Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

[RickF]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

Have you seen Grafton H.S. playing this on YouTube? The eupher comes out in front of the band for the trio. Very impressive I'd say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...kxJ7eU&feature=related

[unzipyerreligion]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

I hate this song. lol Nah, it's okay, but I just started playing again after not playing for over 12 years, and the director of the community band I'm in decided to pull this one out. Craziness. It's a bit easier to play on baritone, but it's just crazy.

[yoofyjazz]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

Go to iTunes/search:bandman to hear a big band version of The Melody Shop.

You'll never listen to the march version again. It's awesome!

[DelVento]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

I'm playing Melody Shop for my high school's spring concert and it is quite a humbling piece to say the least....

Should I circular breathe at all for this or is leaving out notes OK.

[GregEuphonium]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

The couple of times that I have performed the Melody Shop I have either traded off with the other euphonium players in the section so that no notes get left out... If you don't want to trade off then spend some time going through the fast and difficult sections and be very very selective with what notes you leave out.

[euphoriceuphoniumeuth]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

I am also playing Melody Shop with my high school band program right now. I have asked several band directors who are familiar with the piece of their opinion on leaving out a few notes here and there, and most of them I have asked have strongly approved of the idea.

I performed the piece last Tuesday, and look forward to playing it again at NMEA's conference in a few weeks.

I wouldn't hesitate leaving a few notes out.

[Eupher6]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

About 10 months before I retired from the Army, the band commander (who is now fronting the Army Blues, CW5 Chuck Vollherbst) dropped this little gem in my lap saying that it would be a featured piece during fest jobs.

OMG. Thanks, Chief. How'm I gonna find the time to woodshed this thing along with the rest of my "preparing to retire from the Army stuff"?

He just smiled his trademark crooked smile, shrugged, and walked off.

The other eupher in the band (this was the 1st Armored Division in Bad Kreuznach, Germany) worked it out such that I played the more difficult passages while he played the others, allowing me to breathe. (Nope, never learned to circular breathe.)

Our biggest challenge was to keep the metronome in our head, rather than listen to each other, because by the time we reacted to what the other had played, we were individually behind. At the tempo we were going at (half note at about 152), there's no time to react. You just have to rear back and let 'er rip.

[PatRyan44]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

I come late to this thread and have nothing to add to the technical advice, but thought you all might enjoy this performance of The Melody Shop, particularly the gallop the second time through the trio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QKGglYBevY

[Snorlax]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

REMEMBER:
When Melody Shop was written, the euphonium was MUCH smaller than it is today. It was probably played on a pea-shooter instrument by today's norms with a pea-shooter mouthpiece smaller than a 6.5AL. Look at a picture of Leonard Falcone, for example, with his horn, and you'll see what I mean. Art Lehman, I suppose, was the first important player to use a large horn with a large mouthpiece.

Every time I have played this in a section, we have split it up somehow. On those few occasions I have played it alone, I leave a couple notes out, usually the first two eighths of a six eighth-note pickup.

[JBrassLee]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

We are playing this piece for our May concert. I played it last nite on my Chinese stencil comp in rehearsal. It was a little rough and our conductor put us out on front street three times for the trio. We actually got very close the third time, so much so that the rest of the band clapped, I think they clapped for the level of difficulty, not our skill, hehe. Maybe they clapped because we were done..hehe

Anyway, I finally got rid of that stencil horn today and picked up my Yami 321 with a Schilke 51 D. This trio is much much easier on the Yami..I even got the D(treble clef) above staff on the trio effortlessly this evening. For some reason, the larger bore comp did not feel agile on this piece, but the 321 was very fast through the trio for me. The quicker, shorter valves make a big difference as well.

I think some of the above posters were correct about horns being smaller when Karl King wrote this. He was a baritone-euph guy though and he expected a lot from us when he wrote parts.

We will see if I can work it out. I am going to beat it to death for the next few weeks. We are also playing a piece called In Memoriam which is mostly all above the staff for the euphs (treble clef)..I guess that would be WAY above the stafff for bass clef.

Lee

[JBrassLee]

Melody Shop and The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

The Melody Shop went as well as can be expected in our May 20 concert. It was our encore, and my chops were already beat down to behin with. But, we made it through.

Breathing through those parts is almost impossible for me. I ended up just breathing when i needed to and hoping the other two euphs would be playing while I was breathing.

A very humbling experience indeed. Not that I needed any more humbling though, hehe.

Lee