A few weeks ago, the UAHS football team finished their season. As the football season wraps up, marching band season ends as well. But what does the marching band do for the rest of the year? Students in the band are now moving on to the next stage of their band experiences: Concert Band. Beginners intermediate
As the football season wrapped up, auditions were held to place band members into three different concert bands for the rest of the school year. These three bands are Symphonic Band, Concert Band, and Gold Band. Unlike during the marching band season when students had to arrive at 7:30 to practice, these Concert Bands meet only during first period.
“After football season we usually have concert and jazz season where we meet during the mornings,” sophomore Mo Fredrick, a saxophone player, said.
To audition for these bands, students are given a packet of excerpts from various pieces of music, many from music they will play later in the year, that they then perform in front of auditioners.
“We then can place students where they’re gonna find the most success is ultimately our goal,” band director Todd Fessler said. “Marching band’s great because it brings all 160 band members together, but we lose a lot of the opportunities for more differentiation for each of our students on an individual level. So when we split into those three bands hopefully our intent is to help serve all of our students and help every student grow musically.”
These bands take a more comprehensive look at the music and offer students more individualized experiences.
“On the football field I just want to fill the sound and make sure that baseline is being covered,” senior sousaphone player Richard Frenken said. “Then we start the concert season so then we go into more depth.”
Frenken is also a squad leader and band officer. These are students whose job it is to help other band members with their learning.
“They’re people who lead people and guide them through learning an instrument,” Fredrick said. “They just sort of help out people who don’t know what’s going on.”
The three concert bands are organized by experience and technical difficulty. The first band, Symphonic Band, is largely for experienced upperclassmen who have been in the band program for a long time.
“They’ve been exposed to a wider variety of music, their techniques are at a higher level where we can perform higher grade level music,” Fessler said.
Musical grade levels range from one to six, with one being the easiest and six being the hardest.
“We generally play four and a half to five level music in our top band. Our middle band has played most recently around grade three to three and a half and then our gold band is somewhere in that range of one and a half to two and a half,” Fessler said. “They can all still be great pieces of music but they’re just at different technique levels to help serve the students who aren’t quite as developed as those in that higher ensemble.”
The middle band is Concert Band and the last one is Gold Band. Gold Band was created last year, due to an influx of students in the program. Many more students were interested in Concert Band, and the directors of the band program felt the need to create a third ensemble to ensure students an authentic Concert Band experience.
“When I took over six years ago we were at about 135 students around that average mark but just over the couple of years we’ve had a very large surge of members and we’re now at 169 and projections to be in the 190s next year,” Fessler said. “So we saw the need to create a third ensemble.”
Another opportunity students have is to audition for a Jazz Ensemble. There are two Jazz Bands at UAHS: Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab. Students are placed in one of these two bands based on an electronic audition that took place over several weeks ending on Nov. 12th. These bands meet four days a week at 7:15 a.m. and end by first period, so students can participate in both a Concert Band and a Jazz Ensemble. They are also open to students outside of the band who play instruments such as drum set, guitar, bass, or piano.
“There’s a spot for everybody in our program, we’ve just got to find the right spot for everybody where they will fit in and grow,” Fessler said.
While concert bands and jazz ensembles are taking place, the full band does still meet occasionally.
“We will meet together as a full group again for pep band preparation or if we have a marching band event going on, we’ll come back together for that, for example, we went to Disney last year,” Fessler said. “So occasionally we’ll still have a 7:30 report or 7:30 rehearsals in the mornings, but that’s largely finished at this point.”
The UAHS band program offers students and listeners a great experience both during and after the football season and helps ensure its members a great musical future.
