A Great Recipe for Music Selection

So, you want your concert band to have a great performance that everyone will remember, full of energy, excitement, and of course great music! For this fine performance, you no doubt want repertoire that will dazzle the audience and will be enjoyable to conduct. You’ll even get a chance to show off your best conducting moves in your new formal attire. The audience will be so impressed with your performance of this music that they will spring to their feet and cast roses to the stage as they breathlessly await your return to the podium for the encore of this magnificent performance.

The Realities of Selecting Music for Your Band

Now I want you to slowly wake up, face reality, and truly examine the factors that must be considered when creating a program of music for a concert band in an educational setting. When you are trying to select the right music for your school band, there are three realities that you need to accept:

1. It is not about you.   As much as you want to impress everyone you need to make your students impressive.   Promote the success of your students and you will never go wrong.
2. Sometimes your best conducting “moves” might have to give way to what actually keeps the ensemble together.  Again, it is not about you. (See Reality #1)  Your conducting may have to be more along the lines of diagnostician and time keeper with just a bit of artful expression.
3. Your selections must be based on what you can teach, and what your students can learn. If you have performed the piece before as a member of an ensemble that may help, but it does not necessarily mean you can teach it.  You also must consider whether or not your students will be able to meet the technical and musical demands of the piece.

The Recipe for Success

Once you accept and plan for these realities, then you create a practical plan for the repertoire of your upcoming performance.  This practical plan is much like a recipe, and it contains the following key ingredients:

1. You must be able to meet the technical requirements of the piece within the rehearsal time frame.
2. The music must challenge the ensemble and be interesting.
3. The various selections should offer musical contrast for the performers and audience alike.

Put Your Recipe into Action

If you are not a composer or arranger, creating a program of music can be your “composition” and can be very interesting and enjoyable.  Create a flow chart of every possible selection you would like to do at the beginning, middle, and end of your performance.  Some selections may be interchangeable as to where they are placed.   After listing the selections, consider which combinations produce the desired continuity and musical contrast; eliminate selections until the program provides the aforementioned characteristics. Ask your students for their input.

Challenge them not to judge a work on its technical difficulty, but on the content of the work and the opportunities it provides to move the individual members and the ensemble as a whole forward. Take advantage of the approval service that many music distributors provide so you can read works before you purchase them. This is an invaluable resource that can give you an opportunity to read many titles that you do not have in your library.

Above all, enjoy the process!  Even music that you don’t select for your program can often become titles that can be used in the future as your ensemble progresses. Your students will find it exciting to read a variety of works as you pursue the selections that suit your needs.