What is the single most effective way to motivate band members? (choose one only)

	Praise the band when it performs well.
	Develop a tradition of excellence.
	Select music which provides supporting players with their moment of fame.
	Have a schedule of regular performances.
	Arrange social activities involving band members
	Encourage competition among members for first chair postions.
	None of the above.

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Welcome to The Concert Band

This web site is dedicated to college and secondary school concert and wind bands. It contains information about the various instruments employed, as well as hints about band training (including technique and intonation), conducting, the physical laws the govern sound production, and anything else I think the young musicians who play in these bands might find helpful. Some sections (such as the one on interpretation) are more for band directors than players, of course, but overall I have tried to include something of interest to just about everyone.

There is also a large section devoted to the activities of the Brass Band Jenderal (BBJ), a Salvation Army band based in Medan, Indonesia. If you are interested in this Band, click here.

Some of the information on this website has been extracted from my book entitled The Band Director's Handbook: A guide for College and Secondary School Band Directors in Southeast Asia. The book also includes additional chapters on pedagogy and the varying characteristics of different wind band instruments that are not included in this website. It also has a chapter devoted to writing arrangements and transcriptions for wind band. To order a copy of my book, see the publication details below.

BBJ stands for Brass Band Jenderal. It means “The General’s Band” in English. The band is based at a Salvation Army Boys home in Medan, Indonesia. Sometimes called “The Medan Band” by foreigners, it was given the name BBJ in 1989 by General Eva Burrows (the Salvation Army’s international leader at the time) when she met band members in Bandung, Indonesia Read about it here.
This website includes several free scores for both wind and brass band that you can download and use with your band. One of my favourites is an arrangement of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus that I wrote for brass band. To take a look as the music, click here. To take a look at the other scores currently available on this website, click here.
This is the section where I intend to post a variety of articles expanding on subjects not discussed in detail on other parts of this website. Click here.
This section discusses some of the basic principles involved in getting beyond the notes and interpreting the music. Not all of the principles outlined here need to be understood by band members in order to produce a musically pleasing performance. However, the conductor certainly needs to be aware of them if he is to bring out the best in his band! Click here.
This book has been written in response to the need for a comprehensive yet affordable guide for wind band directors. It is a practical manual, dealing with the principles of embouchure formation, tone production, and articulation for every major brass and woodwind instrument. Special chapters are also devoted to the fundamentals of conducting and writing transcriptions. In every case, the idea has been to approach the subject matter from the point of view of the non-specialist.

You can purchase the handbook online

http://www.mphonline.com.my

Or From The Amazon.com

The Art of Composition

Focus
Written by Bruce Gale
A sk a composer how he goes about writing music, and you are unlikely to get a satisfactory response. One reason for this, I suppose, is that there is rarely a simple answer. There are numerous approaches, and few composers pause to consider their own methods vary carefully. One aspect of the subject that has always irritated me is the way in which admirers of successful composers are quick to suggest that their man (or woman!) was "inspired" by some event or personal experience. Whole compositions, they seem to imply, emerged in their complete form from the composer's head.. I am not trying to belittle creativity. But I am arguing that for most people - even famous composers - the old adage that genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration is truer than many people like to believe. Writing music is not some mystical process. It is hard work - even for the experts. Mozart was reputedly able to compose entire works in his head. But is this really credible? Mozart was a very tidy person, and very likely to have discarded any early drafts of his music. Beethoven, on the other hand, hoarded his sketches. After he died, researchers found thousands of them, revealing that he laboured endlessly over his compositions. Many people feel a particular sympathy for Beethoven because he became deaf in his old age and was therefore unable to hear the wonderful works he created. But as someone who has struggled to write music, I identify with him far more because of the effort he put into his life's work. While the flood of musical ideas that entered his brilliantly creative mind were seemingly unstoppable, Beethoven found it hard to compose. His sketches can be interpreted as an attempt to discipline those ideas, refine the rough edges and transform them into great art. When he lived in Vienna, Beethoven did much of his composing while taking long walks, intending to enter ideas for musical themes into sketchbooks when he returned home. Worried that he might forget some of the ideas before he returned, he soon began carrying manuscript paper and a pencil in his pocket. Have any of you budding composers out there tried that? I know I have. Much of what we know about Beethoven's process of composition comes from the work of researchers such as Nottebohm. Before him, the untidy ruminations the great composer left behind after his death were regarded as incomprehensible scribbles. Individual pages were also torn out the the sketchbooks and kept a souvenirs, enormously complicating efforts to make sense of them. Beethoven's sketches vary in length from two or three bars to several pages. Often they show only a melodic outline, occasionally with hints of the harmony he thought appropriate. They are untidy, with numerous deletions, alterations and ink blots. There are even a few notes incorrectly positioned. Beethoven, it seems, actually made mistakes! If the form of a work was to be different in some way, Beethoven usually sketched a synopsis outlining the main features. Thus, while the first movement of his Eroica Symphony was in the usual sonata form (and thus needed no synopsis), the finale's complex blend of variations, rondo and other elements required careful planning. Such plans usually involved references to key changes and instruments to be employed. Lengthy drafts were often supplemented with shorter variant sketches, with some bars being reworked as many as 30 times. Curiously, some of the most intensive sketching was reserved things we would normally consider insignificant, such as the links between one section of the music and the next. But while many regard Beethoven as perhaps the finest composer who ever lived, it is clear that he was far from satisfied with his own music. For years he considered re-issuing his early works in heavily revised versions. Beethoven's acute attention to detail in his compositions meant that it was not until the second half of the twentieth century that his music's full richness was appreciated by musicologists. To me, however, the appeal lies in the incredible effort he put into his writing. It gives hope to all who try to follow in his footsteps.