SOKA FeiYang Symphonic Band

alexfun · Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:20 pm Band Sound: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Band Sound: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
by William Berz

Whether it is in a rehearsal, a concert, or at a festival, I am always struck by one trait that seems to separate the truly good bands from those that are less advanced: ensemble tone quality.

Obviously an ensemble’s tone is determined in large measure by how well each student plays. While there is no substitute for developing and teaching the individual student, there are many unique factors that come into play when dealing with tone quality for the entire ensemble: blend, balance, and intonation just to name a few. It is the conductor’s responsibility to help students learn how to play in an ensemble setting. As students learn how to do this, the sound of the group will undoubtedly improve.

Achieving good blend and balance seems to be a never-ending goal. While the two concepts are related, they are distinctly separate. Balance refers to achieving a proper relationship between the various parts of the score, to make sure the melody is heard in proper relationship to the harmony for example. Blend is more global relating to the overall sound of the group — how the various parts fit together to yield the composite sound. It is this area that the conductor must really help the ensemble.

Much has been written about the inverted pyramid of Francis McBeth. To summarize very briefly, the principle holds that the lower the sound in the overall tessitura, the more its presence needs to be heard. This is true for both the overall sound of the band and for individual sections. I believe in this approach very firmly and feel that most bands would benefit from using it. I have written several articles about this; they can be found at the Rutgers Music website.

Because of the nature of the instrumentation, bands tend naturally to do the reverse of McBeth’s inverted pyramid with the result that high frequencies dominate. Many of the strongest instruments tend to be those of a high tessitura: trumpets, flutes, piccolos, and upper register clarinets. This is further complicated by the instrumentation problems so often found in school bands. Often there are inadequate numbers of students who play horn, trombone, and tuba. In many cases less advanced students are assigned to color instruments such as bass clarinet and euphonium, which further aggravates the challenge of achieving good blend. Teachers must work to improve instrumentation certainly. They must also work with students to develop an understanding of what constitutes good blend and balance as well as the listening skills to help achieve the goals. Students must know that part of their responsibility is to fit their sound into the whole. Achieving good blend and balance is certainly a long-term goal and needs to be revisited each year as the membership changes.

I would also like to offer a suggestion to improve the quality of band tone that can be achieved relatively quickly. In the short term I know of nothing that can improve a band’s sound more dramatically than to just simply reduce the volume, particularly of the treble instruments. Overblowing creates any number of very significant problems especially in intonation, one of the greatest challenges of all for wind players. If individual instrumentalists can be convinced to keep within volume bounds, the overall sound of the band will undoubtedly improve quickly and dramatically.

There is an old basic rule that might help students think about tone production.Only play as loudly as you can and still produce a beautiful and characteristic sound.

We often ask students to play in-tune; I ask them to play “in-tone” as well. I have forgotten where I learned this expression, but I have found it to be very helpful in reminding students that they need to fit their sound into the whole. (I apologize and thank whomever it is whose idea I have borrowed.)

Obviously, individual tone quality and ensemble blend are directly related. During the heat of the rehearsal process when we seem to find ourselves in the constant battle to fix incorrect notes and rhythms, we must not forget that tone quality too is a goal that must be addressed. We must find time in the rehearsal to teach our students to play both “in-tune” and “in-tone.” Otherwise our ensembles will sound bad and ugly.