Christmas Music First impressions
Once In A Royal David's City: (1st clarinet) - First Impression - From first glance this song doesn't appear to look extremely difficult. The only part that comes off as somewhat hard to me is measures 49-52, only due to the sixteenth notes and the faster looking tempo. The first page of the song looks very fast paced and has a lot more dynamic markings than the second page does. Towards the end of the piece it looks as if it begins to slow down and it looks a lot easier, like something I would have played in middle school band. I've never heard this song before so i'm looking forward to playing it.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas: (1st clarinet) - First Impression - The beginning of the song is the only part I think we'll really somewhat struggle with in band. It sounded pretty good the first time; we just need to work on notes in the first few measures of the song and work on our dynamics more. It doesn't have too fast of a tempo, but it's also not very slow either. It contains a lot of eighth and sixteenth notes, but nothing too fast. Measures 22-28 sounded a bit off and are really the only thing we need to work on more than anything. It's marked with words such as "lively, slowly, moderate swing, and bright." This piece also contains a lot of slurs, but not very many dynamics.
Rejoice The Season: (2nd clarinet) - First Impression - It's marked with words such as "lively, spirited" and "aggressive, expressive" informing us how we should play our music. I've also never heard of this song before but it looks extremely fun to play. I love faster paced songs that give me a challenge because it helps me become better in band. This piece looks as if it might be a few songs put together into one piece as well. I play the same notes (e and f) a lot throughout this entire song, making it easy, but it's also a fast tempo so it'll be a lot harder than I intended it to be.
Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24: (1st clarinet) - First Impression - This is the longest of the songs we chose, with three whole pages and the piece with the fastest tempo. There's a lot of dynamic markings and eighth notes throughout the entire piece, something i'll need to spend a bit more time working on. The run beginning on measure 159 was very difficult for me to play only because of the fast tempo and eighth notes. Other than that, I don't think it will take me very much time to get the hang of playing this song. The beginning is marked with the word "moderate rock," so it's more of a song that you would jam out to possibly, instead of a slower Christmas song as usual. Then, as you get to measure 11 it reads, "fast rock," meaning the tempo speeds up a bit but it still has a nice beat that you would want to jam out to. I'm really excited to learn this piece because it's already my favorite one out of the 4; mostly because of the length of the piece and the faster tempo. It's a bit more of a challenge compared to the rest of the pieces we chose.
First Impression overall - These pieces don't seem to be too hard in my opinion. The one that will need the most work will definitely be Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24 because it has a faster tempo and quite a few dynamics. Dynamics is what the band as a whole needs to work on for every single piece, as well as tempo. The songs already sound very well put together, with only a few wrong notes here and there, which will be an easy fix. As long as we all mark our music and practice the dynamics every class all of the pieces we are playing for the Christmas concert will sound beautiful.
After playing each song for a few weeks - The pieces are beginning to sound much better, with very few wrong notes and a lot more dynamics, however, there's always room for improvement. We do still need to continue adding/working on more and more dynamics and making sure our tempo remains the same throughout the song that we are playing. Those are the two things I think have always been a bit more difficult for the band as a whole. If one particular section is slower or faster than the rest of the band it tends to mess everyone up. As for dynamics, I think people are more focused on playing the correct notes and just forget about adding or emphasizing dynamics, but we are getting better at it. I am excited to see how much better we all sound as we approach the concert and I look forward to playing the pieces we have picked out at my very last Christmas concert in band.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas: (1st clarinet) - First Impression - The beginning of the song is the only part I think we'll really somewhat struggle with in band. It sounded pretty good the first time; we just need to work on notes in the first few measures of the song and work on our dynamics more. It doesn't have too fast of a tempo, but it's also not very slow either. It contains a lot of eighth and sixteenth notes, but nothing too fast. Measures 22-28 sounded a bit off and are really the only thing we need to work on more than anything. It's marked with words such as "lively, slowly, moderate swing, and bright." This piece also contains a lot of slurs, but not very many dynamics.
Rejoice The Season: (2nd clarinet) - First Impression - It's marked with words such as "lively, spirited" and "aggressive, expressive" informing us how we should play our music. I've also never heard of this song before but it looks extremely fun to play. I love faster paced songs that give me a challenge because it helps me become better in band. This piece looks as if it might be a few songs put together into one piece as well. I play the same notes (e and f) a lot throughout this entire song, making it easy, but it's also a fast tempo so it'll be a lot harder than I intended it to be.
Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24: (1st clarinet) - First Impression - This is the longest of the songs we chose, with three whole pages and the piece with the fastest tempo. There's a lot of dynamic markings and eighth notes throughout the entire piece, something i'll need to spend a bit more time working on. The run beginning on measure 159 was very difficult for me to play only because of the fast tempo and eighth notes. Other than that, I don't think it will take me very much time to get the hang of playing this song. The beginning is marked with the word "moderate rock," so it's more of a song that you would jam out to possibly, instead of a slower Christmas song as usual. Then, as you get to measure 11 it reads, "fast rock," meaning the tempo speeds up a bit but it still has a nice beat that you would want to jam out to. I'm really excited to learn this piece because it's already my favorite one out of the 4; mostly because of the length of the piece and the faster tempo. It's a bit more of a challenge compared to the rest of the pieces we chose.
First Impression overall - These pieces don't seem to be too hard in my opinion. The one that will need the most work will definitely be Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24 because it has a faster tempo and quite a few dynamics. Dynamics is what the band as a whole needs to work on for every single piece, as well as tempo. The songs already sound very well put together, with only a few wrong notes here and there, which will be an easy fix. As long as we all mark our music and practice the dynamics every class all of the pieces we are playing for the Christmas concert will sound beautiful.
After playing each song for a few weeks - The pieces are beginning to sound much better, with very few wrong notes and a lot more dynamics, however, there's always room for improvement. We do still need to continue adding/working on more and more dynamics and making sure our tempo remains the same throughout the song that we are playing. Those are the two things I think have always been a bit more difficult for the band as a whole. If one particular section is slower or faster than the rest of the band it tends to mess everyone up. As for dynamics, I think people are more focused on playing the correct notes and just forget about adding or emphasizing dynamics, but we are getting better at it. I am excited to see how much better we all sound as we approach the concert and I look forward to playing the pieces we have picked out at my very last Christmas concert in band.