I teach high school second band and do a daily drill that focuses on sameness of tone, color, shape etc on long tones and intervals, like many of us do. I feel like my kids to a good job on these fundamentals of matching and controlling all that in various registers. This translates well to our music in marching or concert band as far as balance and blend.
The problem I'm running into is they struggle to communicate dynamic shapes and phrasing, no matter how much I remind them of dynamics, circling crescendo/decrescendo, forte pianos, etc. It all sounds very safe and stale. My theory is I may be emphasizing "sameness" so much in daily drill that they are simply just carrying that into the music.
Any thoughts on this? Does anyone have an exercise they like to use in daily drill that incorporates dynamics/phrase shapes? My kids are strong enough players that they can still play with characteristic sounds at the piano and forte ranges...I just can't get them to do the contrast like it needs to be.
Hope that all makes sense. Thanks any input
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