Muhamad Yusri

Last Wednesday, the University of Minnesota Band Alumni Society (UMBAS) Summer Band had its first rehearsal of the season and while watching my colleague start on the podium with warm-ups, I was listening and thinking about what I can do when I lead the warm-ups in the future. Oh, this year, the UMBAS Summer Band has two conductors!

Let’s consider aspects we would like to achieve during the warm-up segment of the rehearsal. We need to consider how much time we have and the frequency of rehearsals. Getting together once per week for two-and-a-half hours , preparing a program that is an hour long, does not really leave you with much time to do a good warm-up. So what can we do?

Breathing exercises

As a wind player, I find breathing exercises to be a very important part of the warm-up process. A good breath could really affect the sound one gets on their instruments positively. When I was part of the Asian Youth Orchestra, I had the privilege to have Professor Edmund Cord from Indiana University as our Trumpet tutor and he shared a couple of breathing exercises with us that stuck with me till today. I felt I was able to get a bigger and more relaxed sound. There are many breathing exercises available for access. See which works for you and your band.

Combine scales, long notes and many other things!

I am a strong advocate of scales and that all bands need to have a strong command of scales in their vocabulary. To save time, we can choose the scale of the first piece of music we would be playing: Fanfare – The Benefaction from Sky and Mother Earth by Satoshi Yagisawa. The awesome thing about that piece is that it is in the key of Bb! So it would be really familiar for all members in the band.

1. Play Concert Bb Major scale for one octave from Bb to Bb, 4 beats per note, breathing (WHOH-THOH) after every 2 notes. Bb Clarinet play higher octave. Mallet percussion plays tremolo, snare drum plays in quarter beats and bass drum plays in crochets.
2. Play Concert Bb Major scale in groups coming in a third later, from low to high. Group 1 – Tuba, Euphonium, Trombone, Baritone Sax, Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, and the Bassoon. Group 2 – Trumpet, French Horn, and the Alto Sax. Group 3 – Bb Clarinet, Oboe, Flute, Piccolo and Mallet Percussion. Snare drums plays in semiquavers and bass drums plays in crochets. This exercise provides the members with the opportunity to listen out for balance and intonation.
3. Everybody plays together over one octave in semiquavers at crochet beat = 66 (as per indicated at the beginning of the Satoshi piece). Bass Drum plays crochet. The conductor can work on crescendo, decrescendo, Sfp, and dynamics.

Play through pieces in the repertoire

Sometimes, when I am really pressed for time, I would run through a piece from the repertoire, work on a few parts on things like balance and articulation, and then tune the band! Not the most ideal option but I must say but when there is a time crunch, this would be a great solution to get the band (engine) started!