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'Musical' Notation...

Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-06-19 16:01

How can I write things like trills and semiquavers so that people that tend to play things in a very mechanical manner play them more freely or musically?

So often in concert bands that are often run by military band instructors, I hear trills played like machine gun fire rather than with the trill coming in after the note has been played or starting slow and speeding up as orchestral players and soloists tend to do, as well as triplets being played broadly and groups of semiquavers being played more relaxed (again starting slow and speeding up) instead of all being played mechanically.

I and others that aren't from a military background have often been told off by some (but not all) military band instructors when playing solos with some bands for 'dragging' and 'not playing the quavers to match the euphonium players' or 'you're slowing me down' - surely the conductor shouldn't be swayed by what the soloist is doing in terms of keeping the tempo, but still have the ability to allow the soloist to play their solo how they want to. Some want everything done to the letter and at tempos that are too fast for the soloists to give a musical performance.

Should I just have the instructions written above the notes in the band parts to instruct those players to play them less metrically or rigidly? And what sort of instruction would be best so they understand what I mean? There's nothing worse than writing out an arrangement and for the players to just play the notes rather than playing the music.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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