Piccolo Sectional Report 8/25/21 8pm-9pm 201 McCain

Warmup:
- Matching pitch: Someone plays a note, we try to match it. Then “brass circle” for
piccolos. We explained the point of the exercise being to come back into the f pitch better
every time.
- Breathing exercises: Waltz, Angels in the outfield. Made sure that we were filling all the
way up, and exhaling all the way out.
- Bb major scale (to focus on articulations): Tenuto half notes. Tenuto quarter notes.
Staccato quarter notes. Two staccato eighth notes of the same pitch before ascending.
Four staccato sixteenth notes of the same pitch before ascending. The piccolos did really
well with this exercise, and it reflected into the halftime music later in the sectional.
Shut Up and Dance:
- M. 1- 22 Focused on accuracy with articulations. The warm up made this very clear, and
they executed it well.
- M. 36-40 Worked on tone and slurring on the correct notes. This section was sounding
shrill on the field, therefore we made sure to talk about adjusting during rehearsal not just
during warmups.
- M. 41-42 Accuracy of the sixteenth pattern in this section was about half and half. Jessica
Minnich modeled the rhythm for the group then we practiced it by looping the two
measures. This was much improved!
- M. 54 We noticed that the quarter note Bb on beat four was being played as two eighth
notes. We addressed that and it is fixed.
- M. 58 Practiced the Fp a couple times, which is sounding great now!
Don't You Worry ‘Bout a Thing:
- M. 1- 8 Accuracy of notes. Discussed the quarter notes with rooftop accents. These were
previously being played too long which made the following notes come in late. With the
correction of the “Dhat” quarter notes, the rest of the line fell into place and sounds very
clean.
- M. 9- 25 There are many half and whole notes in this section. The tendency was to not
cut off on the right beat. We worked on this by discussing when to cut off and having
section leaders saying out loud “off” on the beat they were to cut off.
- M. 26- 29 Articulations.
- M. 36 Worked on the Fp, crescendo, decrescendo
- M. 41- 44 There was a vertical alignment issue happening because of the heavy
syncopation. We worked on this by having everyone marking time and discussing how
their foot will be in the upwards position when they play of the off beat. Taton assisted us
by conducting this segment so they could line up the music with her.
- M. 44 Decrescendo on the whole note C
- M. 45 Worked on confidence in playing this measure out since it is important.
 - M. 46- end Worked on bringing out the accents in this section. Talked about how the
drumline accentuates the accents and that we need to play like them. We also addressed
that to make a bigger impact on the accented notes, the other notes should be played
normal or with less accent.
It Don’t Mean a Thing:
- M. 25- 34 Worked on the syncopation and vertical alignment of this section as well as
note accuracy of the eighth notes in m. 31 & 33.
- M. 62- 65 Worked on the note accuracy and swing of this section. This is an interesting
few bars that need to be brought out.
- M. 73- end Worked on the timing at the end. We worked on this by counting out loud and
focusing on the accents to help us. We also reminded the group of the spread and the
flash. Looking snappy!
We were not able to get to footloose, but we will make sure to start with it next week.

Jenna D.