Reply To: Junior high appropriate band warm-ups

[nafmeadmin]

Sorry all. Haven’t checked the forum in months. If you want PDFs, please email me at rdsmith415@gmail.com

Sammy:

I have a 40 minute rehearsal each day, and I set aside 6-8 minutes for a warm up…longer on days I work out of a sight reading method.

With my HS select group, I do long tones/Remington exercise in F concert. During the lip slurs, I have the WW’s play arpeggios, or do the lip slurs double time to get fingers moving. I don’t have them do scale patterns during lip slurs as we do all 12 majors as part of the warmup…I think it’s more important to get them doing jumps/arpeggios as that will increase facility.

Regarding chorale question: No. I use the chorale to work on musicianship, listening, tone, etc and want their ears trained to where they are normally going to listen. We have a very short rehearsal, so I have to pick and choose what I spend time on.

I do not have our kids sing during the warm up. I know, I should. But it’s not a battle I’m wanting to fight right now.

Percussionists do the entire warmup with the group on mallets, except for long tones. (because I don’t want to hear mallet rolls while we do long tones)

I teach about 40 minutes south of you, so if you’re interested in coming out to watch a rehearsal just let us know.

Thanks!

Ryan