TRANSCRIPTION 🔗
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Welcome to our podcast, Band BFFs. The podcast
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where we make your music selection less complicated.
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On today's episode, we will be discussing Upbeat
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by Randall Standridge. Cheers to starting the
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conversation. This piece is a blast. So cute.
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It is a publisher grade 1 .5. It's about two,
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two and a half minutes in length. It's really
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fast. Lots of energy, lots of repeated syncopated
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rhythm, massive amounts of percussion, of course.
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There is a split clarinet part and split trumpet
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parts. Everything else is pretty simplified except
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percussion. There's an optional drum set part.
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So like if you have a that can play that this
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this room this is like funk to me right so fun
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so a drum set would be awesome but you can also
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split that out amongst lots of lots of different
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players if you need to and it is not on the Texas
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PML and so Laura and I both said oh my gosh this
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would be so fun to do with a region band because
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it's just beefy enough but also not too out of
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reach so super super fun so the whole piece is
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it's marked upbeat rock, it's at 144, it's in
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the key of concert E flat, and it starts out
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with everybody having the same rhythm. One, and,
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and, and, and one. Little chromatism in there.
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And then like timpani and drum set. One, and,
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and, and, and one. Concert E flat, by the way,
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I forgot to say that, sorry. So at the beginning,
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the first time you have that little part for
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everybody, the final note on measure two, downbeat
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of measure two goes down. One, and, and, and.
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and won. then it goes one and and and and one
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and it goes up to the upper octave so the reason
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I bring that up is because just for teaching
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opportunities that's pretty cool you can teach
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like your flutes how to play the lower C and
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how to play the upper C with a good sound trumpets
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same thing D with the kick slide upper D without
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being out of tune things like that not everybody
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goes up and down the octaves it's just flute
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and trumpet but that's an excellent opportunity
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to always teach how to sound good in ranges of
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your instrument that you don't always go to.
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As you mentioned, the drum set part. And that
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unison octave, right? I mean, this whole thing
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is unison. A lot, a lot of unison, yeah. So then
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there's this little rim shot, little snare jump,
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digga digga rim shot. And then at five, it's
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so cute. It's a digga digga rim shot. Digga digga
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rim shot. Lots of cymbals too, which you know
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Standridge loves, so just use with caution. Yes.
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So then the... drum set part kind of keeps going.
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You've also got like a tambourine part like you
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really do just think of like a little. It is
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rock yes. At five the sax and the horn have the
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melody and it's got some accents one two and
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three four and one two and and and then at seven
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the low people come back in with that same rhythm
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one and and and one and and and one and then
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they play it once alone and then at eight the
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the upper people join in and play it with them.
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I told Laura before we started this, we're playing
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this right now with our Sweet Sub -Non -Varsity
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and they love this piece because... They're like,
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it's so hard. It's so fun. Cause it's the same
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rhythm over and over. And they're like, but there's
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a style marking on everything, right? So like
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there, I mean it does, it can look a little intimidating.
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The rhythm with all the eighth rest and then
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the accidentals and then the style, but it comes
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together so sweetly. So I, I just, I love this
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piece. So you're going to hear me sing it a lot.
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And I just think it's so fun. I come home from
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work singing it. So it's very catchy. Um, so
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then the horns and the altos. Take over again,
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same little rhythm. One, two, and three, four,
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and one, two, and one, and, and, and, and one.
Load full transcript
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So then everybody's got that. And then the lows
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get to keep going. Two, three, four, one, two,
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and one. Oh no, wait, sorry, we're not on that
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part yet. So right at measure 13, the horn and
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alto and second clarinet comes in with this little
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almost chromatic little lock down. One, three,
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four. Yeah, it's so fun. When the upper voices
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get the one, two, and three, four, and one, two,
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and, and. Yep, and then the lows got it again,
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then everybody joins them. It sounds like something
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from Sesame Street. I don't know. Do you know
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what I mean? Like, teaching you a, this is the
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word of the day. I don't know. Okay, well anyway.
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I just showed my age. I'll take that back and
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we can use that in the band hall on Monday. So,
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so fun though. So continuing on, we get a, the
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next little moment is with trumpet and flute
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and oboe at 17. They have the same thing. One,
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two, and three, four, and now we've got this
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cute little chromatic thing. One and two and,
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and then everybody has one and, and, and, and
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one, two, three, four, and those all, all those
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notes. have an accent on them when we're crescendoing
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up to 21. This is the melody I was thinking it
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was before. So now the trumpet, horn, and clarinet,
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and sax. And percussion, by the way, is super
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active all the way through this. Not only do
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you have that cool drum set part, but I mean,
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there's lots of cymbals. Lots of cymbals. There
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is some mallet percussion stuff that's going
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on. Cowbells, suspended cymbals being hit. And
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cowbells are pitched cowbells. Like you want
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two different pitches of cowbells. There's all
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types of some serious funk percussion happening.
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At 21, now we've got a new melody. One, three,
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four, and. Three, four, one, three, four, and.
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two three four one so it's so cute so catchy
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again a great teaching piece because you do have
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like inharmonic notes you get to talk about like
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oh it's an f sharp in this measure but now we're
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in a new measure now it's f natural um you know
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all those little things that you know are great
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to teaching moments yeah um There's the bass
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line happening underneath that as well with percussion
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just kind of keeping the groove. The melody comes
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back again. And this bass line in this section
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really is just like a something. A walking bass
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line, yep. Then we've got everybody reaches at
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28, one and two and three and off. And then 29,
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everybody has the same rhythm again. It's just
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like the beginning. And one, lots of percussion
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in between. Yep. 33, we go back to that same
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thing from before, this time with flute oboe
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and clarinet one only on the melody with bells
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only. And it's not accented in the same way it
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was earlier. You don't have those punches on
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one and three. Yeah, it's a little bit more like
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calm here. The low brass are doing something
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different. That's a piano, yeah. And they have
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like a cool little chromatic -y thing too. Then
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the horn and clarinet have a response. So they
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play first, upper people. One, two, and three,
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four, and one. two and and and then horn and
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alto one two and three four one and two and so
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now we've taken that same melody and just split
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it out between two different voices um then they
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we all kind of all join in together and lead
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up again to 39 lows get to have one and and or
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sorry one and and and and one then it's a percussion
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break then everybody one and and and and one
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percussion break again then a forte piano 43
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the lows have the melody one and and and trumpets
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add more people add and one then it's percussion
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break for four measures and now it's a ds all
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coda so you go back to five and you play basically
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the same stuff again so the same type of roadmap
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yep until measure 28 and then it goes to the
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coda and the coda has really similar stuff in
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it again everybody playing together. We bring
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that same theme back one and and and and one
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just like the beginning. Yep we've got the accented
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melody again one two and three four and one two
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and everybody one two three four and so it just
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has this cute little ending I mean this piece
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is just adorable and really easy to put together.
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Because it's so repetitive. Or depending on your
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group, right? That's right. Yeah. That's right.
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But just a couple of basic melodies to latch
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onto. And then it's about. That's right. That's
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right. Then it's about layering and balance.
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Exactly. And where's my ear going? Ear mapping
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it out correctly for them. Letting your percussion
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have some fun, but not get too crazy. And like
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people are always asking, you know, Laura and
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I for like advice on what should I. I program,
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blah, blah, blah. Recently, somebody asked us
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like, I need a piece with dotted quarter notes
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in it. I need to make sure my beginners understand
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this rhythm or whatever. This is a piece where
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you, it's literally called upbeat. So do you
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need some help with some syncopation? This is
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your piece, you know? And once they get it, they'll
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get it forever, you know? And they'll always
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be like, oh, remember upbeat when I learned how
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to play on an A and well, and I love that so
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many of those trickier rhythms are unison, right?
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The style is unison, the rhythm is unison, so
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I mean that makes teaching it so much easier.
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You could spend a week on the first four measures
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if you needed to because everybody plays the
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same thing. Yes, and it comes back over and over.
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But like I said, it makes kids feel really successful
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and they love it because it sounds harder than
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it is. And with the DSL Coda, it makes it seem
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longer than it is as well, which again is really
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fun for... Any kid to feel successful and excited.
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Yeah, it's 50 printed measures. Plus the CODA,
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of course, you know, which is another, what,
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20 measures or something. Oh, there you go, 62
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measures. That's so fun. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we
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hope you will consider programming Upbeat in
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the future and thank you for joining us on this
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episode of Band BFFs.