Free Resource: Your concert is in May but you have band until June... now what?
Free Resource: Four 8-Measure Pieces for Band
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!