Six Tone Builders, Set 2: Concert Band Conductor Score & Parts

Conley strategically embeds chromatic passages throughout these six pieces to address real intonation challenges your band will face, rather than asking you to solve problems in abstract exercises. The short format means you can use these as focused warm-up material without eating into rehearsal time needed for your main repertoire. Directors return to this set year after year because it delivers measurable improvement in ensemble blend and pitch accuracy.

Clean and purposeful. Each piece sits in a comfortable range for young players while maintaining enough musical substance to feel like real music, not a drill. The chorale-based writing creates warm, sustained sonorities that reward careful listening and breathing.

Elementary and middle school band directors building young ensembles from the ground up. These work whether your band is reading at grade 1 or a developing grade 2 group that needs focused tone and intonation work before moving into more complex repertoire.

• Balance the texture by asking lower voices to maintain steady support while upper voices carry melody; use these pieces to establish the habit of listening across the entire band, not just the section you're sitting in.
• Take the chromatic passages slowly enough that players hear and adjust to each half-step shift. Speed comes after intonation sits.
• Mark the specific measures where intonation challenges occur (often where chromatic motion appears) so students know where to focus their listening and breath support.

Use these as your opening material at the start of rehearsal when ears are fresh, cycling through one or two pieces per session over several weeks. They're equally effective as a concert opener (especially the chorale arrangements) or as a standalone demonstration of how much your ensemble has grown in sound quality.

• Chromatic intonation across the full ensemble
• Listening for and correcting pitch drift in sustained chords
• Balancing parts to achieve blend rather than dominance
• Breathing and phrasing as a unified section
• Reading and responding to conductor cues for tone production