The first rehearsal of the indoor season starts tonight for Cienega Indoor Brass. Unfortunately, due to a previous engagement, I’m unable to make it, so Kenny will be heading up a visual-only rehearsal that will focus on teaching our visual technique as well as beginning some fitness/endurance training. The visual and marching technique will be largely based on what Cienega High School’s Copper Thunder Marching Band used on the field this past fall, but with several changes that we think improve the overall look as well as help define what our ensemble is.
Cienega Indoor Brass is not marching band. The venue is different: a gym instead of a football field. Because we are a new type of ensemble, the traditional military-based, ultra-disciplined look and feel does not necessarily apply. This is not to say we won’t look and be disciplined and precise, only that we are free to define our look and movement as we see fit.
There will definitely be a physical element to this ensemble. We are playing with tempos much higher than one typically encounters in marching band here in Arizona, playing music that is much more reliant upon each individual rather than a section, and we do not have a full-fledged drumline or percussion ensemble to fall back upon in order to get a breather throughout the show. In short, we are playing harder music at faster tempos for much longer periods of times without the typical breaks one might find in the typical marching ensemble setting.
We are going to need to be strong enough in our upper bodies to carry our instruments with ease and without creating additional stress and tension in the body, which would affect one’s playing ability.
We are going to need strong lower bodies to push us through the fast tempos while maintaining precision timing and technique in the feet.
We’re going to need lungs of steel in order to blow through phrases and create a variety of dynamic music shapings without letting feet and weakness creep into our sound.
We are going to demand much in the way of physical fitness from the members in order to successfully pull off what we’re asking of them. Everything is attainable, but only with hard work and smart work.
Now is the time to start all this. 46 Days until First Performance.
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