DIRECTIONAL WARM-UPS FOR BAND was written for use by mid-level and developing high school bands or advanced middle school groups. Higher-level ensembles could use the material for review or at the first of the concert season to reinforce concepts of ensemble playing, tone, intonation, etc. Of course, the chorales are useful for groups of any level, at any time.
Originally published by Warner Bros/Belwin-Mills in 1995, it was removed from print in 2005; I was able to negotiate the return of full rights to the series in 2009. Although no longer printed with a color cover, I have painstakingly corrected every known error (missing crescendo, wrong note, etc.) in every book of the series - something I wanted to do ever since Warner Brothers' editors missed them. The part books (when ordered) will be printed on heavy offset paper (11x17) and folded/stapled to create the booklet. I think they look better now than before.
This is the type of warm-up book I always wanted when I was teaching public school. Today I routinely use it with my college and community bands. I hope you, too, will find it useful!
FEATURES:
Contains 16 Learning Units and 20 Chorales.
Each Learning Unit contains a unison scale, melodic etudes, and references a Chorale in the same key.
For teaching purposes, the scales are first presented in whole notes (with accidentals as needed). This line is then followed by a rhythmic pattern scale, up and down, including the arpeggio.
Each of the eight Learning Units in
keys have a unison scale and two unison etudes, one simple and the other more difficult.
Each of the eight Learning Units in
keys have a unison scale in natural, melodic, and harmonic forms, and a single advanced etude.
The unison melodic etudes are designed to focus on horizontal playing skills (articulations, ensemble, dynamics, phrasing, etc.) by over-emphasizing a wide variety of:
and
and
The 20 traditional, four-part chorales are arranged with simple rhythms to focus attention on vertical playing skills (ensemble).
Part books indicate whether the player has the Soprano, Alto, Tenor, or Bass line - this allows you to rehearse similar parts for intonation and balance purposes, as well as finding those wrong notes (from the 3rd Clarinet section?).
The omission of dynamic indication encourages students to follow the conductor's gestures.
The conductor book has both a 4-line score and a full score of each chorale.
Also included are 32 Rhythm Patterns, a Piano Keyboard diagram (for teaching step patterns of scales), and a Glossary of musical terms used in the book.
The Conductor Book has several pages of instructions for using the method books to improve your band.
Please note: Site-licensing is not provided with purchase of this warm-up series. (You probably would not want to bother with the effort of printing, folding, and binding all the copies anyway).
Much attention was given to keeping the percussion and timpani parts as interesting and active as possible to cut down on boredom for that section of the band.
ERRATA SHEET:
If you are an owner of the original 1995 printings (blue cover), you may wish to peruse this errata sheet. All of these errors have been corrected in the copies I am selling.
