I recently have received the opportunity to compose and conduct a piece for my schools middle school (5/6) concert band! It would be a "music theory" project so to speak. The kids will be deciding on the topic of the piece and the middle school band director will be giving me general range and rhythm limitations. Now I have never actually rehearsed in a concert band setting from the conductor's viewpoint, so I was wondering if any of you folks had any suggestions! I am going to try and make it a pretty simple but catchy tune that won't bore the kids lol. So any ideas on how best to rehearse younger students would be much appreciated!

Depending on the length & difficulty of the piece you might want to begin by prepping the areas where the Middle School students might have performance issues (I.E. Notes, Ryhthms, Musical style changes such as Legato vs. Staccato). Keep the pace of the rehearsal going or you might have issues with attention lapses. Basically, think in terms of what you might expect to do if you were rehearsing an ensemble piece of music & run larger sections of the piece at first in order to familiarize the students with the music as well as identify any areas that may need additional work. Again, keep the initial rehearsal from becoming a major woodshedding session. That should only occur if the students are not able to work out any performance issues on their own, or if section issues occur that cannot be eliminated by individual/lesson practice.

Good Luck ... And have fun !!!

Thanks ff and I shall most definitely have fun with this lol

Do you know what piece you are going to be conducting yet?

I'll be writing it!

The only thing I would suggest then is make sure it is in a common key signature. While it may be interesting to write in a diminished 5th just take into account the skill level of the audience. With that said tubas would love it if you wrote more than just whole notes if possible.

Aw yeah I love tubas lol and low brass in general xD I am a low brass guy so I'll make sure nobody is bored lol

Pretty please don't make the percussion parts just 2 measures repeating the entire piece like 99% of all composers do out there

Hahaha ok sounds good xD

Also, when writing the piece, it seems that many younger players love it when their section is featured as the melodic voice. I know I was extremely excited when we had to play "Here Comes Santa Claus" and the higher woodwinds were featured for a line or two as a beginner.

Just a suggestion c: