Polka Dots and Moonbeams - A Nice, Easy Euph Solo to Work Up
My wife's cousin is a talented pianist and accompanist. I was talking with her last week, and mentioned that I was teaching myself the euphonium. As is typical for her, she said, "Cool! Let's play something together at the next family gathering." Uh-oh. Now, I'm in for it. I'm not feeling ready yet for really playing for any audience, but she's very persuasive.
She's got tons of music, so we started looking at it. I ran across one of my favorite songs, "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," an old Sinatra hit that has been played by almost everyone and is familiar to most people. It's in F. Good key for a beginning euph player, too. I looked at the vocal part, which was in treble clef and said, "How about this?" It's ideal for a baritone/tenor voice, so it's a perfect fit for the euph's center range.
So, now I've transcribed the part into bass clef and am learning it. It lies very easy on the euphonium, has a little chromatic stuff in the bridge and an easy, laid-back sort of tempo. The range, just an octave and a half, isn't large, and there's plenty of room for a bit of improvisation. It's about a month until the family gathering, so it'll be ready. Those gatherings always end up around the piano, and lots of my wife's relatives are good amateur musicians of one sort or another, so this should be fun. My pianist cousin-in-law's husband is a semi-pro cornet player, so he'll probably join me on the piece.
I'm excited. I finally have somewhere to play and something fun to work up. It's not a big deal, but it's a good goal for me.
3-valve Blessing B-350 Euphonium