I know there's a thread for Marching Band, but I thought I'd create one on the part of band class between marching band seasons, Concert Band! Whether you love it, hate it, comment on it here! :) Also, are there any fun songs that you're playing currently for a concert?

Armenian Dances! EPIC! It's probably my second favorite song I've ever played in symphonic band. First was Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre, and third would probably be Zampa.

I prefer symphonic/concert band over marching band by...A LOT. Marching band feels like just a lot of loud blowing. Of course, it probably depends on the band itself, but it's really no fun if everyone else around you is playing louder than necessary, and intonation (AND tone) ends up getting completely murdered.... -_-

The best thing I played in concert band: Light Calvary Overture by Franz Von Suppe. Very fun.

Now my director is on a Sousa kick. We're studying tons of marches and other stuff like rags. Being in percussion its alright, but the best part is I get to play the harp parts of the marches on the piano. No dragging instruments back and forth for me.

Well, I'm in our county Symphonic Wind Band, and along with some rubbishy other stuff we're doing Godzilla Eats Las Vegas by Eric Whitacre. Its really really really good.(!)

And then Im in my school's regular, normal concert band which always sounds really bad, and we're doing things like The Marriage of Figaro, and a four piece jazz set. Not too brilliant, but there we go..

Right now we are playing:

*"Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations- Edward Elgar
*Ride- Samuel Hazo
*Variations on a Korean Folk Song- John Barnes Chance
*America The Beautiful
*Stars and Stripes Forever- John Phillip Sousa

>_< Stars and Stripes is difficult right after the intro for clarinet players... octave jumps. I can get all of them down except the 3rd line Bb to the Bb above (quarter notes). Other than that... it's going well.

Any of your bands played anything by Steve Reineke? It seems that majority of band directors I've had (and that's alot) seem to like his compositions.

Currently, my concert band is playing:

"Ascend" by Samuel R. Hazo
"Starwatcher" by Ed Huckeby
"Semper Melior" by John Fannin
and "Flight of the Thunderbird" by Richard L. Saucedo

Spring Concert's two weeks from Tuesday! :D

I like concert band...kinda. My school is pretty small, so we don't even have a symphonic band and everyone is just in concert band, which is lame because there are some kids that are only there to mess around, and there are people like me who really want to play the music well. We don't ever play standards since our new director took over a few years ago....we used to play lots of Holst stuff...:(

I am in a concert band at my community college. It is a fantastic little concert band if I must say so. After my experiences in high school, it's like heaven! Especially since I get to play my favorite instrument - the bassoon - now!

The music was like a HUGE step up in difficulty from anything I played in my high school Concert Band. I absolutely adored it, and it made me feel a lot better about myself.


*Variations on a Korean Folk Song- John Barnes Chance

We played that in my concert band this last year! (or at least I think it was that, I never checked the composer.) The sixteenth note runs were fun on the bassoon... and the oboe solo towards the middle of the piece was really pretty! I especially loved the bass part that I got to play for it!

We never performed it, though. :\

I absolutely Loved playing "Joy" (Joseph Curiale) and Variations of a Korean Folk song (John Barnes Chance) but my fave concert band peice was Instant concert by Harold L. Walters. Its not hard but its so random and fun a fantastic piece!

Right now we are playing:

*"Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations- Edward Elgar
*Ride- Samuel Hazo
*Variations on a Korean Folk Song- John Barnes Chance
*America The Beautiful
*Stars and Stripes Forever- John Phillip Sousa

>_< Stars and Stripes is difficult right after the intro for clarinet players... octave jumps. I can get all of them down except the 3rd line Bb to the Bb above (quarter notes). Other than that... it's going well.

The concert band did Variations for the winter concert! It sounded pretty nice. =]

Stars and stripes, eh? Haha, the octave jumps aren't bad compared to the bloody ending for March Ponderoso. The same four notes OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN for a billion measures REPEATED and then accel'd, and then your pinky falls off. Did I mention that those four notes all involve nonstop pinky work? Hahaha :heh: My friend just randomly plays that part for the fun of it even though the district honors band concert was months ago. It's not HARD...just extremely fatiguing. So I guess that makes it hard when you can't even move your pinky anymore. XD I still have to burn that part.


Anyone ever do Ron Nelson stuff? We did Sonoran Desert Holiday one year for district band. HHHAAAAAA. This was during my sophomore year, so it was my first time being exposed to crazy time sig changes. And most of the notes were in dog-whistle range.... O.o

Oh, and we also finished up Vesuvius by Ticheli. Easy piece, but never a bore to play. Makes me want to walk in 9/8. :D

We're currently working on:
-Serenade...forgot the composer, but apparently, it was written by a British guy who wanted something interesting to play at weddings, so he decided to use random time signatures. The song starts in 11/8 and switches around here and there. Very cute =D

-Armenian Dances (Alfred Reed)

-Raging Machines (commissioned...egh...insert name here -_-)

I think the main concern would have to be Armenian. The fast parts are a bit tough, since the clarinets all have running 16th notes, but I'm sure we'll get it~
I haven't really been practicing that concert stuff though, since my pit band music is infinitely more deadly. One line has 7 sharps, and before you know it, it switches to 6 flats and so on. It's pretty much like key signature suicide if you're not completely alert. And they couldn't write E# as F natural, EH? Or G* as A natural? As if the key signatures weren't enough of a worry ='D

AMERICAN SALUTE! =) love that song, fast and the song johnny comes marching home is catchy >.<

Am I the only one in a Concert Band that plays movie/musical music and jazz for the majority of their repertoire? We have some classical/ completely random pieces, but they're in the minority. Of course, Marching Bands don't actually exist in Australian schools that I know of - so the ONLY bands we have in school are Concert/ jazz bands and orchestras. There are only very few marching bands fullstop - and most of them are military bands.

Am I the only one in a Concert Band that plays movie/musical music and jazz for the majority of their repertoire? We have some classical/ completely random pieces, but they're in the minority. Of course, Marching Bands don't actually exist in Australian schools that I know of - so the ONLY bands we have in school are Concert/ jazz bands and orchestras. There are only very few marching bands fullstop - and most of them are military bands.

Jazz for concert band? That's pretty awesome! Our symphonic band probably couldn't even handle those rhythms ='D...that's why we have a separate jazz band for those who have that little bit of swing in them~ In the past, we usually did movie/musical/fun pieces for our last concert, along with an obligatory uber-epic piece. In general, though, I can't say that we tend to play a particular genre over the rest, although our lineup usually consists of a march, a slow piece, and a fast piece.

Well, technically the band I'm in now is a 'youth orchestra' but there's only about 30 of us, and we have no-where near full instrumentation, so we're really a concert band - lol. but SCYCB just isn't as easy to say as SCYWO. We play pretty much whatever the committee finds and things would be a cool score XD

I'm pumped, tomorrow's my Spring Concert! :D For a finale, it's both bands ( Symphonic and Wind Symphony), orchestra, and all the choirs. It's gonna rock! We're playing Richard Rogers' Concert, which is a mixture of songs from different musicals. Tomorrow during last hour we get to be released a half hour early, so we can rehearse with everyone in the music classes. I can't wait. :)

Since I'm only in the Junior Concert Band at my High School, we only play High School Band Arrangements. Right now in Concert Band we're playing:

"Solo Flight w/ Clarinet Soloist"
"Fire Dance"
"Royal Alpine Fanfare"
"Pinnacle"
And we were going to play "Bach Variants," but our Director didn't like it so he took it out of our final concert program.

Instead of Marching Bands, we have three Jazz Bands (junior (grade 9), Intermediate (grade 10) and Senior (grade 11/12)) to replace it. And the marching band pieces are played by the Concert Bands.

I don't really like our Concert Band because of the people there (some of them are such snobs... -.- I don't think our Director has noticed yet...). But its not bad... I still like Jazz Band better, though. ^^ (we're doing Elton John's "Crocodile Rock"!) The flutists have to learn how to transpose music from either a saxophone or trumpet part.

Oh my gosh. Our band just played "Fire Dance" at our last concert. Isn't it awesome! The clarinet part was actually kind of fun.

Yes! After playing at senior graduation last night (burns Pomp and Circumstance music) concert band is officially over! Don't get me wrong, I love band and all, but after a month of playing nothing but the Alma Mater you tend to look over at the drama and art kids with jealousy.
The bad part is that all three of my school's music teachers are leaving, and there is a chance that they won't hire replacements. Which means no concert band at all! That would ruin my life way more than playing super boring music for sure....

Yes! After playing at senior graduation last night (burns Pomp and Circumstance music) concert band is officially over! Don't get me wrong, I love band and all, but after a month of playing nothing but the Alma Mater you tend to look over at the drama and art kids with jealousy.
The bad part is that all three of my school's music teachers are leaving, and there is a chance that they won't hire replacements. Which means no concert band at all! That would ruin my life way more than playing super boring music for sure....

Yeaah, our graduation is on Sunday, and apparently we play for so long we get a nice tan. If not, a nice burn. lol I don't mind Pomp and Circumstance, but then again, we haven't played it for that long yet. So after graduation ends I'd probably want to burn it too! :heh: