Concert Season is quickly approaching

Our Summer park concerts are quickly approaching--less than a month away!

Scroll down and read the comments I wrote a year ago about how to have a great season.

NOW IS THE TIME TO INVITE FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO THE CONCERTS.

Remember that we want band members to park behind the bandstand so audience members can park elsewhere.

Hello 2014

I'm back.

We had a great 2013 Summer series.  We had a great fall, gaining 11 new members.  We had a very successful Christmas Concert.

Rehearsals have gone very good with attendance in the range of 60-70 most weeks.

Having missed two rehearsals because of snow, we are pressing onward to mount another successful Summer series.

Stay tuned.

Rehearsals in 2013

Rehearsals resume Monday January 7 and continue weekly. In the event of snow or similar bad weather, we will cancel rehearsal if Blue Ridge Community College cancels evening classes that day. The BRCC web site will have that information.

Christmas Concert A Great Success

Thanks to everyone for a great Christmas Concert.  Besides receiving tons of applause after each number and a standing ovation at the end, we raised over $1,200 for ShenanArts youth programs.   We had 73 on stage for the concert.  

Thanks for a wonderful performance by the Stonewall Flutes of the Shenandoah and The Stonewall Brigade Band! 

Thanks to those who helped load and transport equipment and music to and from the band room. 

Thanks to board member Terri Corey for organizing the reception.   

Thanks to Christine and Austin for getting all the equipment ready to load and for doing maintenance on all the Saxhorns. 

Thanks to Dr. Scott Hippeard for dropping everything at the last minute to drive from Roanoke and fill in on tympani. 

Thanks to the people at Gypsy Hill House for their hospitality.

Thanks to ShenanArts for hosting our concert and for their help with staging, shuttles, and ushers.  Attend a show!

Thanks to Brent Hisey of "Now You're Cooking" for loaning us the chairs for the stage.   The white chairs along with the white

     Poinsettias gave real sparkle to our stage appearance.  If you need a great  caterer call Brent--540-886-5344.

Thanks to Jamie, Ray, and David for conducting on the concert.  You guys did a great job.  

Thanks to the Leader papers, the radio stations, churches, and ShenanArts for great publicity for the concert. 

Thanks to Greg and Holly Shrader for designing and printing the beautiful posters and programs. 

Thanks to Roger for suggesting we play "Baby It's Cold Outside."  It was a hit!

Thanks to everyone who did something to help that I didn't mention above.  

Our Winter/Spring rehearsals resume on Monday January 9.   Good time for new members to join up!

We have 12 concerts to prepare, plus the "best of" concert at the end of the season.  That means around 150 pieces to have ready by the first concert on June 3.   Strong rehearsal attendance is a must.  

Our next scheduled performance for the full band is the Mary Baldwin Graduation on May 19.  There may be other performances scheduled as the opportunity arises. 

Remember that our snow policy is that if evening classes at Blue Ridge Community College are canceled then band is canceled. If in doubt, call my cell phone 540-294-9791.  

Thanks to our members for all you do to keep the Stonewall Brigade Band the oldest-continuous among over 2,000 community bands in the nation.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bob Moody

p.s.  If you would like to be entertained in January, be sure to catch "12th Night at the Gateway" on Saturday night January 5th at 7:30 pm.  ($12 at the door, $10 in advance on valleymusicacademy.org).  This variety show, hosted by Richard Adams, will feature two of our SBB members, plus comedy, and musical acts from around the area.   Gateway is located on Main Street in Downtown Waynesboro.  www.waynetheater.org

Any posts that deal with advertisements or Google Adwords were not posted by me.  If you see any such posts, please email me at rbobmoody@gmail.com so I can delete them.

Tips for an outstanding concert season.

Here are some tips for a really great Summer concert season.

1. Play your instrument at home several days a week. Just warming up and playing 15-30 minutes at least every other day will do wonders for your tone and endurance.

2. When on stage, give your full attention to the music. Learn to filter out the crowd movement, car traffic noise, smells from the concession stand, etc.

3. Spend some time outdoors each day so you get used to hot weather. The bandstand has a concrete floor which heats up from the sun shining in on it during the day. That heat radiates up in the evening, which keeps the temperature pretty constant on the stage, for better tuning. But it can be pretty hot there.

4. Sit up straight with your back away from the chair. It lets air circulate and keeps you cool. It also improves your breathing and tone.

5. Before each piece, glance through it and find the key changes and tempo changes. Just realizing that the changes are there will help avoid unpleasant surprises.

6. Keep your attention equally divided between the three main components of playing: reading (the music and the conductor), playing, and "checking" where you listen to yourself and check that you are playing the right notes and rhythm "in tune, in tone, and in time" with the rest of the band. Part of the process is to recognize when you have the melody and when you are a "supporting actor." Make sure the melody is clearly heard, whether you have it or not. The general rule is "if it looks like a melody it probably is."

7. Check the band's web site for each week's program. If you have a recording of any of the pieces we are playing, listen to that recording. If not, check to see if there is a really great performance on YouTube or if you can get it for 99 cents at Amazon or iTunes. You can also often find recordings that you can listen to on your computer or phone at www.jwpepper.com which is where we buy most of the band's music. Just listening to it will "tune your mind" to what it is supposed to sound like. Your subconscious mind will lead you to play so you sound like the recording you heard.

8. INVITE LOTS OF PEOPLE TO COME OUT TO THE CONCERTS. We always play better and have more fun when we have a large audience.

9. PUT THE CONCERTS ON YOUR CALENDAR.  Then when something "comes up" say "I already have something then.... It's the Stonewall Brigade Band Concert... I would be honored if you would come and listen to our concerts."

Percussion tip

The age-old advice of "Pull the tone out of the drum instead of driving the tone into the drum" sounds intriguing.... but what exactly does one actually do to accomplish this? In essence what we are talking about is managing the mallet or stick speed so that the stick or mallet starts the drum vibrating but doesn't dampen the vibration. This accomplished through a quick "snap back" of the stick, so that it doesn't follow the head through its vibration, but pulls away from the head quickly so the drum head is free to vibrate at its own pitch. There is a strong downward "tap" followed by a very quick upward rebound. To experience this, simply "thump" the palm of your hand with the middle finger of the other hand (snapping the middle finger from under the thumb is called "thumping.")

New members needed

The Stonewall Brigade Band is recruiting in all sections. We could use 2-3 more clarinets, another oboe, a couple of bass clarinets, another bassoon, quite a few trumpets, several trombones, more euphonium players, another tuba or two, and percussionists who can play mallets and tympani. We have fine players in all these sections, but need more depth in our sections to cover vacations during our Summer park concert series. College music students are welcome to "sit in" on the summer concerts. Just contact the director to arrange your participation in the oldest-continuous community concert band in the nation!

Pass in Review March for 116th Inf "Stonewall Brigade"

Sir: Would your band be interested in looking at an original Pass in Review
march, lyrics and melody composed by me, and wishing to have same arranged
for band and donated to the 116th Inf? Am retired member of Va. Natl. Gd,
former member of 116th Inf Bde (Sep) 1978 - 83. Richard Raymond, III,
Roanoke.

Concert Season Starts June 6th

The 123rd annual series of concerts by The Stonewall Brigade Band begins in Gypsy Hill Park this coming Monday, June 6th, at 8 pm.
We expect this to be an excellent year for the band. Concerts continue every Monday night with the exception of July 4th through the end of August.

Christmas Concert... wonderful

Eighty-nine players! Full sections all around (everything except alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, and contrabassoon and there weren't any parts for those in the music anyway.) There were 6 tubas, a string bass, 7 Euphoniums, 7 trombones, 7 french horns, 12 trumpets, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 baritone saxes, 2 tenor saxes, 2 bass clarinets, 5 alto saxes, 1 Eb clarinet, 13 Bb clarinets, and 12 flutes, plus 7 in the percussion section. Oh yes, and one conductor and a vocalist.

An audience of over 600-- a full house. Plus we received donations to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank exceeding $2,500. Everyone I have seen has raved over how wonderful the band sounded.

A big thank you to Ernest Holley for joining us as soloist. A big thank you to the 20+ people who traveled from 20 to 100 miles to perform in the concert, including the 3 guys who flew in from the DC area, plus our college students home on break who also joined with us.

Also a big thank-you to St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Staunton for making their facilities available for our concert again this year. We were again able to fit 90 musicians in the choir loft in this wonderful space.

Rehearsals are now underway for the Summer Series and our two "road trips." Rehearsals are every Monday night from 8 pm to 9:30 pm in the band building at the entrance to Gypsy Hill Park. In the event of snow or ice, we use class cancellation at Blue Ridge Community College to trigger our rehearsal cancellation. So just check local media or go to whsv.com and click on "closings."

On May 21 the band will travel to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg VA to play for the Signature Conference of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. On July 2 we will travel to Charlottesville Virginia to participate in their first-annual Community Band Festival.

Summer Concerts start on June 6 and continue each Monday except July 4 through August. Check our web site www.stonewallbrigadeband.com for the band history and for our concert programs.

Our web site also offers opportunities to support the band financially and as a volunteer helper.

Wonderful Season

Over the past week a number of people, some who I know and others who I do not, have come up to me various places around town to comment on the Stonewall Brigade Band season. Comments were particularly favorable for our "Best of the Season" concert. One regular member of our audience came up to me at Jazz in the Park's last concert and commented that the band's "connection" to the audience was particularly good throughout the season. Other comments were that the band "sounded great" or was "wonderful." Congratulations and thanks to all the members who so faithfully came to perform each week and did a really great job.

Rehearsals start the last Monday in September with an emphasis for that rehearsal on our Oktoberfest performance the following Saturday. Starting with the first rehearsal in October (Mondays, 8-9:30 at the band room) we will be learning new pieces for next Summer's series and other performances. This is a change to our regular plan. We will be using our Spring rehearsals to polish those pieces and add them to those that are already in our repertoire.

Concert Season Off To Great Start

Last night we started the 2010 concert season. This is my 50th year as a member of the band and my 35th year as director.

The band numbered about 75 players and was quite well balanced.

Balance within sections and between sections was excellent. Dynamic control was also excellent, and melodic lines could be clearly heard. Intonation was also excellent.

The concert lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, and the audience numbered about 270.

This very musical performance was a joy to conduct.

Tonguing on brass and woodwinds

In rehearsals recently we have been working on speed of tonguing, particularly in marches.

Here are a few hints:

For everyone; Anchor your tongue on your side teeth. Ideally the teeth should be apart enough that the tongue can slip into the space between the upper and lower molars-- just behind the "pointy" canine teeth. This keeps the movement limited to the far front and mid-back of the tongue. It also keeps air from puffing the cheeks and avoids overly-tight face muscles. This helps your tone.

For clarinet and saxophone: There are two methods of tonguing-- "tip to tip" and "anchored tip." Tip to tip means the tip of your tongue touches the reed with a "d" or "t" syllable. Anchored tip means the tip of your tongue stays touching your lower teeth, below where your lip curls over them, and the reed contacts your tongue farther back from the tip, like you were saying the "ch" sound--- "chu". The way to tell which method to use is simple. Stand in front of a mirror and put your finger right in the middle of the "ball" of your chin. Then try to touch your finger with your tongue. If you can't touch your finger with your tongue, use tip to tip tonguing. If you can touch your finger, use anchored tip.

For flutes and brasses: the tip of your tongue touches the front side of the ridge that goes across the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth. At no time should your tongue touch your upper teeth.

Double touguing for sixteenth notes and faster:

Note-- for this to work the air must move quicker than normal.

Flutes... the syllables are du and gah, so four sixteenth notes would be du ga du ga. Practice until you can say this smoothly and then try playing it on one pitch over and over.

Trumpets --- ta ka is the usual syllable combination for double tonguing on trumpet. Du gah can be use for a less percussive attack.

Trombones/Horns/Baritones/Tubas -- du gah is probably better for you.

Single reeds-- you can "fake" double tonguing using anchored tip and the syllables chu kah. Practice this without your horn until you can do it. It takes more air than normal to make it work.

Flutter tonging. The trick is to move the "side anchor point" up onto the upper teeth and move the touching point just behind the ridge in the roof of the mouth. Then put a lot of air through very fast. Try this without your horn until you can do it, then try it on the horn.

Upcoming concerts

The Stonewall Brigade Band will play a concert at the Bushong Farm area of the New Market Battlefield State Park at Noon on Saturday May 15, 2010. The concert will feature Civil War music with Frank Sampson conducting.

The band will play for the 33rd consecutive year for Baccalaureate and Commencement for Mary Baldwin College on Sunday May 23. The prelude begins at 9:30 followed by the Academic Procession at 10. The event concludes around noon.

The band will play a concert of patriotic music on Memorial Day, Monday May 31 starting at 9:45 am at the Stonewall Brigade Bandstand in Gypsy Hill Park, Staunton VA. This is part of the VFW annual Memorial Day ceremonies.

The annual series of Concerts In The Park will begin on June 7. Concerts are every Monday in June, July, and August at the Stonewall Brigade Bandstand in Gypsy Hill Park. Concerts begin at 8 pm and are held rain or shine. Bring your lawn chair and enjoy an old fashioned band concert under the stars.

How important is a warm up?

Certainly we all agree that it is more fun to play in the band when the band sounds really good. One of the key elements in getting that "good sound" is a good warmup routine, both in individual practice and in the full band rehearsal.

You can find many good articles on the internet about warmup routines for your particular instrument. I have just two tips in today's posting:

For percussionists... work on making the sound of each hand be the same. You can practice this little exercise anywhere with just a pair of your favorite drum sticks:
L R L R L R L rest R L R L R L R rest (repeat ad infinitum, at all speeds, but start slowly) Have a friend or family member listen to you and try to tell which hand you started on. The objective is to make exactly the same sound with either hand.

For everyone else:
Play a scale... any scale. Do it slowly, and go over as much of your instrument's range as possible. Listen for the one note that has the very best tone... nice and full, resonant, and it seems to envelop you and fill the space around you. Play that note over and over 6-8 times, holding it a long time. Then try to get the same exact tone quality on the note 1/2 step higher. When you get that done, try 1/2 step lower. Over a period of weeks or months you can expand your "beautiful tone" range over the entire range of the instrument.

For a full band warmup we have two objectives which are related. We want to achieve agreement among all the players on pitch and on rhythm. Playing a scale in unison and in chords is good for matching pitches. Of course you have to listen to yourself, to your neighbors, and most importantly across the band to everyone else. Things like playing 4 notes on each scale tone, playing "oom-pahs" and playing scales with various rhythm patterns help clarify the feeling of pulse in the band and help us play rhythms exactly together. That very part of the warmup that you personally dislike, is probably the part of the warmup that can help you the most as you improve as a musician. Put your entire energy into the warmup and strive for perfect pitch and rhythm matching across the entire band.

A book for Summer reading

For those days when you have time on your hands, but it's a rainy day
and you can't go outside, and you have already practiced on your
instrument, there's a book you might want to buy and read. The book
is "Note Grouping" by James Morgan Thurmond. This classic is now
available in paperback. I lost my hardcopy book a number of years ago
and just ordered the new paperback version from Amazon.com. Thurmond
started his career as a French Horn player in the Philadelphia
Orchestra, was the main person in establishing the Armed Forces School
of Music at Little Creek (starting it as the Navy school of music),
and finished up as a college professor. Along the way, about 30 years
ago, he conducted regional bands in this area and judged my high
school band on several occasions (and gave us a superior rating, by
the way.) The book explains WHY you accent the pickup note. It will
greatly help you in playing with expression. Happy reading!

Concert Season 2009 is here!

Thirty-Four years in the park for me, 121 years for the band, and 154
years of continuous operation for the band. Wow!

Frank Sampson and Ray Hoaster continue as assistant directors, with
each taking a full concert and Frank conducting about a third of most
of the concerts.

This year's concert lineup features premiere performances of several
pieces written for the band by members and band friends. Ray Hoaster
wrote a nice arrangement of the Rodgers and Hart tune "Mountain
Greenery" to showcase the clarinet talents of Al Winters, our oldest
member, who at age 83 is still going strong. Bob Moody did
transcriptions of two pieces for the band. First there's the
Victorian church anthem "The Lord Is My Strength" by the british Caleb
Simper, and then there's one that is given as a Carl Broman tribute,
Healy Willan's Organ Chorale Prelude on the hymntune "Now God Be
Praised In Heaven Above." On the joint concert with the 29th Army
Band we will do the premiere performance of "Afghan Andy" by Randolph
Cabell, honoring Army Major Andrew Ashley upon his return from
Afghanistan.

Concerts are held regardless of weather in the Stonewall Brigade
Bandstand in Staunton's Gypsy Hill Park. Directions and concert
programs can be found on the band's web site www.stonewallbrigadeband.com
under the "concert series" tab.

Come and enjoy an old-fashioned band concert under the stars every
Monday evening at 8 in June, July, and August.

Concert Season is Here!

The Stonewall Brigade Band's Summer season starts this weekend with
two of our annual events.

Saturday we will be playing at the New Market Battlefield Park as a
part of the annual reenactment of The Battle Of New Market. The
concert is at noon in a tent just outside the Hall of Valor at the
park. There is an admission charge to the park (but of course band
members get in free.)

Sunday will be the 31st year that the band will play for the
Baccalaureate and Commencement at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton.
We play a 30-minute "prelude" concert at 9:30 am, then the
processional, a hymn, and after the conferring of degrees we play the
Mary Baldwin Hymn and the recessional. I arranged "God of Grace and
God of Glory" for this event 31 years ago, and our librarian, Cindy
Hosaflook, updated it by putting it in to Finale and undoing a
modulation to the last verse about 5 years ago. I also arranged the
MBC hymn which is sung to the tune of "Children of the Heavenly
Father" at the same time. Our processional is the typical "Pomp and
Circumstance" main melody, as arranged by James Ployhar, and our
recessional is Alfred Reed's arrangement of R. Vaughan Williams' "Sine
Nomine". The event is held on the terrace on the "uphill side" of the
library, and moves to Augusta Expo half an hour later in the event of
rain.

Our Brass Ensemble will be playing for two annual Memorial Day events
over Memorial Day weekend. All band events can be found on the
"schedule" link on the band web page.

The 120th annual season of Summer Concerts in the Park will begin on
June 2 and will continue every Monday at 8 pm at the Stonewall Brigade
Bandstand in beautiful Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton VA. Concerts are
held "rain or shine," and the programs are shown on our web site.  

This is Bob's 33rd year of conducting the Summer Concert Series.  It is the 120th-annual season of concerts in Gypsy Hill Park, going back to the year the park was established and the trees were planted.  This is the 154th continuous year of service for the band. 

We have added over 20 new members to the band since last Summer, and
expect this season to be one of the best ever. As always, band
members begin setup about 7 pm, with tune-up at 7:40 and downbeat at 8
pm. Concertgoers should bring lawn chairs or blankets, as there is
limited permanent seating at the bandstand. In addition there are now
several "pull in" parking spaces available on the "horseshoe" section
of the park drive so that handicapped persons can listen from their
cars. Come early for best parking.

Band Festival Results

Virginia band festival results can be seen at:
http://www.vboda.org/Festival/festresults.htm
All results should be complete by the end of March.

List of Districts and included cities/counties at:
http://www.vboda.org/VBODADistricts.htm

Some groups may petition to be included in an
adjacent district.