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we'll find our way. by Tyler Jones

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Overview:

Key signature: Concert Bb Major Length: 4 minutes 30 seconds

Time signature: 4/4 Style: Rock ballad

Tempo: Quarter note = 85 Dynamic range: ppp - ff

Grade level: 3 Scoring: 6 part Flex arrangement

Instrumentation:

Part 1: Flute, Eb Clarinet, Bb Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Trumpet

Part 2: Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Trumpet

Part 3: Bb Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Trumpet, Horn

Part 4: English Horn, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Treble Clef Euphonium, Horn

Part 5: Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Tenor Saxophone, Trombone, Euphonium

Part 6: Bass Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone, Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba

Percussion (optional): Timpani, Bells/Vibraphone/Synthesizer, Marimba/Xylophone/Synthesizer, Snare Drum/Bass Drum/Tambourine/Suspended Cymbal

Special Considerations:

Tyler Jones offers this piece as a message of hope to the musicians, music teachers, and students affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The piece is dedicated to them.

Rehearsal Suggestions

Musical Expression:

Music exists to communicate emotions. It has the ability to transcend words and speak directly to our hearts. At this time, we all need music more than ever. Whether you are able to rehearse and perform this piece in person or virtually, take some time to have the musicians contemplate how they feel. After they have silently thought about what they have gone through since March, 2020, encourage them to allow those emotions to flow through the music. we'll find our way. is the perfect way for them to access their feelings and share them with others.

To find additional opportunities for emotionally connecting with our musicians and our audiences, read Completing the Circle by Bud Beyer.

Tonality/Intonation:

we'll find our way. is in the key of concert Bb major. The challenge for musicians is playing with proper intonation, so the expressive elements of the piece are not destroyed. Edward Lisk is an expert on the science of sound and provides an extremely detailed explanation of the hows and whys of the tuning process in many of his books, including The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader.

It is best to set a pitch from either a drone or a tuba (or lowest instrument in the band). A drone is advantageous, if possible, especially for a young band because it provides a consistent pitch. Using the Yamaha Harmony Director HD 200 keyboard is also helpful for hearing chords in just intonation and tuning them accordingly.

Concert F is the best pitch for tuning almost all wind instruments because of the overtone series and where it lies on the instruments. The exception is Eb alto and baritone saxophones, but the benefits of F in all the other instruments outweigh this. After the winds have tuned to F, the drone or tuba can switch to Bb and all winds can join the Eb saxophones in tuning that note. Tuning should start with principal players. After the

principal euphonium is in tune with the tuba, they continue to play and then the principal trombone player joins them. The process repeats through score order (ascending). Next, everyone else tunes by listening to their section leader. Only one person in each section (who has not yet tuned) should tune with the section leader at a time, so each musician can clearly hear themselves and identify if there are beats in the sound. It is not necessary for the musicians to know if they are flat or sharp because they only need to listen for beats in the sound. If they are pinching the embouchure to slow down beats, they are flat and if they are relaxing the embouchure to slow down beats, they are sharp. Then they can adjust their instrument by moving the slide/mouthpiece/barrel in or out or adjusting the reed. Next, they need to identify if the beats got slower or faster. Faster beats means to go the opposite direction on the instrument and slower beats means to continue in the same direction until the beats have been eliminated. When musicians are perfectly in tune, their sound is indistinguishable from the sound of their section leader. They should keep playing as the rest of the section tunes. In addition to blending within the section, each section needs to balance within the ensemble. Generally speaking, this means listening down to the tuba or lowest instrument in the ensemble or the instrument playing the lowest part. After the ensemble has achieved balance, blend, and intonation, the conductor can bring out different colors depending on the desired musical effect by suggesting certain instruments blend into the sound of other instruments (for example, trumpets blending into the clarinet sound or alto saxophones blending into the horn sound).

After musicians have completed the tuning process, they can play unison pitches around the Circle of 4ths from Edward Lisk's Alternative Rehearsal Techniques - Creative Director Series. This allows them to hear and play in tune in all keys. Eventually, you can add perfect fifths, major chords, minor chords, and seventh chords in all keys.

Pulse/Rhythm:

In order to achieve rhythmic precision, the ensemble must establish an internal pulse.

In The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader, Edward Lisk describes how to develop an ensemble's sense of internal pulse. With my students, I refer to it as the internal pulse game, to instill the idea that becoming better musicians through concentration and focus is fun. To lead the game, hold your hands out with the palms up and count aloud 1-8 (at a tempo of approximately 60 beats per minute). Next, the musicians should count with you. Everyone should be counting with a crisp tone of voice and be focused on listening to the space between the beats. It is important that musicians keep their bodies entirely still during this time. The emphasis is on internal pulse, not on external elements like foot tapping, head bobbing, etc. After the pulse has been established, turn your hands, so your palms are facing down. When your palms are down, you and the ensemble members should switch to silently counting. During silent counting, no one should be mouthing the numbers to themselves. Remind musicians of the internalization process or "thinking in your brain". At first, only indicate one or two beats of silence at a time. As the musicians improve their internal pulse, keep your palms down for more beats. It becomes a fun challenge for musicians to see how long they can count silently and still come in on the correct number and with their voices exactly together.

After the musicians have performed the pulse exercise correctly, they should transfer it to playing around the Circle of 4ths. Start by having them play in unison on concert F on the Circle of 4ths for pulse 5. Ensemble members should be counting to five (internally) while they are playing for four beats, releasing on beat five, and then breathing and entering with the new pitch on the next beat. After they have played concert F, they should play concert Bb, then concert Eb, etc. At first, you can conduct a "one" pattern and indicate the entrances and releases. When the ensemble is secure in the internal pulse,

stop conducting and let the musicians continue to play pulse 5 around the Circle. It is important to stop the ensemble when precision in entrances and releases is lost. Remind musicians to breathe together and play together. Whenever the entrances or releases lose precision, name a new pulse (for example, pulse 3 or pulse 6) and begin on a different note in the Circle (concert C, for example). With practice, the internal pulse of the ensemble and precision of entrances and releases will improve. As this occurs, indicate pulses between 3 and 7 (or longer). Rests should also be added. For example, pulse 5 rest 3 would be "play, two, three, four, release, two, three, breathe" and would be notated as a whole note followed by a whole rest.

Some unusual rhythmic elements in we'll find our way. keep it engaging for the musicians and the audience. There are times where there are triplet rhythms in some instruments at the same time as duplet (eighth note) rhythms in other instruments. For example, in measure 25 parts one, three, and half of the mallet percussion have triplets and parts two, four, five, six, and the other half of mallet percussion have eighth notes.

Start by having everyone alternate between playing eighth notes for one measure and resting for one measure around the Circle of 4ths (concert F, rest, concert Bb, rest, etc.)

with a metronome (quarter note = 85). Then switch to having everyone play eighth note triplets in the same manner. If the triplets are not even, have the metronome play triplet subdivisions, so musicians can hear exactly when the notes should happen within the beat. After they are comfortable with eighth notes and triplets, have the metronome play eighth notes, while the musicians play triplets and then switch to the metronome playing triplets while the musicians play eighth notes. Finally, put the rhythms back into the context of the piece. Isolate the measures where these rhythms occur and allow musicians to focus on playing the written pitches and having the rhythms line up precisely.

Sometimes there are rests in unexpected places within the rhythm pattern (for example, measures 33-35).

In these cases, have musicians play the rhythm as though a note were there. They can start by playing in unison around the Circle of 4ths to become secure with the entire rhythm. Next, take away one of the added notes and add back in one of the rests. Repeat the process until musicians can play the rhythm with all of the rests that the composer intended. Finally, put the rhythms back into the context of the written music and have the musicians play the rhythms on the indicated pitches and with the rests written in. During the unusual rests, make sure musicians are aware if someone on a different part is not resting, so they know what to expect.

Measures 61-62 is an example of several different complex rhythms occurring in different instruments at the same time.

These rhythms can be taught in a similar method to the rhythms above, except all of these rhythms fit together and are easier to figure out with an eighth note pulse for the subdivision. When everyone can play all of the rhythms correctly at the eighth note pulse, start by having one group play their rhythm and then layer the other rhythms in one at a time. Start with the rhythm with the least notes and gradually add in rhythms with more notes. Finally, have everyone play their parts on the pitches indicated.

Dynamics:

we'll find our way. relies on subtle changes in dynamics. Many of the crescendos and decrescendos only go between one dynamic level (for example, pianissimo to piano or mezzo forte to forte). In his Creative Director Series books, Edward Lisk explains that musicians should count aloud the number of beats the crescendo or decrescendo lasts. If it is a five beat crescendo from piano to forte, have them start counting aloud softly at "one", gradually getting louder until their voice is forte at "five". In this case, if it is a five beat crescendo from piano to mezzo piano, have them start counting aloud softly and only get slightly louder, so their voice is only mezzo piano at "five". It will definitely take practice to space a crescendo over five beats, or in some cases nine beats, without getting too loud. The important thing is to be able to say it correctly and then think the same way, while playing. The process is the same for decrescendos, except counting backwards 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (or 9-1 or 3-1, depending on the length of the decrescendo), starting with the voice louder and gradually getting softer. Decrescendos will be more of a challenge to do with only one dynamic level of difference (mezzo forte to mezzo piano, for example). Trust the process and allow musicians time to develop that skill. When it comes to playing the fortissimo and pianissimo passages in the music, it is necessary to remind the musicians to only play as short or as soft or as loud as they can play with proper balance, blend, intonation, and tone quality.

Articulation/Style/Phrasing:

There are many different articulations utilized in the piece including legato, staccato, tenuto, accents, staccato accents, and slurs. One way to deal with articulations is to help musicians understand how articulations are used as expressive elements in the music. In Artistic Nuance, Edward Lisk suggests using Edwin Gordon rhythm syllables (for example, "du", "ta", "de", ba", etc.). Rather than using them to define the rhythm where "ta", "ta", would be two quarter notes, instead apply them to different rhythms with nuance and inflection. Speak a simple rhythm pattern (quarter notes and eighth notes, for example) and speak the syllables ("du" and "ba" etc.) with inflection (happy, sad, curious, etc.). After you have spoken the syllables with inflection, have the musicians play and imitate your inflection through their instruments. Instruct them to echo you on a new pitch of the Circle of 4ths for each response. After repeating the same rhythm with different inflections a few times, change the rhythm. As they get better at echoing with nuance and inflection, add in rhythms from the music with a variety of articulations. This approach allows the musicians

to focus on the aural, rather than the physical aspects of articulation.

Edward Lisk explains in The Creative Director: Conductor, Teacher, Leader that there are three natural laws of musical expression. Teach musicians that short notes look for long

notes, low notes search for high notes, and high notes search for low notes. Short notes searching for long notes often applies to phrasing using dotted eighth and sixteenth notes (for example measure 31).

When the dotted eighth note is on the first part of the beat and barred to the sixteenth note, it makes it more of a challenge for musicians to phrase it correctly. When the sixteenth note is first and is barred to the dotted eighth note, it naturally has short notes leading to long notes. In measure 31, beats one and three are more difficult to play with proper energy and beats two and four are easier to play correctly. Edward Lisk recommends instructing musicians to speak "day" for the dotted eighth note and "te" for the sixteenth note to achieve proper direction and energy in the line. In the example above, musicians should speak in rhythm, "day te te day day te te day". After they have done this with the correct energy of short notes leading to long notes, they should think the same way while playing their instruments. This process can also be used for dotted quarter and eighth notes using "to" and "day" as well as dotted sixteenth and thirty-second notes using "t" and "day".