Free Resource: "Band and Orchestra Loops"... an exercise for instrumental ensembles to collaboratively arrange simple songs during rehearsal
What happened to July?! I hope you all have been having a restful summer. If you're like me, you couldn't help but get into the classroom to start thinking about your curriculum and programming. Enjoy your last few weeks of summer before the hard, rewarding work begins again!
I've been thinking about what conversations, activities and ideas I felt were lacking in my ensemble rehearsals. Personally, I think that the creation standard of the Core Arts Standard is the hardest for me to achieve in a large-group setting. This makes me want to talk about things like composing and arranging more.
Free Resource: Band and Orchestra Loops (Arranging Activity)
This month, we are providing an activity that will allow your students to arrange some simple tunes during rehearsal. I've included PDF parts for each instrument for four songs (Row Row Row Your Boat, Hey Ho Nobody Home, London Bridge and Lightly Row). Each instrument is provided with the same four lines: Bass Line, Melody, Harmony and Descant. I've also included a percussion line. Pass out each instrumental part to your students in rehearsal.
Work with your students to arrange a tune by looping these lines in various combinations. Have your students choose which instruments will play each line (trumpets and clarinets have melody, altos and flutes have harmony, etc.), and create a "piece" by having them play a sequence of lines together. With some creativity, you can turn each of these pieces into a 1-2 minute arrangement. For example...
Time Through | Students Play |
1st | Percussion, bass line |
2nd | Percussion, bass line, melody |
3rd | Percussion, bass line, melody, harmony |
4th | Bass line, ostinato |
5th | All five parts together |
6th | Melody and harmony, add a fermata on last note |
Have your students experiment with instrumentation and form to create a piece that they feel is the most interesting.
This is a great opportunity to hit the ground running at the beginning of the year with a creative activity that will get your students working together and playing from Day 1. Enjoy the rest of your summer, see you in the fall!
Here's the band parts as a PDF. Here's an XML file so you can adapt this in any software. Unless you use Sibelius, in which case you might need this file.
For our string friends, here's the orchestra parts as a PDF. And the XML file. And the file that works better in some versions of Sibelius.
Hey, did you know all of our scores for sale come with a digital file to allow total customization to your specific ensemble? Also, back page warmups, chord parts, and more? Hope you'll check us out!
Questions? Drop us a line at hello@yourscoremusic.com
]]>Welcome to Free Resource Friday... the first Friday of every month, we'll give you something to help make your life a little easier teaching young instrumental ensembles!
Raise your hand if you have ever had students request to play Happy Birthday to celebrate their special day... we have! Recognizing birthdays and having the ability to pull out the music on demand can be a great way to have your students bond with each other and put a smile on everyone’s face!
It only seemed fitting that July 4th, would be the perfect opportunity to include this resource -- Happy Birthday arranged for your young ensemble! Like every YourScore product, you have the ability to drop this file into any notation software and easily edit it to suit your musical needs. This school year, download and print this accessible arrangement and learn immediately...then pull it out of those band folders to celebrate!
We've included the melody for all instruments, and then a full arrangement, including percussion. Enjoy, and have fun celebrating!
Download a PDF of the score and parts here.
Download the XML file here. Some versions of Sibelius might need this file to work properly.
]]>Welcome to Free Resource Friday... the first Friday of every month, we'll give you something to help make your life a little easier teaching young instrumental ensembles!
You're almost there, teachers. School is winding down, concerts are being ticked off the calendar and hopefully, you're keeping it together until the end of the 2019 school year!
Last month, we offered up some 8-Measure Pieces to help get you through those last few precious rehearsals. We trust that your students had fun reading these pieces, or perhaps learned how to conduct their peers.
This month, we'd like to offer you a new resource: Trios for All. Soon, students will be leaving your classroom... we want to make sure practice is occurring outside of the classroom in the summer months, but what will motivate these students to actually get out their instrument and practice?
My suggestion is social practice... the idea that students get together and play together. Duets and trios are perfect for this. The problem is, once the summer starts, who do your young musicians spend the most time with?
Chances are good that you'll find a trumpet player hangs out a lot with an alto sax player and a trombonist. And then you think, where am I going to find trios for trumpet, alto sax and trombone?
Right here.
I've arranged eight short trios for any three instruments. Simply drop the included file into any notation software and change the instruments to whatever you'd like. Ask your students what other band students they hang out with the most over the summer and you'll be able to give them a customized trio packet in a matter of minutes. A few things to note:
1. These start easy and get progressively harder. I tried to vary the key and time signatures, and write these so the range is attainable for all instruments in their 2nd-4th year.
2. I decided to make all of the trios homorhythmic. Fact is, without a teacher present, having multiple rhythms going at once could lead to a lot of trouble. It just seemed to me that writing some interesting trios in this style would allow students to more quickly troubleshoot rhythm issues on their own.
3. Think about integrating these as benchmarks into a summer lesson program, or perhaps as an opportunity to perform in the middle of the summer. I had a "coffee house night" at a local cafe with my 5th grade students that gave them a fun incentive to practice (with free "iced hot chocolate" on the house as a reward for a job well done).
I hope this keeps your students chops fresh, while they have fun putting some of these pieces together over the summer!
Download trios for all here. Here's a PDF example of the trio packet for three flutes.
Some versions of Sibelius need this file to work.
Need help importing our XML file? Or, if you need assistance changing instruments in your software, drop us a line at hello@yourscoremusic.com and we'll help you out!
Did you know that all YourScore purchases come with an XML file for total customization in any notation software? Edit your band and orchestra repertoire in seconds and have a piece of music that is perfect for your ensemble.
Happy summer!
]]>Free Resource: Four 8-Measure Pieces for Orchestra
Welcome to Free Resource Friday... the first Friday of every month, we'll give you something to help make your life a little easier teaching young instrumental ensembles!
Last week we posted "Four 8-Measure Pieces for Band." We had a great response from band teachers who were looking for engaging materials to use with their students in that time between their last concert and the end of the school year.
We had some orchestra teachers ask if we would adapt these pieces for their ensembles. You can download these files below! We did swap out one piece ("Ending Credits") for a new one that was better suited for strings ("Not so Big Jig"). If you decide to use these resources, we have some suggestions below:
1. This is great sight-reading practice. Talk about time signatures, key signatures, notes and rhythms. Each of these four pieces is an opportunity to start from scratch, so you can develop strategies for how to read each piece successfully.
2. Something I love doing is teaching conducting to students. These pieces include time signatures in 2/4, 4/4 and 6/8, allowing you to teach various meter patterns. I know students will love conducting (or being conducted by) their peers!
3. I encourage you to tackle the big ideas in each "movement." For example, "Tag, You're It" has a lot of dynamic changes. The articulation is important, as the low voices match the upper voices in the responses. "Swing It" could be your orchestra's first introduction to swung rhythms. There's a lot to unpack in each of these!
I hope this helps you get to the end of the year just a little bit easier. Have a great concert season and final push to June!
Download: Digital File (need help importing the file into your favorite notation software?)
Some versions of Sibelius require this file in order to open.
Hey, did you know all of our scores for sale come with a Digital file, back page warmups, chord parts, and more? Hope you'll check us out!
]]>Welcome to Free Resource Friday... the first Friday of every month, we'll give you something to help make your life a little easier teaching young instrumental ensembles!
I conducted my very first spring Elementary Band concert over a decade ago. We did a "music from around the world" theme in our gym. The band and some small chamber groups played arrangements of tunes from Spain, Russia, Japan and others. The kids had fun and the parents loved it. Months of hard work resulted in a great end-product.
That was May 14th.
I realized I now had over a month until the end of the school year. Not quite enough time to learn a full, new piece. We bought a week by having a pizza party, but that wasn't sustainable. What can you do in those last few, precious, post-concert weeks of band?
Hopefully this resource gives you a possibility! I've arranged four quick, 8-measure pieces with all different keys and time signatures. They each attack different topics and are fun to play. If you want to use them, here's some suggestions:
1. This is great sight-reading practice. Talk about time signatures, key signatures, notes and rhythms. Each of these four pieces is an opportunity to start from scratch, so you can develop strategies for how to read each piece successfully.
2. Something I love doing is teaching conducting to students. These pieces include time signatures in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4, allowing you to teach simple meter patterns. I know students will love conducting (or being conducted by) their peers!
3. I encourage you to tackle the big ideas in each "movement." For example, "Tag, You're It" has a lot of dynamic changes. The articulation is important, as the low voices match the upper voices in the responses. The final one (Swing It!) could be your band's first introduction to swung rhythms. There's a lot to unpack in each of these!
I hope this helps you get to the end of the year just a little bit easier. Have a great concert season and final push to June!
Download: Digital File (need help importing the file into your favorite notation software?)
Some versions of Sibelius require this file in order to open.
Hey, did you know all of our scores for sale come with a Digital file, back page warmups, chord parts, and more? Hope you'll check us out!
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