Upward Bound Concert Band - Sheet Music

SKU: CF.YPS276F

ISBN 9781491166451. UPC: 680160925506. 9 x 12 inches. Key: G minor.

If you have the budget for only one piece for your middle school/high school band to play this year, Upward Bound needs to be that piece. Do you want to teach triplets? This piece has it. How about helping your clarinets perfect the art of crossing the break? This piece achieves it. Working with the concept of dissonances versus consonance on purpose? Look no further than Upward Bound. Written in the key of G minor, this piece is fraught with tension and rife with teaching opportunities. And, your gong player even gets to shine!With the exception of the beginning of the piece, no player has sixteenth notes except for the percussion. The rhythms are fairly easy. I wrote it this way, because some of the teaching concepts contained in the tune take time to master, such as the clarinets and the break. This will be an excellent time to let your clarinets in on a special secret: you can play both G and A with your right hand down. And that practice will help make those runs at the beginning and then at the very end so much easier to do.Regarding accidentals, this would be a good time to review Gb and F# (sometimes a tricky enharmonic) with your flute section, G# (versus Ab) for clarinets and trumpets, and D# versus Eb for your alto saxophones. Students sometimes ask, “why do we have to know (F#) when we already know (Gb) and it’s the same note?” A good reason is that enharmonic equivalents can be used to improve the readability of music, as when a sequence of notes is more easily read using sharps or flats. Additionally, using enharmonic notes can sometimes reduce the number of accidentals in a piece overall and are always good to review.
If you have the budget for only one piece for your middle school/high school band to play this year, Upward Bound needs to be that piece. Do you want to teach triplets? This piece has it. How about helping your clarinets perfect the art of crossing the break? This piece achieves it. Working with the concept of dissonances versus consonance on purpose? Look no further than Upward Bound.xa0Written in the key of G minor, this piece is fraught with tension and rife with teaching opportunities. And, your gong player even gets to shine!With the exception of the beginning of the piece, no player has sixteenth notes except for the percussion. The rhythms are fairly easy. I wrote it this way, because some of the teaching concepts contained in the tune take time to master, such as the clarinets and the break. This will be an excellent time to let your clarinets in on a special secret: you can play both G and A with your right hand down. And that practice will help make those runs at the beginning and then at the very end so much easier to do.Regarding accidentals, this would be a good time to review Gb and F# (sometimes a tricky enharmonic) with your flute section, G# (versus Ab) for clarinets and trumpets, and D# versus Eb for your alto saxophones. Students sometimes ask, “why do we have to know (F#) when we already know (Gb) and it’s the same note?” A good reason is that enharmonic equivalents can be used to improve the readability of music, as when a sequence of notes is more easily read using sharps or flats. Additionally, using enharmonic notes can sometimes reduce the number of accidentals in a piece overall and are always good to review.