Awesome Sauce: 2nd B-flat Trumpet

Watson writes with genuine understanding of what makes students want to play. The blues inflection and rock-solid groove here have immediate appeal, while the limited chromatic material and clear articulation requirements give you real pedagogical footholds without sacrificing style or fun. It's the kind of piece that builds ensemble cohesion because everyone in the band feels the attitude.

Walking in with total confidence, turning heads, owning the room. The blues-tinged melody carries swagger while the driving rock beat keeps everything grounded and tight. It's a piece that lets your band feel cool while they're learning.

Any concert band director looking for a grade 1 piece with genuine style and attitude. Students at this level respond to the confident groove and contemporary idiom, while directors appreciate the teaching value embedded in the jazz-influenced rhythms and the controlled harmonic vocabulary.

• Nail the rhythmic feel first. The rock beat won't groove unless your section leaders lock in the subdivision; spend rehearsal time on precision with the hi-hat pattern and bass drum coordination.
• Clarify the articulation style with your brass. The 'cool' character depends on clean tonguing and purposeful note releases; mark your parts clearly and listen for consistency across the section.
• Let the blues melody breathe. This isn't classical phrasing. The slight rubato and swagger in the soloists' lines will emerge once the ensemble foundation is solid, so don't over-conduct the small moments.

Program this as a first-half closer or opener when you want to shift the energy and show your audience (and your students) that concert band music lives in multiple worlds. It pairs well alongside traditional classical repertoire as evidence of the genre's modern range, and works particularly well in informal concerts, pep rallies, or festival settings where attitude and approachability matter.

• Executing rock and blues rhythmic feels at tempo
• Coordinating articulation across sections to establish style
• Reading and performing jazz-influenced syncopation
• Balancing ensemble blend with style-appropriate independence
• Interpreting dynamic and tonal shaping within a contemporary idiom