Grade 1
    Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens, arr. by Michael Story. Written to depict the French superstition that on Halloween, Death appears to summon the dead to dance. In 3/4 time, good flute players will be required for this one. (Alfred)
    Dr. Rockenstein arranged by Steve Hodges. In the Hall of the Mountain King and other scary melodies fill this piece with an added rock beat. Makes a good closer. (Alfred)
    Ghost Lights by Timothy Loest. Inspired by the dancing and blinking Brown Mountain Lights of North Carolina. (FJH)
    Ghost Ship by Michael Story. In 1872, the merchant ship Mary Celeste went missing, but was found a few months later. The problem? The crew had disappeared. (Alfred)
    Ghosts in the Graveyard by Scott Watson. Based on a math game of the same title. (Alfred)
    Haunted Clocks by Brian Balmages. This piece features simple aleatoric passages that add creepiness to this musical tour of a haunted clock factory. (FJH)
    Tunes That Go Bump in the Night arranged by Mark Williams. A medley of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, In the Hall of the Mountain King, and Funeral March of the Marionette. (Alfred)

Grade 2
    A Christmas Tale (Beware the Krampus) by Randall Standridge. According to some European Christmas traditions, Saint Nick does not work alone, he travels with Krampus, who doles out punishment to bad boys and girls. The spooky narration frames the piece as The Ukranian Bell Carol, Up on the Housetop, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and other holiday favorites are carefully distorted. It may be the creepiest thing you ever play. (Alfred)
    Apparitions by Brian Balmages. Paints a portrait of lonely apparitions that appear and fade away. An optional but important piano part is included. (FJH)
    Fright Night arranged by James Kazik. Six classic scary themes including Jaws and Thriller. (Hal Leonard)
    Ghost in the Machine by George Sweet. A huge ancient machine is inhabited by a ghost. (Carl Fischer)
    Ghost Band by Robert W. Smith. Screams and other vocal effects haunt this fun piece. (C.L. Barnhouse)
    Ghosts of the Lost Ship by Tyler Grant. Cinematic sounding score of pirate naval battles. (FJH)
    The Haunted Carousel by Erika Svanoe. Althought the part is covered elsewhere, an eerie and effective theremin part is included that can also be produced on an amplified iPad with a GarageBand application. (Wingert-Jones)
    Through Darkened Sleepy Hollow by Erik Morales. An exciting work inspired by the Headless Horseman’s pursuit of Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. (FJH)

Grade 3
    Ghost Fleet by Robert Sheldon. Long-forgotten warships return for battle in this contest-worthy piece. (Alfred)
    Ghosts, Goblins, and Witches by James Swearingen. Three-movement suite with titles Ghostly Procession, Dancing with the Goblins, and Witches Brew: The Final Spell. (C.L. Barnhouse)
    Ghost Riders by Roland Barrett. Phantom cowboys ride in the American West. (FJH)
    Haunted Carnival by Rob Grice. Piece with haunting energy and an eerie middle section. (Hal Leonard)
    House of Horrors arranged by Tom Wallace. Medley of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, and Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette. (Arrangers)
    The Headless Horseman by John Prescott. A good piece for exposing students to 6/8 time. (Wingert-Jones)
    Nevermore by Brian Balmages. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, this piece has mixed meters that give it drive, and a piano part that adds to the eeriness of the slow sections. (FJH)
    The Witching Hour by Randall Standridge. Four interesting sections are introduced by the tolling of chimes. (Grand Mesa)

Grade 4
    Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, arranged by Jay Bocook. Challenging version that combines elements of movements one and two from the original. (Hal Leonard)
    Ghost Dances by Roland Barrett. Inspired by the Lakota Sioux massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, this contemporary sounding work uses melodic fragments from a Sioux ghost dance. (Alfred)
    The Witch and the Saint by Steven Reineke. Five sections of this ten-minute tone poem tell the turbulent tale of twin sisters born in Germany in 1588. (C.L. Barnhouse)

Grade 5
    Dies Irae (Verdi Requiem) by Giuseppe Verdi, arranged by Jay Bocook. (Hal Leonard)
    Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath from Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz, arranged by R. Mark Rogers. (Southern)
    The Flying Dutchman (Overture) by Richard Wagner, transcribed by Mark Hindsley. (Hindsley Tran­scriptions)
    Ghost Train, Movement 1 by Eric Whitacre. (Hal Leonard)
    The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas, arr. by Mark Hindsley. (Hindsley Transcriptions)
    Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by J.S. Bach, arranged by Mark Hindsley. (Hindsley Transcriptions)

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– Onsby Rose
The Ohio State University
Contributing Editor

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Tone Development Through Warmups
    The objective of warmups should be to teach healthy vocal technique. Many directors see the purpose of warmups as actually warming up the voice, however, in an amateur choir, this should be seen as a wonderful by-product rather than the goal. When warming up the voice is the objective, warmups are often eliminated because of rehearsal time constraints, especially in ensembles like church choirs that only meet once a week and have to perform new music weekly. For most inexperienced singers, the choral director is their only voice teacher, and habits formed in these ensembles will have lasting effects. James Jordan, professor and conductor of the Schola Cantorum and Williamson Voices at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, believes that if you fail to have a regimented warmup sequence, the rest of the rehearsal will be spent fighting problems that could have been addressed by a quick five- to seven-minute warmup. Therefore, it is possible warmups are the most crucial part of the rehearsal.

Warmup Sequence
    There are many different philosophies regarding what should be included in a warm-up sequence. The suggested order is deconstructing the body; breathing exercises; head voice development; range extension upward; vowel unification, balance, or ear training; agility; and range extension downward. This order has been adapted from the warm-up philosophies of Charlotte Adams, James Jordan, Kenneth Phillips, Jerry Blackstone, Jeff Johnson, and Lori Hetzel.
    Time constraints may require combining several of these categories. In a fifty-minute rehearsal, picking a warmup that addresses range extension upward and agility simultaneously, and another that combines range extension downward and vowel unification, drops the sequence from seven steps to five.
    When looking at these different areas, many scholars suggest the use of gestures to help singers achieve the desired result. So much of singing deals with muscles that are either involuntary or cannot be seen that a movement reinforcing the desired outcome is quite helpful. Janet Gavlan said, “If the body goes, the voice will follow.” While this may feel uncomfortable for everyone at first, the benefits surpass the initial awkward period. Therefore, each exercise below will also contain a recommended motion.

Deconstructing The Body
    The term “deconstruction of the body” comes from James Jordan; his premise is that singers enter the choral rehearsal with terrible posture and improper use of the voice through daily activities. Students in public school may have been sitting at a desk all day, yelling to friends in the lunchroom, tense from a stressful test, or upset because of a breakup. All of these activities harm the singing voice. The sound of the choir can be transformed by eliminating tension and correcting poor posture. Below are several exercises to try in rehearsal.

Stretching
    Have students lift hands above their head and then stretch up, over to the left, and then back to the right. Then, students should bend over and dangle hands and head while rounding out the back. Slowly come back up, thinking of each vertebra stacking on top of the other. Another stretch is to push the arms out in front of the body, rounding the shoulders forward to feel a stretch between the shoulder blades. Students can also clasp their arms behind the back and pull shoulder blades together, feeling as if the sternum is opening.
    James Jordan suggests using mental imagery for fun ways to stretch the body. This can be quite effective for younger singers and adds a fun element to warmups. One example is to have students pretend they are going swimming. Jump in the pool, swim down to the end of the pool, backstroke to the other end, climb out of the ladder, get your towel, and dry off.

Massage
    This is probably the favorite of many singers. Make a line and massage the shoulders and upper back of the singer in front of you; then scratch and karate chop before turning the other way and repeating the sequence.
Self-massage of the face and neck is also useful. Have students massage where the jaw comes together and down the side of the neck. Tension in these two areas can easily be heard in singing and will cause problems in the singing voice.

Breathing Exercises
    Techniques used in instrumental training can be quite effective, but some may create unintended tension in the singing voice and should be avoided in choral rehearsals. As mentioned in massage activities, excess tension in the neck muscles is detrimental to tone development. Also, sound in the inhalation caused by tension in the neck should be avoided at all costs. These exercises can be helpful in teaching proper breathing while avoiding unwanted tension in the upper third of the body.

Showing what the body does
    James Jordan uses four motions while inhaling to show the singer what the body is doing while taking in a breath. This can be useful for singers who are inverting their breath by raising the chest and shoulders and bringing the stomach inward during inhalation.
    Start with hands resting to the side of the body. Bring forearm up to a 90 degree angle from the upper arm, similar to a conducting position. When inhaling, allow the forearms to move out while shoulders and chest remain low and do not move upward. This represents your intercostal muscles, which allow your rib cage to expand.
    Place your hands in a dome at your chest (imagine making a rainbow with your hands). During inhalation allow the hands to go to a flat, horizontal position without moving any other parts of the arm. This represents the diaphragm, which goes flat to allow your lungs to take in air. You do not support from your diaphragm; that is a common misconception.
    Place your hands at your belly button with palms facing inward and middle fingers touching (imagine hugging a ball). Inhale and allow hands to go straight out in front of the body. This represents the stomach expanding outward.
    Place your hands at your belly button with palms facing the floor and middle fingers touching. While inhaling, allow the hands to press toward the floor with palms still facing the floor and middle fingers touching. This represents lowering of the pelvic floor.

Inhalation and exhalation at different rates of speed
    Have students focus on keeping tension out of the neck, jaw, or tongue throughout this process.
    The first exercise is to inhale for a specific number of beats and then exhale for a specific number of beats with no sound. Placing hands on stomach can help remind students to expand throughout the inhale. Hands around the side of the waist (thumb facing forward with the other four fingers vertically stacked toward the back side of the waist) is also useful and you can remind singers to keep rib cage expanded while exhaling. It is ideal to work down to a one-beat inhalation with no tension as this is where tension often occurs in the music.
    Inhale for a specific number of beats and then exhale for a specific number of beats on a sustained consonant such as s. Use any of the previous hand motions for kinesthetic reinforcement. Make sure when using the sustained consonant, the pressure does not cause tension in the neck. When transferred to singing, this will produce a pushed sound and can have a detrimental effect on intonation. On the sustained release, encourage singers to keep rib cage expanded as long as possible.
    Vary the counts for each inhalation and exhalation; also, try different consonants.

Development of Head Voice
    Singers who choose to join a choral ensemble often have experience singing other genres of music. Whether they enjoy singing along with the radio to their favorite pop star, belting Broadway ballads, or singing Gospel music at their church, it is possible they will enter the ensemble with a different concept of sound than is needed for choral singing. Helping singers to develop versatility in space, vowel shape, and mixture of head and chest voice can help them perform well in multiple genres of music.
    One of the most common problems of inexperienced singers is taking the chest voice too high. Helping students mix the head and chest voice is essential in creating a balanced choral sound. The opposite would be a very robust chest voice, then a complete break followed by a light head voice.
    Many experts believe the easiest way to accomplish this is by making sure the first vocal exercise of the day is descending, beginning in head voice and allowing the mix to occur naturally over time. Kenneth Phillips, Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa, recommends a top-down approach for children, starting at C5 and descending to C4. When working with a mixed choir containing changed male voices, consider beginning with an exercise in F major, starting on the fifth scale degree and descending stepwise to tonic. (C-Bb-A-G-F) This would mean starting at C5 for women and C4 for men. Some choral directors prefer beginning in D major, however, there are many singers who can still sing that A in chest voice. Ee (as in meet) and ay (as in chaos) vowels are effective at producing a “spacious, high, and forward” sound.
    Below are several exercises to help inexperienced singers find their head voice and learn to mix it with their chest voice, eliminating an obvious break.

Hung-ee
    Make a C shape with your hands, turn the fingers toward the ground, and place your four fingers against your cheeks. This motion will help emphasize the vertical space needed for choral singing with soft palate high and tongue relaxed with the tip against the back of the bottom teeth. Have singers imagine the inside of their mouth looking like a rectangle with the long side being vertical and the short side horizontal.   

See-ee-ee

    Make a shallow V with your hands. Your middle fingers should touch just at the top of the lip, while the rest of your hand should run along the bottom of your cheeks. Tell singers to imagine the sound originating above the hands rather than below. This helps produce the high sound Jordan mentions. Getting the sound to resonate in the nasal cavities is not an easy concept to teach, but this motion may help over time.
    If possible, separate men and women into different ensembles. This allows the director to focus on the differences between male and female voices. When working to develop the proper placement and buzz in the sound, Jonathan Reed, Professor of Music and Associate Director of Choral Programs at Michigan State University, suggests starting the men in falsetto and descending. Men tend to carry too much weight as they ascend, so starting in falsetto and stressing the feeling of less weight and pressure when they get below middle C can aid males with the transition into full voice. When doing this, remain in F major, but begin the male students at C5, rather than C4.

Bee-bee-bee-bee-bee

    Position your pointer finger directly between your eyes and shake it forward with each new pitch. Imagine someone saying you did something wrong and shaking their finger at you while speaking. This motion reinforces the forward position Jordan is referring to. Many voice teachers also refer to singing in the mask. This creates a mental image of the sound vibrating in the areas where your face is covered by a mask, your eyes and cheeks (nasal cavity). Men will often swallow the sound, especially as they descend, causing the pitch to go flat. Encouraging them, as well as women, to think upward and outward as they descend can help prevent swallowing of the sound and improve pitch.

Upward Range Extension Exercises
    Learning to access the higher register of the voice requires a systematic approach, just as with an instrument. Many women will say they are altos and cannot sing high, but this is false. Men, meanwhile, unnecessarily switch to falsetto earlier than is needed as they ascend. The most common mistakes when trying to sing high are caused by improper support through the core: the larynx will rise and tension with the tongue, jaw, and neck will often occur. This produces a pinched sound rather than a free, vibrant tone quality throughout all registers. There are several important concepts to consider when helping students access their high register.
    Vowels must be modified as the singer ascends. Women should modify to an open vowel as they approach the top of the staff, and should use an ah (as in father) above the staff. Closed vowels like ee and oo (as in food) should be avoided in their unmodified state higher in the range.
Men should move to a closed vowel before modifying to an open vowel. Tenors should move toward a closed vowel (ee or ay work well) around Eb4, then open up toward an ah as they go higher. Basses should move toward a closed vowel (ee or ay) around Bb3, then open up toward an ah as they go higher.
    Consider stopping at G5 (women) and G4 (men) or lower when beginning range extension exercises. If tension can be seen or heard, stop earlier and don’t go as high the next day. When G is free from tension, gradually add a half step higher with the aim to reach C6 (women) and C5 (men) once daily during the range extension exercise.
    Because of the changes in middle school voices, consider stopping with G5/G4. Cambiatas (boys in the midst of the voice change) will often have a range that goes from about G3-G4 for changing tenors and D3-D4 for changing baritones. This is general – some may not have this large of a range – and should be considered in range extension exercises.
    Keep young baritones below C4 unless it is apparent they can sing it without straining. Once you get high enough to be completely in their falsetto (possibly F4), allow them to sing higher to not lose the ability to sing the notes they had before the voice change. They may struggle with their voice cracking and also may struggle to find their head voice. Consider working from their falsetto downward to find a heady tone. They may still have cracking, no transition from falsetto to full voice, and possibly note gaps.
    Use a descending motion when ascending. This may seem counterintuitive; however, the descending motion can activate the core and possibly keep the larynx from raising.
    James Jordan recommends using arpeggios performed at a fast tempo. This works well as long as students are engaging the core while singing. Start on Bb3 (girls) or Bb2 (boys) for exercises spanning an octave or more (ex. 1-3-5-8-5-3-1), then repeat the exercise ascending by half steps.
    Below are several exercises that can help with range extension. Consider starting with exercises spanning only a fifth until singers are more experienced. D is likely to be a good starting note for these exercises.

See-ee-ah-ah-ee

    Have students squat down without allowing torso to lean forward or back and pretend to shoot a basketball.

Zee-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
    Have students swing their hands out to their sides just below their waist on the high note as they do a plié in second position (legs turned out with feet pointing in opposite directions and heels at least shoulder-width apart). The key to a plié is to keep the upper body from dipping forward or back. Modify the pose so toes face out at a 45° angle rather than 90°.

Vowel Unification, Balance, Ear Training
    Vowel unification, balance, and ear-training are all important to a choir’s development, but time constraints may necessitate working on all three in one exercise. Using the current music to create exercises can help isolate a problem without all the other variables. For example, if the choir is singing in Latin but struggling with vowel unification, you could create an exercise using the following pure vowels used in Ec­clesi­astical Latin: ah (father), eh (debt), ee (feet), aw (lawyer), and oo (food).

Nee-neh-nah-naw-noo
    Place hands in front of stomach pretending to hold a ball. One hand should be on the bottom of the ball and the other on top (not the sides). This helps to create a warm, round sound that makes unifying vowels easier.

Insert a chord with vowels
    This exercise allows singers to listen for both vowel unification and balance. Basses and sopranos can sing the tonic, tenors the fifth, and altos the third. Have the students move the chord up or down by half steps a cappella – or change the chord quality – and this exercise will also work on ear-training and intonation.
    Many directors have specific hand motions for each of the five Latin vowels. The motions below come from Jeff Johnson’s Ready, Set, Sing.
    Ah: make a C with the right hand, turn to where the fingers point downward, and place your four fingers next to your cheek.
    Eh: put the thumb and pointer finger on either side of your lips to remind students not to spread this vowel.
    Ee: put the thumb and pointer finger together, and with tips of fingers toward your face, pull forward from between the eyes.
    Aw: point the tip of the index finger toward the mouth and draw a circle around your lips.
    Oo: put the thumb and pointer finger together, and with tips of fingers toward your face, pull forward from your lips as though holding a strand of spaghetti.

Agility
    Agility takes considerable time to develop, and there are several approaches to consider. Starting simply with inexperienced choirs is crucial. Something as easy as a staccato arpeggio on see-hee-ha-ha-ha, encouraging them to think of their stomach like Santa’s bowl full of jelly, can help train singers to bounce rather than sing an exercise completely legato. Singers can place their hands on their stomach to feel the difference between this and a legato exercise. As singers advance work to take away the h articulation and coordinating the breath and pitch starting at the same time.
    James Jordan encourages directors to teach students how to sing in a martelé style. Starting slowly, singers will allow a bounce of the stomach with each pitch, using a d at the beginning of each note to help with the articulation. If breath support has been taught by bracing in the stomach area, this concept is even more difficult to teach, because flexibility is needed from the core muscles. Once singers are coordinating the muscles with the change of pitch, remove the d, working to align the pitch change to the stomach on only the vowel. Make a fist and punch out from the stomach area, just in front of the belly button, with every d. The next step is to keep the d only on the first note of each triplet. Then, remove all consonants. If singers struggle to coordinate the onset of sound between the voice and the breath, it is helpful to have them think of adding an inaudible h before the vowel.
    Another technique used for melismas in music, like “For Unto Us” from Handel’s Messiah, is to add two different syllables to the notes of the run. Bee-dee-bee-dee (below) works quite well because the b is produced with the lips and d uses the tongue. Jerry Blackstone has also taken the concept and made it into a warm-up for male voices. Not only does it work on agility, it requires the male voice to move easily in and out of full voice, head voice, and falsetto at a quick pace.
    A good visual cue for this is to move hands in a circular motion in front of the stomach, thinking of tossing a beach ball in the air.


Developing agility can be compared to learning to play martelé bowstrokes. Allow a bounce of the stomach with each pitch, using a d at the beginning of each note to help with the articulation.

The next step is to keep the d only on the first note of each triplet.

Finally, remove all consonants. If singers struggle to coordinate the onset of sound between the voice and the breath, it is helpful to have them think of adding an inaudible h before the vowel.

Relaxation Exercise
    It is helpful to end the warmup time with a relaxation exercise. Charlotte Adams provides several that are quite effective. Starting in D major and descending until students reach their lowest note is not only helpful in relaxing, but gives basses a chance to show off the low end of their range. When doing this, encourage students to drop out when it is too low rather than push. Middle school girls do not need to venture very far below middle C4; elementary students should not go below this note at all.
    When descending below the staff modify the vowel toward an open syllable for lowest notes. Ah works well. Use a motion that brings the sound forward and up as they descend to prevent flatness and swallowing of the sound.
    One of Adams’s relaxation exercises that works well for this process is bumm-biddly-biddly-biddly-bumm (top of next page). Have students bounce on toes, put hands beside cheeks, and pull upward with each note.

Conclusion
    Developing a beautiful choral sound is a lifelong pursuit, and being on a choral podium is challenging for even the most seasoned conductors. However, with a systematic approach to developing a warm, tension-free sound, the well-developed assets a skilled band director brings into the rehearsal provides the potential for a highly successful choral program at any level.   

Bibliography
Daily Workout for a Beautiful Voice by Charlotte Adams (Santa Barbara Music Pub.,1991, DVD).
Evoking Sound: Body Mapping Principles and Basic Conducting Technique by James Mark Jordan and Heather J. Buchanan (GIA Publications, 2002).
Evoking Sound: The Choral Warm-up: Method, Procedures, Planning, and Core Vocal Exercises by James Mark Jordan and Marilyn Shenenberger (GIA Publications, 2005).
Glossary of Ballet, Wikipedia (from   ).
“Movement and the Choral Rehearsal: Part One The Use of Movement in the Choral Rehearsal” by Janet Galavan. From In The School Choral Program: Philosophy, Planning, Organizing, and Teaching, ed. Michele Holt and James Mark Jordan (GIA Publications, 2008).
Ready, Set, Sing! by Vance D. Wolverton and Jeff Johnson (Santa Barbara Music Pub., 2001, DVD).
Teaching Kids to Sing by Kenneth Harold Phillips (Schirmer, 1992).
“Working with Male Voices” by Jonathan Reed. From In The School Choral Program: Philosophy, Plan­ning, Organizing, and Teaching, ed. Michele Holt and James Mark Jordan (GIA Publications, 2008).
Working with Male Voices: Developing Vocal Techniques in the Choral Rehearsal by Jerry Blackstone (Santa Barbara Music Pub., 1998, DVD).

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Learning to Lead and Follow
    Apart from the first reading of the composition or a difficult section that would benefit from guidance, the teacher should refrain from conducting or counting out loud. This will be difficult at first for students unaccustomed to leading and following their peers.
    Develop this skill through games that encourage leading and following. Choose any concert pitch (the key of the composition or the tuning note are ideal choices) and have each member of the group lead the start of that note. Explain to the group that everyone will need to inhale at the same time as the leader. The leader will also need to make a gesture (upbeat) indicating the tempo and entrance of the note. Have the ensemble repeat this:

    At the end of the exercise ask ensemble members to critique the performance. Good questions include whether they were all together at the start of the notes, whether they all played the notes in tune, and whether all the instruments were of equal volume. It is tempting as the teacher to supply answers to all of these questions, but because the nature of a small ensemble is to be autonomous, with each member contributing to the final product, it is best practice to encourage the members themselves to point out ways to improve. The teacher should provide necessary help where needed, but encouraging the students to listen for themselves and engage in a helpful dialogue with their colleagues will bring about even more desirable results. Repeat the exercise again, but have a different student lead until all in the group have led. This exercise can be repeated with a metronome set to a moderate tempo.
    One alternative is to have one of the ensemble members serve as a judge, critiquing the performance. This member does not play but only listens. The other members in the small ensemble play and then this designated pupil provides comments.

Learning to Provide Comments to Peers
    My memory of playing in grade school, middle school, and high school bands was that I never provided comments to my peers. We always waited for the teacher to tell us what to do, and our job was to implement the suggestions as best we could. Small ensembles, however, are ideal forums to develop approaches where the students tutor each other. Through this peer-to-peer mentoring, students develop listening skills and the means to present their ideas to colleagues in a way that will encourage others.
    One good practice is for every student to start comments with something positive. Demonstrate this when you provide critiques to group members and encourage them to do so as well. When this is practiced for a while, it becomes automatic. Explain to your students that receiving a compliment first opens up the listener to receive the criticism more easily. Everyone appreciates a compliment. Establish a rapport in your ensemble where the students can give and receive criticism for good results. If this is developed, you will be able to allow the students to rehearse by themselves and further the skills necessary for a successful small ensemble experience.
    Next, it is important for students to learn musical vocabulary and then apply it with specific suggestions. Just saying “It sounds wrong” is unhelpful. Students should be clear about what was amiss – timing of the notes, intonation, or balance – and what could be done to improve. As a part of large ensemble rehearsals, present musical terms and concepts and  explain how students can apply them. Students will need the vocabulary to discuss tempo, intonation, dynamics, note names, and note values.
    Every student in a small ensemble should give and receive comments. The ensemble will not grow to its full potential without the active participation of every student in the group. Encourage the shyest students in the group to share with others. Often their insights will prove invaluable to the ensemble.

Playing Solo, Always
    There is no hiding in a small ensemble. Every note is heard, and each sound produced is an important part of the musical texture. As a result, students must come to each rehearsal with the music ready to be heard and scrutinized by all in the group. Peer pressure can be an important motivation to practice.
    Students unaccustomed to performing in a small ensemble may not know how to project their part when needed. They may also need to be coached in developing appropriate and attractive sounds on their instruments. Sound quality problems that are masked in a flute section of eight will be obvious when the student is the sole flute player. Here the student might best be directed to studying privately with an expert who can demonstrate proper techniques and sounds on the instruments. If no private teacher is available, look online for professional players modeling performances correctly and elegantly so that students can understand the goal of their practice.

Applying the Skills to Mastering the Music
    The first two measures of Mozart’s String Quartet in D minor (Köchel 421) is an excellent source for demonstrating several important aspects of successful small ensemble rehearsals. The concepts presented here carry over to all of the instruments, and students can create ensemble games to help them learn how to play chamber music.

    Violin 1 is paired with cello, and violin 2 is paired with viola. These pairs should enter in rhythm at the same dynamics and style. Violin 1 and cello can practice half notes together on a single pitch. For instance, the violin 1 and cello players can practice six half notes on D, the first pitch of the composition, together. This will help with the timing of the notes, dynamics, and bowings.
    The next step is to play a reduction of the music.

    The two members of the ensemble not playing should provide guidance on the timing of the notes and whether the two instruments playing are balanced, in tune, and in time.
    Placing the eighth notes in the second violin and viola parts accurately after an eighth rest can be difficult. Rhythmic ensemble games or exercises could be created to help with this. First, students should fill in the rests so that the measure is complete with eighth notes.

    This will help students to internalize even eighth note divisions. Students should play this on one note so they can concentrate on the rhythms.
    Have all the students practice this, adjusting the octave as needed. Having everyone play this part will help all students better understand the challenges in the passage.
    The next step is to practice the rhythms as written on single notes. The violin 1 and 2 parts are shown.

    The musicians not playing (in this case, viola and cello) should provide advice to their colleagues. Then try different combinations of instruments with the written notation: cello with violin 2, cello with viola, and then continue with three instruments playing at once. Students will discover that the instrument with the half notes must keep steady beats, and the other instruments must play the eighth notes as evenly as possible within the beats. Finally have violin 2, viola, and cello play as written. The first violinist can coach the group for rhythmic accuracy.
    Mastering all these aspects of the first two measures will greatly improve the group’s understanding of the music and their ability to perform the passage as written. After conquering the exercises they will be ready for the music.

Conclusion
    Students enjoy this interactive approach to rehearsing. Furthermore, when each member understands that they must contribute with their suggestions as well as playing, the group develops greater confidence and collegiality. Students learn to express their ideas and their musicality and thus enhance the bond that makes for excellent chamber music. The secret to successful small ensemble coaching is found in encouraging the students to mentor themselves, work together, and provide a good outcome for all. The benefit from these behaviors will extend to large ensembles as well.  

****

    For more rehearsal ideas, see a video he made with students at the Masterworks Festival. Go to . This vi­deo and a transcript are also available at www. .

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    The sound becomes more resonant here because it is a tighter area of the drumhead. As dynamics diminish, it is common practice to shift farther towards the edge of the head, moving in a straight line out from the body. The drum should also be set up so that the snares on the underside of the drum follow this same straight line.
    This ensures that the student is always playing above the snares and therefore producing the most precise and crisp tone possible. Playing a passage first above the snares, then outside of the snares will demonstrate this change in tone.

Tambourine
    The playing area of the tambourine is similar to that of the snare drum. Students can follow the same guidelines shown in the first snare drum photograph, playing slightly off-center for medium to loud dynamics and closer to the edge for softer dynamics. The straight line to follow moves outward from the point where the student holds the tambourine.

    An easy way to improve soft tambourine tones quickly is to ensure the student is playing right above one of the jingles and still producing both the jingle sound and the sound of the tambourine head. A balanced and even combination of these two sounds should always be a goal when playing the tambourine.

Bass Drum
    The bass drum is also similar to the snare drum and tambourine in some ways. Playing slightly off-center gives the desired tone, even in the softer dynamic range. The bass drum is large enough that this off-center area can cover the full range of dynamics needed.
    On the marching field, bass drummers will usually play all medium to loud dynamics right in the center of the head and move outwards as they get softer. This produces a more defined attack that projects better in the outdoor stadium setting. Playing in the center of the head is sometimes appropriate in concert band as well, but this technique is generally reserved for more rhythmic passages or when a punchier sound is desired, such as when playing a march.

Timpani
    Timpani display the greatest transformation in sound when shifting from an improper to a proper playing area. The performer should play roughly one third of the distance from the edge of the drum to the center.

    Similar to the concert bass drum, it is easy to produce a great tone throughout the majority of dynamic ranges in this single playing area. Students should be careful not to move too close to the edge of the drum, as the sound becomes quite thin and no longer produces a full, rich sound, which is fundamental to the role of the timpani.

Suspended Cymbal
    The suspended cymbal can produce beautiful swells of sound when played properly. For single strokes on the cymbal, the proper playing area is roughly the outside one-third of the cymbal.

    If a student plays the cymbal too close to the bell or center, the tone becomes more pointed and loses the vibration that characterizes the suspended cymbal sound. Playing on the bell is acceptable when called for by the composer but should be avoided otherwise. When playing rolls on the suspended cymbal, the goal is to get the entire cymbal vibrating as soon as possible, as this will produce the most full-bodied and lush tone. This is accomplished by positioning the mallets at opposite edges of the cymbal. This way the sound will be as full as possible regardless of the dynamic when the roll begins.

Triangle
    The sound of a triangle can also change significantly from improper to proper playing areas. For single strokes, the student should strike the triangle in the center of the bottom side. The quality of tone changes depending on the angle at which the beater strikes the bottom side. For a thinner, simpler, more pointed sound, strike the bottom straight on.

    For a sound that is darker, and containing more overtones, the student should strike the bottom at a 45-degree angle.

    This angle causes the ends of the triangle to vibrate opposite of each other, producing more overtones and a lusher sound. When playing rolls on the triangle, move to the right corner of the bottom side, and alternate strokes between the bottom and top of the enclosed corner. The roll sound can also be changed by adjusting the angle of the beater and will produce varying tones according to the angles described earlier.

Mallet Percussion
    When playing mallet percussion instruments, students should avoid the area where the yarn runs through the bar, also known as the node. Because the bar is hollowed out at these points to allow yarn or chord to be threaded through and hold the bar in place, the sound is much less resonant than when played elsewhere. Students should become accustomed to playing either on the edge of the bars, or right in the center.

    It is common practice to play on the edge of bars when playing accidentals in the upper manual, and to play right in the center of the bar when playing in the lower manual. This makes it slightly easier, especially for younger students, as they don’t have to reach quite as far to play the upper manual. This change in tone is quite obvious, and will immediately improve the overall sound of a student’s mallet playing.

Conclusion
    Simple changes in technique can instantly produce higher quality sounds. Once a percussionist or director becomes accustomed to more desirable tones on these instruments, the use of improper playing areas should immediately be distinguishable. However, without this awareness, these fundamental flaws often go unnoticed. These techniques apply to all realms of percussion playing – from the marching band field, to the concert hall, to the drum throne of a jazz ensemble. All it takes is an ongoing attention to detail to produce ideal results.  

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Warmups
    Keep your drumline’s warmup music straightforward, fairly easy to learn, pattern based, and brief. Make sure warmups are focused on the techniques needed to play the show. The best exercises that will warm up the player physically and develop skills over the long term are legato strokes, accent-tap patterns, 16th-note and eighth-note-triplet accent patterns, rhythmic timing patterns (especially some that include rests), double-strokes, diddle and drag isolation, and rolls. Intermediate programs should add flam and paradiddle exercises as well. I like a straightforward and brief warmup because students will be able to memorize it. It is good to work on reading, but students must also focus on developing good technique and listening within the section.
    Beware of percussionists becoming too comfortable with their warmup set. Typically students play the same warmup all season long – and sometimes year to year. I like to change warmups slightly each year so that there is something new that students have to read. I don’t just dictate it to them; I put sheet music in front of them.

Reading and Listening
    Encourage the development of reading skills during marching season. If a marching program focuses on one show for the entire season, that can unintentionally undercut reading skills. Students learn the show in the early parts of the season, but after the music is learned, rehearsals are mostly repetition. The problem is compounded if rote teaching is used as a shortcut to learn music.
    I like to sightread music at the beginning of every rehearsal. This can be more difficult with younger students, but it is in the early years that sightreading is most needed to instill better reading habits. The aim is for students to recognize the vocabulary of the notation in front of them and translate that to performance.
    Before students have their marching music memorized, make a habit of referring to the notation. Identify rudimental elements as they appear in the percussion parts to strengthen vocabulary recognition.
    Most high school programs buy published arrangements for playing in the stands at football games, and I use that music heavily for sightreading. Focus on your drumline when playing these charts. Do not assume that the presence of a back beat and general sense of ensemble time means that all is well. In rehearsal, ask students to articulate rhythms to make sure they are counting correctly, and have the section come up with sticking patterns for difficult passages.
    Teach students to understand the relationship between their part and the other drumline instruments. I like to show students the score and point out the rhythmic interplay of the parts. This way I can ask if they both hear it and see it. This transfers to both concert band and chamber music because it opens students’ ears to the other players. They move from simply playing at the same time and relying on feel to paying attention to the actual relationship between their parts. A snare drummer playing off the beat will think to lock in with a bass drummer playing on the beat.

Identifying Rudiments
    If a program spends a great deal of time on marching, it is critical to make sure techniques and concepts transfer from marching season to concert season, as well as in the other direction, so you develop well-rounded musicians. Rudimental vocabulary has evolved as all language does, but the building blocks are the same. There are legato and natural strokes, upstrokes and downstrokes, rebound strokes, opened and closed rolls, paradiddles, ruffs, drags, and flams; after that point everything consists of patterns, combinations, permutations, and embellishments within the context of the music. Rudiments are a language, so you can talk about rudiments as words that are combined to form grammatically coherent sentences that are then combined to form artful paragraphs.
    If you program a traditional American march for concert band, that is an opportunity to identify rudimental vocabulary. Help your students see that the flam accent in the march you programmed for concert season is no different than what appeared in their marching percussion book earlier in the year, except perhaps for the rhythmic subdivision or the style with which the passage is executed. They will become better readers and learn their repertoire more quickly.
    Material in the Percussive Arts Society International Drum Rudiments will help students see the history of military drumming. Tracing the relationship between early military drumming and contemporary playing can be an interesting music history conversation with your students.
    The crossover occurs in solo literature as well. Introduce students to the solos of Charles Wilcoxon and John S. Pratt. Their works contain a particular rudimental vocabulary and style that has evolved into what is used in modern marching percussion music, and there is a connection there that students can identify.

Fingers and Fulcrums
    Sometimes percussionists play with a closed hand, keeping the third, fourth, and fifth fingers close on the stick even when trying to get a rebound stroke or stay relaxed at higher tempos. They have not developed proper use of the finger lever, and therefore the stick is not pivoting through the fulcrum, which is critical for many different elements of playing percussion. It is an essential part of a rebound stroke, opened and closed rolls, relaxed playing at higher tempi, and flams.
    Any rudimental playing is going to require the player to understand how to open the back of the hand. This does not mean fingers off the stick and flayed out to the sides, which introduces tension to the top of the hand and the forearm. Fingers should be relaxed, with the palm acting as shock absorber for the back of the stick. Alternatively, when engaging the finger lever, they should be used as a contracting muscle into the palm to help support the stick.

Flams
    Some students will also struggle to play flams in context. Students often learn to play a flam – or maybe consecutive alternating flams – in slower rhythms in grade 2 or 3 band literature, but flams in marching music are likely to come much more quickly. This requires an understanding of the relationship between not just the flam itself but the notes on either side of the flam, and how that affects playing the grace note. The Percussive Arts Society International Drum Rudiment #21: The Flam Accent can help to develop this basic skill. One great exercise for this is to focus on playing it at extremely slow tempos and work it up gradually, keeping both the unaccented notes low and the grace notes low. The body will learn how to integrate the relationship between the flam itself and the notes on either side of the flam. It is critical to practice this with both hands. As the speed increases and students get comfortable, they can stay loose while playing the flam, because they are used to seeing them as part of a phrase.

Dynamics
    Define a playing height system and enforce it. One hallmark of a good marching percussion section is the ability to sound like one voice, and one way to do that is to unify the physics of motion across the section. Stick heights are an important part of that. We tie them to dynamics, using heights of 3", 6", 9", 12", and 15" for dynamics from piano to fortissimo, so when players see written dynamics they automatically play at a certain height. Setting a playing height is only useful in marching percussion, where three to seven snare drummers try to sound like one instrument. A percussionist assigned to play snare drum in concert band should play at the height that fits the music and allows for personal expression.
    Some students may need help with stick and mallet height control, especially for sudden dynamic changes. If the part changes from forte to piano (subito), they will have to execute a controlled down stroke, which starts with the stick in a higher position and ends in a lower position (usually tap height). Students tend to implement the height change by tensing up to avoid an unwanted rebound, but the key to avoiding tension is to focus on the timing of the rebound prevention. Students should gently squeeze the fulcrum while closing the back of the hand to prevent the stick or mallet from coming back up. One phrase I like to use is “only as much tension as is required.” Rather than forcing the stick or mallet down, students are preventing it from coming back up. The end result might be the same, but the second approach requires less tension.
    A sudden change from piano to forte takes a bit more work. The upstroke requires students to play a tap and then physically lift the stick or mallet, because there is not enough rebound force to overcome gravity without assistance.
    For gradual dynamic changes, practice legato strokes that subtly change heights. This will give your students the control necessary for a smooth crescendo and diminuendo.

Marching Technique
    Spend more time marching while playing something besides eighth notes in a warmup. Marching warmups typically include work going forward, backward, and sideways, maybe followed by a box drill. Then the band moves right to working on drill, which likely includes many different angles and odd changes of direction lined up against complicated music. There is a critical intermediate developmental step missing, and skipping it prevents students from mastering rhythmic phrases combined with direction changes.
I have students march an envelope drill:

    Students march around the perimeter of the envelope and then make a diagonal change along the angled flap and back out. I have students play a cadence or some of the more difficult passages from the warmup while marching an envelope drill. This helps students understand the relationship between their feet and their hands. In their brain they develop much more integration of movement and playing than they would just marching forward and backward while playing eighth notes.

Resources
    There are a host of publications for marching percussion development, and they usually fall into three categories: exercises and prior performance material from a notable DCI/WGI drumline program, method books that focus on specialized techniques and vocabulary, and collections of progressively graded exercises and etudes specifically designed for developmental and performance use in educational environments. Some of the well-known publishers of marching percussion education and performance material include Row-Loff (which now also owns the drop6 catalog), Tapspace, and The Grid Book Series.
    There are two particular marching percussion developmental resources that I think are well-suited to assist beginning and intermediate high school drumlines (and their band directors). Vic Firth’s Marching Percussion 101 free online video guide is a great starting place for high school band directors who find themselves in charge of an inexperienced drumline. The Packet by Frank Chapple is a developmental percussion method book that is strong in marching percussion techniques and applications. It has useful material for beginning to intermediate levels of the activity, including sightreading exercises.   

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Instrumentation For Small Programs

    Small programs should start with the bare bones; if you have one percussionist, he should march bass drum. With two percussionists, add a snare drum, and if there is a third, add cymbals. This combination gives your band everything it needs to handle the basics.
    The next instrument to add is a second bass drum of a different pitch. Some programs use one big bass drum and add tenors sooner, but having multiple basses teaches students how to fit their split parts together to sound like one instrument. I follow a second bass with a second snare and a third bass. I do not consider adding tenors until there are at least two snares and three basses. That may seem arbitrary, and people can experiment with what works for them, but the most critical element of the drumline is a projecting bass voice that drives the ensemble on the field. The tenor voice is lovely. It develops multi-percussion skills and has excellent transfer value for other areas of percussion, but it does not help your band on the field the way a strong bass drumline can.
    If possible, having a front ensemble is worthwhile, even if it consists of one marimba and one xylophone. It might be true that you don’t hear that one marimba or xylophone for much the marching show, but if you write parts in which they are the only instruments playing or include them in important woodwind passages, then you can get a wonderful change in tone color, which adds aesthetic interest to the show. There is also the benefit of improving keyboard technique in your percussion students. In a small program there might not be percussionists to spare. It is still worth teaching double reed players or even flute or clarinet players with piano experience how to play mallet percussion to add this tone color to the ensemble.

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    Gordon Jacob’s Flag of Stars, Salute to America (1953) is a significant work written for band that lives between notoriety and obscurity and often seems overlooked in concert programs and recording projects past and present. The purpose of this article is to shed light on some interesting new perspectives about the distinguished history of the piece and perhaps encourage more future performances and recordings. 
    Flag of Stars is part of an important chapter in the history of the band repertoire. Gordon Jacob wrote it between 1953 and 1954 as part of a multiyear commissioning project that encouraged prominent composers to write original band works. The project was sponsored by the Pi Kappa Omicron Band Fraternity at Louisville University, now the University of Louisville. A fascinating article written by J. Michael Raley in The Journal of Band Research (Spring 2017) entitled Ernest E. Lyon and The Pi Kappa Omicron Fraternity Band Music Commissioning Project at the University of Louisville (1949-1958) explores the significance of this commissioning project.
    Raley writes in the conclusion of his article that “four commissions were eventually published (Riegger’s Prelude and Fugue for Band, Persichetti’s Psalm for Band, Jacob’s Flag of Stars and Schuman’s Chester Overture) Today the latter three rank among the highest-rated works in the concert band repertoire, and we have them thanks to Ernest. E. Lyon and The Pi Kappa Omicron Fraternity.” 
    According to Raley, Flag of Stars is “ranked among the highest-rated works” alongside Persichetti Psalm for Band and Shuman’s Chester Overture, however the reality is that Flag of Stars does not share the same recognition. Comparing the number of performances and recordings of Chester Overture and Psalm with those of Flag of Stars in the last 20 years shows that the latter is vastly overlooked. Flag of Stars is not listed as a top or selected work for band in various important published lists of selected wind literature such as Frank Battisti’s The Winds of Change or Chad Nicholson’s A Guide to the Top 100 Works in Grades IV, V, VI. It is out of print in the United States. There are also not many professional recordings of the piece. There is one recording on Mark Custom Records by the J.J Pearce High School Band from Richardson, Texas from the 1990s, and the only commercial recording of the piece by a collegiate group was done by Eugene Corporon and the North Texas Wind Symphony. Therefore, it is possible that if we do not pay attention to this important piece it may be forgotten soon. 
    Outside of the commissioning project at the University of Louisville, this Symphonic Overture for Band, also shares a decade with some of the most celebrated and performed original works for band. It is plausible this cleverly crafted masterpiece has been overshadowed by some of these more well-known works written for band during the same decade such as the unequivocally famous Hindemith Symphony in B flat (1951), Howard Hanson’s Chorale and Alleluia (1954), Morton Gould’s West Point Symphony (1952) or Persichetti’s Pageant (1953) and Symphony No. 6 for Band Op. 69 (1956). However, its sophistication and compositional merit are up to par with any of these great masterpieces from the 1950s. 
    There are two letters written by Ernest E. Lyon and Gordon Jacob found at the archives of the University of Louisville Music Library that discuss the reception of the work in 1954. The letter from Lyon to Jacob (below) indicates how delighted they were at the University with the fine composition and is full of praise for the composer who was of the same stature as Vincent Persichetti or Paul Hindemith, among others. It is also a testament to the quality and reception of the composition in 1953. Lyon says that many college band directors looked forward to this new work for band and believed the composition would have a “fine future for performances among first grade bands” – a predicted future that looks dim in today’s concert programs if we do not program and record it more often. 

The opening fanfare of Flag of Stars. Both the score and the letters are courtesy of the Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library at the University of Louisville

    April 6, 1954
    Dear Dr. Jacob:

    I want to tell you how delighted we are with the “Flag of Stars” Overture. Having known you through your orchestral technique book, your Original Suite, your Music for a Festival, William Byrd Suite, and your reputation in general I have looked forward with great pleasure to receiving the overture. We are by no means disappointed in any way and predict that Flag of Stars will have a fine future for performance among first grade bands. 
    I suppose that the members of the Fraternity have told you that the first performance of your work will be on Tuesday evening,May 11, by the University of Louisville Concert Band. I should add also that a great many college band directors around the country already know that the Fraternity here has commissioned the Overture and are looking forward with pleasure to its being made available. I hope that it will be published at the earliest possible opportunity. I have checked the score rather carefully and am now proof-reading for the final time the parts I have corrected as I found them, but there are a few things which seem to me to be “slips of the pen.” 

    Lyon’s letter goes on to ask specific questions he had about the original manuscript. All his corrections were approved by Jacob himself in the r    esponse to this letter, and the piece was published in 1956 by Boosey & Hawkes with Lyon’s revisions. Lyon’s meticulous revisions to Jacob’s “slips of the pen” in the manuscript contributed to a reliable and excellent publication of the piece. Lyon goes on to write:

    Incidentally, I wonder if you know that your William Byrd Suite and your Original Suite for Band are both out of print, or at least were the last five or six times I checked on Boosey and Hawkes to see if they were available. I have played both pieces and have a set of parts to the Original Suite but I always have to borrow the William Byrd when I want to perform it. 

                  Ernest E. Lyon, Director
                  Department of Bands 

    Gordon Jacob responded to Ernest Lyon’s letter on April 20th, 1954, and part of this letter has been published in the program notes on the score by Boosey & Hawkes. However, I will provide the entire letter to put Jacob’s words into better context and discuss two important elements in the letter that have been left out in the score by the publishers. 

    Dear Mr. Lyon, 

                 Yours sincerely, 
                 Gordon Jacob
 
    Boosey & Hawkes published part of this letter on the first page of the score as well as the Walt Whitman poem per Jacob’s wishes. However, there are two important things that the publishers left out. First, Jacob writes that this work is also to honor the veterans from the “more recent” Korean War. This is an important detail that is missing in the published score and adds on a greater significance to the work. Jacob’s decision to include the veterans of the Korean War in the dedication suggests that he was open to honoring more than just World War I and World War II veterans. Therefore, as time goes on this piece should not be forgotten and should be thought of as a continuing tribute to veterans from all wars that followed the 1950s. 
    The other detail left out from the original letter is the ellipsis. Jacob wrote that this symphonic overture is “constructed solidly on classical formal lines” and that it has the “twentieth-century musical language. (but not the extreme type) . . .” Perhaps Jacob used an ellipsis in his letter to Lyon to suggest he had an opinion about “extreme twentieth-century techniques” practiced by some of his contemporaries like Varese or Messiaen but did not want to elaborate. There is no way to know for sure if this speculation is true, but I believe Jacob’s use of an ellipsis in the letter had a meaning behind it. Otherwise, he would have not written it in the letter. 
    Lyon was full of praise for Flag of Stars and shared his view with important people. In a letter from 1954, Edwin Franko Goldman wrote to Lyon “I am glad the new piece by Gordon Jacob (Flag of Stars) seems to be so interesting and hope to see it sometime. I suppose it will be published in the near future.”
    A thorough play-by-play analysis of the piece would be interesting and beneficial for longevity, but it is not necessary to appreciate its compositional merit. The overall architecture of the piece and careful construction of its themes are enough to appreciate it as a serious and carefully crafted work. The piece is in sonata form with an exposition that starts at letter C, a development that starts at letter J and a recapitulation at letter O. It has a two-part retransition that precedes the recapitulation. It also has a four-part introduction and a wonderful coda beginning at letter V that brings back thematic material presented in the introduction and features a brief but recognizable quote from the Star-Spangled Banner. 
    The first theme of the exposition is cleverly transformed from 5/8 to 3/4 at the Piu Mosso to conclude the work. The first and second themes in the exposition are also important to discuss because they reflect the “solid classical formal lines” Jacob talks about in his letter to Lyon. The first theme (m. 43-70) is in ternary form A B A’, with the A section in sentence form (m. 43-58) and the B (m. 59-66) section in a 2+2+4 small ternary. The A’ section (m. 67-70) is the basic idea of the previous A section’s sentence form but without its repetitions in continuation. The second theme at letter E is in sentence form with a two-bar basic idea presented and repeated almost identically, followed by a four-bar continuation that includes some clever articulation choices for the flutes and clarinets. The form of the themes and architecture undeniably reflect the “solid classical lines” Jacob mentions but the unusual rhythmic choices in an unconventional 5/8 time signature reflect subtly the 20th century spirit without any extremes. 
    The grandiose trumpet fanfare at the beginning of the piece is part of a very important historical timeline. Flag of Stars was written at the end of 1953 and the beginning of 1954 immediately following the pinnacle of Gordon Jacob’s career as a composer. In June of 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England and Gordon Jacob wrote the fanfare that preceded God Save the Queen for the recessional at Westminster Abbey. The coronation of the Queen of England was one of the first television broadcasts to reach millions of people around the world and Jacob’s brass fanfare resounded past the halls of Westminster into the homes of millions of spectators all over the world. It is hard to imagine a more important setting for a composer to premiere a piece of music than the coronation of The Queen of England. Therefore, it is no surprise that as he began to work on Flag of Stars just a couple of months later, he chose to begin the piece with a triumphant trumpet fanfare that perhaps took some inspiration from the coronation fanfare. 
    It is also important to emphasize that Flag of Stars is a heartwarming salute to America and its veterans by a non-American prolific composer and this also makes it stand out among the repertoire of the time. There was notable nationalistic band music written by composers of the time that celebrated America, such as Robert Russell Bennett’s Suite of Old American Dances (1949) only four years earlier or Joseph Wilcox Jenkins’s American Overture for Band (1959) six years later, but there is not another piece by a world-renowned non-American composer in the 1950s that celebrates America in such a programmatic way. 
    Luckily, Flag of Stars is still found in the prescribed music lists of Florida, Texas, Arizona, Indiana, and Kansas, among others, which gives hope of more frequent performances. High school and college conductors with strong bands should not shy away from this piece. It is a challenging work, but its rich educational value makes it worthwhile. Once you have programed Flag of Stars, a great resource will be Kenneth Kohlenberg’s contribution to the Teacher’s Resource Guide of the series Teaching Through Performance in Band, Volume 7. In this article, Kohlenberg discusses common performance problems and offers advice and solutions. Apart from Kohlenberg’s article, there is no other literature centered on this piece until this publication. It will be up to the 21st century conductors to dig deeper and keep this excellent piece alive. Most importantly, we should remember Flag of Stars as a significant work for band that helped pave the way for equal or greater original band music after the 1950s and into the rest of the 20th century to present times.    

Bibliography
Chronicles. North Texas Wind Symphony conducted by Eugene M. Corporon (GIA WindWorks Series, 2009, CD).
“Ernest E. Lyon and the Pi Kappa Omicron Fraternity Band Music Commissioning Project at the University of Louisville (1949-1958)” by Michael J. Raley (The Journal of Band Research 52, no. 2, Fall 2017: 40-92).
Ernest E. Lyon to Gordon Jacob, April 6, 1954. University of Louisville (Kentucky) Music Library Archives.
Great Music for Wind Band: A Guide to the Top 100 Works in Grades IV, V, VI by Chad Nicholson (Meredith Music Publications, 2009).
The J.J. Pearce High School Bands Highlights 1994-95: Featuring the Music of Sousa, Ives, Copland, and Corigliano (Mark Custom Recording Service, 1995, CD).
Jacob Fanfare and The National Anthem [HD] (Coronation of Elizabeth II, 1953) (www.youtube. com/watch?v=avTIcdWy3AE).
Jacob Gordon to Ernest E. Lyon, April 20, 1954. University of Louisville (Kentucky) Music Library Archives.
Winds of Change II: The New Millennium: A Chronicle of the Continuing Evolution of the Contemporary American Wind Band/Ensemble by Frank L. Battisti (Meredith Music Publications, 2012).

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A Conductor’s Job
    When someone graduates from college, they are on their own, and the onus of improving as a conductor is entirely on them. A mentor once asked me: When do you take responsibility for what you do not know? The simple answer is as soon as you know you don’t know something. When a director says he is not a good conductor because he did not have a good conducting class in college, this communicates an awareness of a weakness and a belief that it is important. Rather than do something about it, it is used as an excuse. 
    Musicians would never think about playing a solo on their primary instrument in public without practicing and preparing, but many see no problem standing in front of a group having never prepared a score or practiced gestures. Too many conductors can get away with that, especially with younger groups, by blaming the ensemble.
    While it is easy to blame students for poor music making, it is often our shortcomings that contribute to this problem. Conducting basic beat patterns and trying to stay out the way will not lead to musical playing. In addition to developing more effective technique, we must also believe our students can watch and react appropriately to our conducting gestures. It is our responsibility to teach them how to do this. 

Practice with Recordings
    A conductor’s instrument is the ensemble, not the baton or a hand. In a conducting class, you have an ensemble to practice with, but this is not true anywhere else, so I encourage my students to conduct with recordings. There are pros and cons to this. One of the biggest negatives is that you will not affect the sound of the recorded ensemble at all. This is unfortunate, because hearing an ensemble react to gestures is how we learn what works. On the other hand, a recorded ensemble is not going to stop for your mistakes, which forces you to adapt and keep going. Conducting to a recording is also a chance to separate types of gestures. Run through a piece and work only on dynamic or style gestures. Another good type of practice is to drop the right hand and conduct only the gestures you would use in the left.
    Although conducting recordings is a valuable tool, I do not do so anymore, and all conductors should reach that point. Eventually, studying the score leads to an interpretation, which dictates what kind of gestures to use. Stay open to the possibility that a gesture will not receive the desired response from the ensemble. On the podium, the conductor is the composer’s advocate. Unless you only program one style of music, you need to be able to display multiple personalities in front of your group to make each piece come alive. That leads to the question of what you are willing to do to get the sound you want. If you are willing to do anything, the possibilities are endless. 

Practice During Rehearsals
    It is essential for a conductor to have the desired sound in mind before stepping on the podium; the aim is to translate that aural image to gestures. If you stand in front of a group with little idea about where the music should go or what you want to bring out, it is impossible to conduct musically. The desired sound may change or mature as you work on the music, but if we do not shape the sound from the beginning, it will not magically happen at the end.
    In choral music, everyone sees all the vocal parts and the piano accompaniment. This is an advantage over an instrumental ensemble, where musicians only see their part. Players in sections with multiple parts don’t even get to see what everyone in their section is doing; only the conductor has the full score. In rehearsal, we take students on a tour of the piece, pointing out the important spots and showing everyone how their part fits into the whole. 
    Take advantage of the view you have by being prepared to conduct each part in every section of the music. Every time you rehearse a section of the ensemble is a chance to work on gestures. If a passage breaks down into four components, such as melody, countermelody, harmonic accompaniment, and bassline, be able to conduct each part as if it was the only one that existed. When rehearsing just one part, conduct every nuance from that part that can be shown with gestures. For example, if you need to work with the clarinet section, your conducting gestures should show every nuance of the clarinet parts. If you do not get the response you want, try a different gesture. Only then, if the desired response still is not there, is it time to stop and talk about it.
    When putting all the parts together, you will have to make choices about what to show. This means jumping back and forth between parts. Resist the urge to conduct only the melody; it is the other parts that make or break the music. We all want to conduct that beautiful melodic line, but chances are you picked a piece with a beautiful oboe solo because you have a good oboist. It may be that you need to guide that melodic solo a bit, but it is probably all the other parts that need more help. A composer would not have written an unimportant part, so a conductor’s job is to make sure it is heard, whether prominently or as part of the texture. You are prepared when you can jump quickly to any part at any time to assist those players or bring that part out. This is impossible to do without score study and practice. The end result of studying your conducting should be a vocabulary of gestures that shapes the music the ensemble is making.
    This is especially important for transitions. A transition can be as small as a dynamic change or as big as a whole new style, tempo, and key, but all are important. Good ensembles play all the main melodic parts well, however great ensembles pay attention to the transitions. If we do not show such things in our conducting, then we cannot expect students to do it for us. We are there to lead students through the process of making music.

Warmups Are for Watching
    I have had conductors tell me that their students never look up from the music, but students only look up if you give them something to look at. One pet peeve of mine is when I see directors warming up their group with no engagement, playing scales or chorales on autopilot. These standard warmup exercises can be effective for teaching students how to make music, as well as wonderful opportunities to practice conducting.  
    One of my favorite warmups is to play a scale up and down, with four quarter notes per scale degree. I do something different on every beat, so students know they are going to have to watch. After that I move to chorales or etudes. The first time, I conduct straight through with little or no musicality but then immediately say, “Let’s try again and see what kind of music we can make together.” At this point I will try outlandish things to get them to follow. This helps students get used to my gestures and proves to them that they are capable of quickly adjusting to what they see from the conductor.
    Warmups are also an outstanding opportunity to teach conducting gestures to our ensemble. We wonder why students do not play with more musicality and conclude that they are not old enough or not prepared enough, but students learn how to play musically by watching the conductor. With young groups we will have to show them a gesture and put a sound with it, but it is possible. Insist that warmups (and everything else) be played musically. When the ensemble does not play what you ask for through gestures, work together until students understand what you want.

What to Do with Video
    Video is one of the most effective tools for assessing conducting. Many people are self-conscious about how they look when conducting, but the only way to overcome this is to record multiple rehearsals and performances. Also, watch the same recording multiple times, as you will miss things if you watch only once. 
    Make an honest assessment of what you notice, as this is an opportunity to really explore what you are doing as a conductor. I see many conductors whose gestures, while clear, are all one size and style. Everything looks the same. To avoid this, I suggest occasionally watching the tape with the sound off. Look away from the video for a short period of time, and then turn back. If you struggle to determine where you are in the music based on your gestures (which should clearly indicate style, dynamics, and tempo), then there is a disconnect with what you are showing in your conducting and how the music should sound.
    The head should not be buried in the score. It is impossible to get students to react to you unless you engage them with good eye contact and facial expressions; show the emotion you want on your face and in your body language. When I chat with my conducting students in the hallway, they are animated, but then the minute they step on the podium, they become blank. This is often because they are concentrating, but the aim is for conductors to be themselves and be natural. Music is transposed emotion, and it is imperative that we reflect this emotion in the face.
    Mirror conducting is effective and important in some places, but too much of it teaches the ensemble they don’t need to look at your left hand. As much as possible, avoid mirror conducting and save the left hand for other things.
An extra benefit of recording yourself conducting is the opportunity to assess your rehearsal techniques as well. Ask yourself the difficult questions: How much of your rehearsal time is spent with you talking versus students playing? Do the students seem interested and on-task? How is the pacing of your rehearsal? Did you accomplish the goals you had set for this rehearsal?

Conclusion
    We teach music through performance. That performance is not just on the concert hall stage or at a festival, it is also in our rehearsal rooms. Conducting is an art form. If we treat it as functional and mechanical, then that is what our gestures will show and how our ensembles will sound. Conducting musically has a wonderful effect on the music your ensemble makes and has to be our top priority. If you are neutral as a conductor, you are hurting your ensemble. You are either part of the music-making process or negating the possibility of making music. To teach your students music through performance,  become the strongest conductor you can possibly be. Great teaching includes great conducting. It makes a difference.    

Five Tips for Improving Conducting
• Ask a colleague or mentor to watch your video or observe you in rehearsal.
• Attend a conducting workshop. These professional development opportunities are increasingly common. Available at various times throughout the academic year and summer, they can last anywhere from two days to two weeks.
• Observe other conductors at their rehearsals and performances. Make note of what seems to be effective as well as areas that concern you. Analyze how these conductors approach their craft.   
• Take conducting lessons.
• Read a book to expand your knowledge and thought process. There are now many resources available that specifically deal with the art of conducting. Three recent publications I would highly recommend: Frank Battisti’s excellent On Becoming a Conductor; Score and Rehearsal Preparation by Gary Stith; and The Conductor as Leader by Ramona Wis. These particular books, while less about conducting technique, do explore how we approach what we do, as well as how we do it.

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