our band director uses smart music and could change the tempo of the recording so after practice he decided to start messing with the controls. Let's just say that hearing this piece at 200bpm changes a person. #woodwindtears
Remember my HS band director low key roasting the clarinet section just cause they couldn't play those trills right... "I thought I had a Clarinet section that could play this. Guess I was wrong" Straight Savage. #proudtrombonist
I enjoy playing this song! At 1:00 , my band director describes it as a clown on a unicycle just going around a circus ring, and when it crescendos, it's like he is going on a see-saw. I just love that image because it's so silly! This is probably one of my favorite pieces out of our concert que this year :)
Elizabeth Gambill I agree I like this piece but that’s the complete opposite description. It sounds like a circus march but in fact it’s not a circus march
Throwback to when I played first trombone on this in my 8th grade wind ensemble! It was so fun :). Currently a sophomore and I wouldn't mind playing this again any day c:
I just play it like its a normal march, just faster. My middle school band was going to play this for NCMPA but ditched the idea as majority of the class hated it and they were not getting ANYWHERE. xD Hope my advice helped!
I’m playing this song in my local concert band and I think it sounds very nice, but the part I’m playing isn’t the easiest thing to play, which is saying a lot considering I play the tuba.
Played this in my junior high school band... Can't believe I remembered the name of the piece, but it came to mind some how 19 years later now. This is a great performance of it. Our junior high performance was probably too technically adherent to the piece as written with respect to the grace notes in the opening theme. I think the band was articulating each of the notes individually like a triplet rather than slurring them.
playing this as a sole bass trombonist on first part with a 1G mouthpiece if my chops aren't dead 1/4 of the way through the song they died earlier in jazz band legit kill me
Why do little kids feel the need to mention they're grade when they say they're playing a piece? Age has nothing to do with skill and a really skilled ensemble can play simple pieces sometimes too. It's such a dumb thing to try and brag like you're impressing anybody. Everyone progresses at different rates. Everyone can always improve at something. Attempting a challenging march in middle school does not a prodigy make.
+TrAnMu ....Apparently you've never heard any REALLY good middle school bands. I enjoy hearing these bands and how proficient those young musicians really are. Young people in band should be encouraged and supported. We were ALL pubescent young people at some time and were just as feckless as young people are now.
+SpeedyNeutrino172 Believe me I have heard very good middle school bands. And I always find it impressive. But way more often I've heard middle school bands who's band director gave them a piece way above their skill level and the results weren't great. But thats not so much my point. I just find it annoying that the comment section of every piece written in the last 100 years is inundated with the same comments saying "We're playing this in my middle school band. I'm on first saxophone." Hardly any conversation about the actual piece or the performance. Instead its just bragging from little kids. Like this is a legit comment a few down: "Why's everyone whining for? I'm in 7th grade, playing 1st part on this. Wow " How does that help anyone? I don't see that as encouraging to people who perhaps find playing this piece hard and came here to hear how it sounds. See what I mean?
I played this recently with a community band but it felt so much faster than it really is. I even tried speeding it up to 1.25 but that was too fast. Oh well
Hannah Pickhardt I totally understand. I'm a flute player and my band is doing this. But if you dont know, if you use your Thumb Bb on most of the eight notes itll be easier to play.
As a bass clafinet player who is playing clarinet for a band and got thrown into 1st clarinet part aftef not playing Bb clarinet for at least 3 years pray for me for J. And has to learn it in 5 days. For a concert.
I played this in 2010 in my 8th grade all district concert band. It was so fun. We pushed the the tempo so much though. At the end, the director walked off stage, tipped his hat, bowed, got back on stage, and let us play the very last note. It was epic.
I’m a junior in high school and have been tasked with being able to play this piece to near perfection in less than a week, along with 3 other songs to go with it, I’m screwed
Brian Short to quote TrAnMu,"Why do little kids feel the need to mention they're grade when they say they're playing a piece? Age has nothing to do with skill and a really skilled ensemble can play simple pieces sometimes too. It's such a dumb thing to try and brag like you're impressing anybody. Everyone progresses at different rates. Everyone can always improve at something. Attempting a challenging march in middle school does not a prodigy make. " I am a freshman in high school, we just got straight distinguished ratings at our KMEA Festival, does this matter? No, we all didn't come here to brag or try to seem cool, we all came here to enjoy a wonderful piece of music. Just because your in 7th grade doesn't make you a prodigy, you may be playing a very different arrangement, which is much more middle school oriented than that of a high school, college, or professional level ensemble.
Jacob Schiess I absolutely agree. To add on to your points, usually middle schoolers think their good just because they're playing hard music, but really their band doesn't make the most out of the music with the dynamics, tone, etc. I'm in high school right now and my band is playing much easier music than we did in middle school but we're sounding much more musical, which is what I think matters most when playing music.
narutouzumakijoshua Exactly. This song is great and we played it with our own little flairs that our band director added, just changing the amount of instruments in a certain phrase, music is beautiful, because interpretation makes one piece 7 different pieces, so great.
narutouzumakijoshua actually, I'm not sure what middle school you went to, but my middle school was among the best in state. So I'm pretty sure we did know how to make the most out of the piece and any piece we played. And this piece isn't even that hard lmao
