I have developed a new line of arrangements for young concert band that give the kids at each level a chance to ROCK OUT! I teach at a 5-8 Middle School, so there isn't much music that is available that is cool-sounding AND is accessible, given what the kids can play on their instruments, especially using limited instrumentation.
SO…
"WHAT IF…"
- there was a book of easy-ish tunes,
- that correlated with my instructional sequence for concert band,
- that were ROCK TUNES that reinforced the concepts I was teaching,
- and gave the ALL of the students the chance to play the MELODY, the BASS LINE, and a HARMONY PART or COUNTERMELODY…
- AND had a DRUM SET part!".
After experimenting with a few different formats, I decided on a 2-page QUARTET. To use this book, you will have to teach your students to read 4-part staff systems.
16 GROOVES is organized as follows:
A part - MELODY
B part - HARMONY PART or COUNTERMELODY
C part - BASS LINE with Chord Changes
DS part - DRUM SET
• Level of difficulty is about the same for each part within a song. If the concept that is being reinforced is 8th notes, ALL of the parts have conspicuous use of 8th note patterns. This way, no matter what part the student plays during practice or play-throughs, they get a lot of "touch-time" with that concept. The Level of Difficulty of EACH TUNE increases as you go from beginning to end of the book.
• Sections of music (Intro, A Section, Bridge, Coda, etc.) have a NUMBER in a BOX. If the director wants to repeat a section, or be clear about where the DS goes back to, all he has to do is HOLD UP A FINGER or FINGERS to indicate what section is being played (or what section is to be played next).
• Chord changes are notated in the C part of the quartet, so keyboard players or guitar players can play along. This is a great bridge for those players who want to level-up to Jazz Band. The chords are transposed for each instrument, so transposing instruments can start to understand how the melodies relate to the chords. Advanced students can experiment with writing their own melodies, harmonies, countermelodies, and practice improvisation using this information.
• Articulations become an important factor in establishing the Groove for each tune. A fair amount of time will likely be spent, not on what to play, but HOW to play it!
•• The idea of this is not to have a bunch of tunes that are super challenging ••
The idea is to have a bunch of tunes that reinforce learned concepts in a fun way, and to focus on rhythmic precision, "locking-in" the groove with the other musicians in the group.
• Here is a template for the GROOVE format:
GROOVE Template5
The passcode for viewing and printing the file is: GROOVE
(use this to develop your own…)
The book is written for the following instruments:
Flute
Clarinet
Alto/Bari Sax
Tenor Sax
Trumpet
Trombone
Tuba
Percussion (Drum Set)
The Table of Contents is included here so you can get an overview of the Meter(s), Key(s) and Rhythms or Concepts included: 16 Grooves for Concert Band ToC
Want to watch a YouTube video that gives a solid browse through Book 1?
click here —> 16 Grooves for Concert Band, Book 1
You can print and fill out an Order Form HERE. I accept school Purchase Orders.
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - FLUTE - $10.00
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - CLARINET - $10.00
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - ALTO/BARI SAX - $10.00
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - TENOR SAX - $10.00
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - TRUMPET - $10.00
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - TROMBONE - $10.00
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - TUBA - $10.00
16 GROOVES for Concert Band - PERCUSSION/CONDUCTOR - $10.00
NB - I teach a fair amount of drum set at my school (because drummers sign up to play drums to rock out, right?) using my Cheeseweasel Drum Set Method, which takes the students from ZERO to ROCK in 29 pages. (for the basic rock grooves. The more advanced rock grooves take a little longer, and page 53 ends up with students playing 16th note grooves.) If you don't teach percussion this way, you can still make these grooves work; you'll just have to instruct your kids how to read the drum set part, dividing up the part using more traditional concert band instruments and set-up.