minutes) in comparison to many of the large-scale wind ensemble and orchestral pieces, so this works on our favor. If you are planning a longer concert, I’d suggest the second half being shorter, perhaps 45 and 30, with an intermission in between. Overall, length and flow should a top priority in programming your concert.

Sample Program

Below I have created a sample program for a jazz ensemble concert. I have taken into account many of the aforementioned concepts.

• Groovin Hard – Don Menza , Arr, Dave Barduhn (straight ahead/ up tempo opener)
• The Chicken – Arr. Kris Berg (funk tune)
• Samantha – Nestico (ballad, alto saxophone feature for great soloist)
• Stolen Moments – Oliver Nelson, Arr. Paul Jennings (medium tempo swing, lot of style)
• Afro Blue – Mongo Santamaria/Arr. Mossman (great Afro-Cuban Latin style, in ¾)
• Take The ‘A’ Train – Ellington (authentic swing, having your soloists learn some of the original solos and integrate into their ideas)

This program covers a variety of styles, while providing room for solos, section features, style differences, and a mixture of harmonic and rhythmic challenges.

Keeping your players as well as your audience in mind when programming a concert is top priority.  Over the years I have discovered that my successful concerts had great variety, and that the audience and musicians walked away feeling like they truly learned something.  If the audience’s toes are tapping and their hands are clapping, you’ll know you’ve been successful.

Keep On Swingin’!

Dr. Chip Crotts serves as director of jazz studies and assistant director of bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A GRAMMY nominated artist and a Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician, Crotts has worked with artists such as Ray Charles, The Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Frankie Valli, The Temptations and Maynard Ferguson.

Presently the brass caption manager for the Santa Clara Vanguard, Chip also remains an active adjudicator for several organizations including Bands of America, Drum Corps International and Winter Guard International.

Dr. Crotts received degrees from East Carolina University, Penn State University and a D.M.A. in trumpet performance with a jazz emphasis from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Having a strong show concept can take you far in marching competition, but the ability to make great mid-season adjustments is something that sets the top programs apart. I’d like to share some concepts and strategies designed to help improve show design, while also providing some thoughts on large scale musical approaches throughout the season. My commentary comes from experience as an adjudicator, designer and as one who works with groups to help maximize their overall potential, growth and development over the course of a competitive season.

The Competitive Season

In the marching season, there are basically three phases of competition – early, middle and end. In the early season you are putting the skeleton program on the field and getting students acclimated to the musical and visual demands presented in the written show.

By mid-season, you should have created enough opportunities for feedback and have had more time to flesh out your concepts, coming up with further ways to tie the theme together in a clear and creative manner.

As the end of the season approaches you should be polishing and tweaking the show, making last minute adjustments and setting your performers up to peak at just the right time for championship events.

While all stages of development and growth during the season are important, it is in the middle where adjustments to your program will often affect the most overall positive change. This is the time to step back, re-evaluate your concept and look for new ways to add to it. Ideally, you will have also had opportunities for outside feedback, whether through clinicians or adjudication. This information is important and can go far into helping you continue to develop our show to the next level.

Let’s take a look at the four types of things what you will want to consider at mid-season:

1. Clarifying and Unifying the Program

After picking the original show ideas and living with them for the first month or so, it’s time to leverage feedback to develop show concepts to a new level. Focal points should include reviewing the storyboard (if you have one), developing the theme/concept further, and making the overall concept more clear and readable.

Here are some things to consider in this process:

1. Does the theme or concept make sense? Is it easy to follow?
2. Are you looking at new ideas and ways to develop the concept?
3. Could changes be made musically to enhance the concept?
4. Are there changes visually that can be made to enhance the theme?
5. Do the members of your program understand the show concept? Do they have a clear idea of how to “sell it” and perform it at the highest level?

As you begin making changes, additions and subtractions may both be valuable and necessary. A great way to unify and highlight a concept is by creating a higher level of integration of all the elements. This could mean highlighting a trumpet soloist with a single dancer, or integrating the entire flag line within a woodwind feature moment, etc.

Looking at new ways to tie in visual, guard and music together can greatly heighten the clarity of your concept. While new ideas can certainly help develop your show, sometimes streamlining and subtracting vague material can be even more beneficial.

For example, if your visual program is too difficult, consider making some adjustments to simplify it. Streamlining can enhance visual clarity and produce better staging and performance of certain of musical phrases.

Sometimes you’ll decide that the musical program is too long or too vague, and needs to be lined up better with major visual effect moments. Finding ways to shorten and tie up thematic clarity can be just as important as cutting parts to merely stay within a judged time limit. At this time your focal points should be to unify and make your concept more clear and readable.

2. Maximizing Effectiveness

By this point, the feedback you’ve received should also provide you with clear ways to help maximize your show from an effect standpoint. If the production is more on the intellectual side, are you still creating enough opportunities for emotional connection? If the show is aesthetically and naturally pleasing, are there still enough moments of sophistication and intellect to appeal to a wider audience?

Sometimes it’s simply a matter of finding a way to further enhance a great musical moment with a better visual idea, or vice-versa.

Remember, we can tell a story just as well visually as we can musically. Be creative and make sure the “t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted.” Balance of effects is very important and will go a long way in helping to sell your program.

3. Musical and Visual Performance

By mid-season, your basic fundamental routine should be paying dividends in your students’ performance level. Clarity of skills (quality of sound, body control, dynamics, etc.) should be much higher than early season and your focus should be to get your members to do “everything, the same way, and all of the time.”

To help attain this goal, take a second look at streamlining and being more creative with your fundamentals. Playing exercises based on show music rhythms, doing visual exercises with show step sizes, and performing simple playing and moving exercises will be highly beneficial.

Think outside the box. While performance is always an entire season endeavor, finding ways to constantly scrutinize your routine is crucial to the middle and end of the season performances. Referencing my previous Blog “Transferring Skills from Concert to Marching Season,” be creative with these concepts and make them clearly transfer to show type scenarios. Focus on the inherent production challenges that will transfer quickly into next level performance by the students.

4. Rehearsal Structure and Planning For Success

In addition to considering fundamental routine changes, be open to refining your approach to rehearsal planning and structure. Typically, I suggest categorizing rehearsals into macro and micro concepts. Each type is important and finding a good balance between the two can be game changing for your ensemble.

Macro efforts typically focus on large chunk work, singular movement reps, and overall full production run-throughs. The micro details will be focused more on individual phrases, small chunks or specific section and troubleshooting areas.

Early season works well in a general macro setting, as most rehearsals are focused on getting the show on the field, big chunks, and seeing what does and doesn’t work from the outset. Mid-season, however, should find you balancing macro and micro efforts, spending time each week on specific chunks, but also on full production runs.

This is crucial, as students need time to work on details, but also develop the endurance and stamina necessary to make it through an 8-11 minute show and perform at a very high level. In my experience, many groups are very good at micro work, but ultimately have trouble putting it all together in a real performance. This is where attention to the macro effort will make a significant difference.

You can address this by using early and mid-week rehearsals for focusing on small chunks and specific spots. Reserve the end of week (and day of the show) rehearsals for macro level work and full movement runs. Here the focus should be on communication and big picture performance level.

In all, having competitive success usually focuses on two key areas. These are ability and performance level of our performers and the director and/or designer’s ability to make necessary and creative adjustments to the show. While an initial concept can carry you well into the season, the groups that are able to make adjustments, create better design clarity, and prepare their performers to peak at the right time are usually the most successful.

Be open to ANY and ALL suggestions from clinicians, designers, adjudicators and others that have your program’s best interest at heart. A great design is usually a collaborative effort and by creatively finding ways to grow over each season of competition, you will see improved success year to year.

See you on the field!

Dr. Chip Crotts serves as director of jazz studies and assistant director of bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A GRAMMY nominated artist and a Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician, Crotts has worked with artists such as Ray Charles, The Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Frankie Valli, The Temptations and Maynard Ferguson.

Presently the brass caption manager for the Santa Clara Vanguard, Chip also remains an active adjudicator for several organizations including Bands of America, Drum Corps International and Winter Guard International.

Dr. Crotts received degrees from East Carolina University, Penn State University and a D.M.A. in trumpet performance with a jazz emphasis from the University of Texas at Austin.

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When a great screen actor takes on a stage role, they significantly adapt their technique for the larger venue. I think that’s a reasonable analogy for the challenges we as educators face when taking the music ensemble to an outdoor setting. Today I’d like to provide you with some techniques, concepts, and tips that may be helpful for your program as you begin the marching season.

The following are basic considerations we need to initially consider when moving the music ensemble from inside to the outdoor stage.

1. Your fundamental routine should begin to incorporate elements related to marching and movement training.
2. The listening environment is much larger, always changing, and highly organic.
3. Balancing musical elements becomes a bigger challenge, on a much larger scale, when outdoors.
4. The range of dynamics and expression often need to be at a much wider level and intensity to reach and connect with an audience.
5. Be aware of spatial demand challenges due to location of front ensemble, battery percussion and winds.

Maintenance and Overtraining

Let’s begin by discussing the fundamental routine. As we know, the basic training of skills is crucial to musical development and fundamental work is likely already a mainstay in your concert program. In addition to this, I prescribe to what I call the “Maintain and Overtrain” approach. This approach allows us to find a healthy balance between daily maintenance and overtraining exercises.

Overtrainers push us beyond what is typically expected and force us to work harder at basic skill set objectives. Be creative and think outside the box in your approach.

The fundamental program should be designed to make performance easier, not harder. For overtraining exercises I highly advocate the use of advanced breathing concepts, such as those found in the book, The Breathing Gym, by Sam Pilafian and Pat Sheridan (Focus on Music Publishing). There are also some wonderful exercises with balloon and resistance training that focus on airspeed matching and dynamic definition, which I plan to expound upon in a future blog post.

Get Moving!

Incorporating movement training can perhaps be the biggest game changer in terms of your musical success on the field. Although many programs have separate musical and visual warm ups, very few combine these effectively as a regular part of the daily training regimen. We must learn to play simple exercises on the move before we can expect to achieve a high level of performance and musical demand on the field. I think of this as the “bridge.” To further enhance this concept, use show excerpts and rhythms in your daily fundamental routine. Be creative and explore!

Intonation and Outdoor Performance

Tuning becomes much more challenging when we are outside due to climate changes. Maintaining basic indoor tuning skills are appropriate for the outdoor arena, but we must also give consideration to matching wind tuning with mallet and keyboard instruments. As all instruments have different tendencies in hot and cold weather, we must learn these and relate them clearly to students and our ensembles to achieve great tuning in the marching activity.

Battery percussion tuning is very individual and while there are many different sound preferences, the importance is that there is a clear approach and consistency to tuning them as an ensemble. At the very least, having someone come and tune them several times during the season will ensure better matching and blend amongst the battery.

As the overall art of outdoor tuning is not always an exact science, try to use the following creed when approaching this topic with your wind players:

Above all else, winds should focus on matching and playing in tune together.

This will ensure that priority number one is always to play together within your tuning and your ensemble.

To Watch or Not to Watch, That Is the Question!

The marching activity places many timing and listening challenges on the performer that are not a part of the concert ensemble experience. Indoors, performers remain in a static position within the ensemble and essentially have one set of listening responsibilities for the entire process. During any given marching show, performers literally have hundreds of different spots where they are required to watch, listen and at times, both. We must also consider timing as it relates to “front to back” placement as well as “side to side” spatial relationship. Listen through the ensemble for time and balance and have a plan in place for each scenario and challenge.

You Want Me to Put the Beat Where?

Based on various field placements, performers will often have to adjust “where” they put their time in relationship to the drum majors hands and ictus. Adjustments both ahead and behind the beat may be needed based on field placement. Ideally, having the students playing as close to time on the hands is preferable, but the basic understanding of the various concepts should be clear to all members.

Understanding Timing Between Winds and Percussion

For those who utilize a battery percussion line, field placement will greatly dictate a group’s ability to play in time as a total ensemble. Due to this, the wind players must know how to manage tempo with both a static and fluid percussion ensemble on the field. The following is a simple formula or checklist that may aid you in achieving a better overall listening environment for your ensemble.

1. Drum major watches battery percussion feet (center snare)
2. Winds watch and/or listen back to the battery when in given proximity
3. Front percussion ensemble ALWAYS listens back to battery and/or winds, except when playing alone

Balance and Staging/Acoustic and Electronic

From an acoustic standpoint, balancing the musical ensemble should always begin and end with attention towards the primary, secondary and tertiary musical lines. ALWAYS aim to give precedence to the primary musical material. Visually, trying to achieve great staging can help greatly in achieving this sense of clarity and transparency in your program.  As we should work to present primary melodic material in the easiest listening environment possible, much of your success can be determined by the quality and staging of the overall visual design.

Electronics are becoming a major component in today’s marching arena and while they may add a wonderful element to your overall program, they can also present major problems if not balanced correctly. Balancing electronics to the acoustic performers should be a focal point of ensemble rehearsals. If all else fails, err on the side of caution as it is much easier to “turn it up” than to not overpower the acoustic performers.

Teaching like a Judge

As an educator who spends a great deal of time judging throughout the year, I have worked to align my own teaching with how I approach judging. A specific concept I use is objectivity in rehearsals. Look and listen to every phrase as experiencing it for the first time and ask objective questions during each repetition. Don’t assume that because you know the music program and the drill that everyone else will recognize all the elements upon an initial viewing. Treat every rehearsal as if you are judging this group and work to separate what you “know” from what you “really hear.” This will enable you to step back, be honest, and develop a more critical ear within your program.

I highly encourage all band directors to judge at least once per fall, especially if your primary area of expertise is the concert program. This will allow you to work side by side with other experts and grow and learn from each of them. This may be one of the most effective ways to help develop your own program.

“Top Ten” Adjudicators Comment List

Below is a list of top adjudicator comments complied from many of the premier judges in DCI, BOA and WGI. They present a cross section of concepts and can be used as a “checklist” to help guide you in design and rehearsal setting. They are presented in no specific order.

1. Improve coordination of audio and visual
2. Percussion writing should enhance, not compete with winds
3. Balance of amplification to winds and percussion
4. Transparency and clarity of musical voices
5. Create a wider range of dynamic expression throughout the performance
6. Give direction and completion to all musical phrases
7. It’s ALWAYS about fundamentals
8. Logical staging of musical elements – clarity of melody vs harmony
9. Perform with the same level of consistency and musicianship throughout the entire show
10. Vertical orchestration too thick – overuse of tutti writing (winds/percussion or alone), overuse of voice doubling, etc.

While there are specific differences in how we prepare an ensemble to be successful outside, our primary focus remains on music making and creating a great product for our organization, our supporters and the marching activity as a whole. By creating a healthier balance of fundamental skills, you will see improved success in not only your outdoor ensembles, but in your total program as well.

Good luck and see you all on the field!

Dr. Chip Crotts serves as director of jazz studies and assistant director of bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A GRAMMY nominated artist and a Yamaha Performing Artist and Clinician, Crotts has worked with artists such as Ray Charles, The Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Frankie Valli, The Temptations and Maynard Ferguson.

Presently the brass caption manager for the Santa Clara Vanguard, Chip also remains an active adjudicator for several organizations including Bands of America, Drum Corps International and Winter Guard International.

Dr. Crotts received degrees from East Carolina University, Penn State University and a D.M.A. in trumpet performance with a jazz emphasis from the University of Texas at Austin.

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