Sound Innovations for Concert Band: Ensemble Development for Intermediate Concert Band: Baritone B.C. Book

This book understands what intermediate baritone players actually need: targeted technical work grouped logically by key, paired with genuine musical content from composers who write for bands. The 70-plus chorales come from established voices in the field (Sheldon, Boysen, Standridge, Story, and others), giving students real musicianship to pursue rather than exercises in isolation. Teachers can move fluidly between skill-building drills and artistically rewarding work, making rehearsal time count in both directions.

The experience shifts between focused, often spare technical work and moments of genuine artistry. An exercise on sixteenth-note articulation in F major suddenly connects to a chorale by Robert Sheldon that asks you to shape the same figures with warmth and intention. The music moves cleanly without condescension.

Baritone players in intermediate concert bands who need structured, systematic work on technical facility alongside meaningful musical repertoire. This book works as the core resource after completing foundational method study or as a performance-based complement to your regular literature.

• Study the marked dynamics and articulations on the chorales first; they model how interpretation shapes phrasing and color across a section.
• Use flexible exercises to isolate specific technical challenges in your section, then return to the same exercise type with full expression to reinforce musical growth.
• Lock ensemble balance by playing the chorales unison or in octaves with other baritones before adding harmonic layers.
• Record your section on a chorale and listen back to check intonation tendencies; many of these pieces sit in ranges that expose pitch drift quickly.

Cycle through the chorales in concert preparation to build ensemble cohesion during sectional rehearsals; a four-measure chorale can anchor fifteen minutes of tone and blend work. Pull targeted exercises in the weeks before performances to address specific intonation or articulation concerns that emerged in the full ensemble. Use the flexible exercises as daily warm-up material, letting them evolve from technical drills into expressive warm-ups as students progress through the season.

• Reading and performing exercises grouped by key signature, building transposition security across intermediate ranges
• Balancing whole-note and half-note chorale singing to develop sustain and ensemble listening
• Articulation clarity in sixteenth-note and mixed-rhythmic figures
• Intonation and blend in harmonic contexts
• Interpreting dynamics, style markings (legato, staccato, marcato), and tempo indications as compositional intent