On a personal note: It's a special treat for me to have Dr. Fansler here. He was one of my college band directors and my academic advisor. So many of the things I've learned have came from this great conductor, educator, and musician. This is the first time I've seen him conduct in three years and nice to see some things I do and some things I should be doing! Enough of that.
Dr. Fansler just took over rehearsal on Zdelchik's “Chorale and Shaker Dance II”. First thing fixed horn hand position, thank you sir. He's now establishing how to make them to watch; repeated pitch with him showing each note, now I know where I stole that technique from a few years a go.
The dynamic of the group is very different today they're much quieter and focused. I wish it was like this all the time...maybe just putting a picture of him up in the room.
I'm so glad they're playing notes very well. It's giving him a chance to make some music. The focus has been very much on energy and balance of section. He really is exploring the third trumpets and their role in the ensemble. I hope it helps them. Using the analogy of a springboard he's again adding a sense of urgency in the one of the first statements, the altos and the flutes picked that up very nicely, the phrase is really moving now. I hope they're watch the clarity of what he's doing could help so much.
It's interesting how this composition works, the melody is broken up across the ensemble. He's explaining how to it bring out when a group has some part of the melody. I'm glad I'm sitting behind the baritones right now. I figured out how to get one of them to sit up taller, shoebox under the baritone so it matches his height haha!
Oh no trombones! Your weakness has been exposed. On the upside, he's fixing it by fixing a few notes and getting the bells up a bit. He told a story about putting his wind ensemble trombones on a riser because he couldn't hear them our baritone quickly looked down, wondering if Mrs. Worthington had done the same thing to them.
Ah the bop technique. Let me explain, you play a note and don't sustain it. It helps to hear the motion and in my opinion it help subdivsion. Showing the melody bouncing around the ensemble was pretty effective. Have to try this one again. Second try at this was a little more difficult because of the section it was in, but accomplished it's goal.
It is story time, “what is dichotomy?” he asks. Good and Evil. Light and Dark. In music we need contrast as well. Slow/Fast we do well, but Loud/Soft. He wanted the Marching Leathernecks to play loud when he first to them over, then realized that gets boring and soft can make the loud so much more exciting and effective.
Time is about up and I had to stop for a second to get a few snapshots on my Blackberry. Which will appear below as soon as I can upload them.
