Technic Today, Part 1: Baritone T.C. Book

Ployhar designed this supplement specifically to build technique in isolation, making it invaluable when your band needs focused work on tone production, interval accuracy, and rhythmic precision without the complexity of full ensemble arrangements. The natural progression from Band Today, Part One means your baritone players encounter familiar concepts reinforced through concentrated technical studies, cementing fundamentals before moving to more challenging repertoire.

Straightforward and purposeful. These studies feel like structured practice sessions rather than tedious drill work; each exercise targets a specific technical concern, and students can track their improvement clearly from one session to the next.

Baritone players in beginning-to-early-intermediate bands who are working through Band Today, Part One and need concentrated technical reinforcement. This supplement works equally well for students who started with a different method and now transition into the Contemporary Band Course.

• Work through exercises in short, focused bursts rather than all at once. Five to ten minutes of Technic Today at the start of a sectional session sharpens fundamentals before moving to full band literature.
• Emphasize consistent air support on longer note values. These technical studies reward steady breath control and expose uneven tone quality immediately.
• Rotate between exercises and corresponding passages in Band Today, Part One to show students how technique translates directly to actual performance.
• Build interval accuracy by having students listen critically to each fifth and octave. Ask them to sustain problem intervals longer than written until intonation locks.

Assign selected exercises as individual practice requirements parallel to your Band Today assignments, ensuring technical growth keeps pace with ensemble reading skills. Alternatively, dedicate one sectional rehearsal per week to working through these studies together, using them to diagnose and address tone quality and intonation issues that show up in full band settings.

• Major and minor scale passages in various keys
• Interval identification and accurate intonation in fourths, fifths, and octaves
• Breath control and sustained tone on long note values
• Rhythmic precision with mixed meter figures
• Dynamic control and balance between adjacent pitches