[MUSIC] Bopping is a technique that has lots of different applications. One really good one is to help bring out textures or counter point. If there's a section that may sound like this, very thick. Let's try measure 45. [MUSIC]. There's a lot going on in that, one way we can clean it up is by bopping. It essentially means just play the very beginning of each note, and nothing more. So, a whole note, is bop, two, three, four. Every note is just a bop. There are a couple rules we can adjust to it. So, if there are slurred passages that are just too hard to go [SOUND], go ahead and slur, slur those. Those are fine. Another way another term for bopping could be dutting or tutting or totting. the advantage of the those is that it helps, emu, emulate what we actually do as wind players. We don't actually play, bop when we play. We may actually play [SOUND] or [SOUND], but the effect is the same. So lets bop that section. [SOUND] This is measure 45. If you have something that's too hard to bop, go ahead and slur it. [MUSIC]. And that's still very thick but we can break it down [SOUND] even more. So let's try measure 45, with no folks who have deep [SOUND] or deep [SOUND]. No accompaniment, just essentially just the brass, and a few saxophones. [MUSIC]. Yes, we're doing this for a few reasons. One is to help bring out that, that counterpoint inter relief. But also make sure our rhythm is very good since it's really just emphasizing. The beginning of each note. Let's try it again. So it's not all [SOUND]. It's. [SOUND]. 45. Same folks, same place. [MUSIC]. We really need to think our pitches on [SOUND]. [SOUND] Let's go back to 45 symph folks, and let's play it as written. But the key point here is to make sure that the clarity of that texture that we just achieved through bobbing is maintained, as we un-bob it. 45. [MUSIC]. Let's add our woodwinds back into that texture, so is everybody 45 as written. Woodwinds do your best to essentially decorate that texture, as opposed to competing with that texture. So, percussion two everyone 45. [MUSIC]. We can use bopping and legato examples also and it helps bring out moving lines. So if we have a crowd it sounds like this. [MUSIC]. Were off, what were often going for is, making those inner voices, eighth notes especially in this kind of texture, really express and bring it out. So we can pop it. In Legato texture, it probably makes more sense to essentially legato bop. So it's not. Bop, it's bop or dot, so we get a little length in the notes, but we still create some space in it. So let's legato bop, in this example. [MUSIC]. And so you can hear how, it really brings those inner moving lines, really into relief. It a, it can be challenging, especially in slow music groups, often find it more difficult to bop. Because they are not sustaining, and all of a sudden there is all this, space, and they enter in the wrong spot. But that is actually a good exercise because it forces, everybody to make sure after, bop. Two, and three, and wow. Let's try that again. And let's also put emphasis on where we start each note. That's the other point of this exercise. So, even in slow music our rhythm, our precision, is just as vital. Legato bop. [MUSIC]. So let's try it as written. So play it without the bop, but really let's bring out those inner voices that we just heard so clearly, in the context of the full ensemble. [SOUND]. [MUSIC]. So that example, maybe we can bring those moving. Moving lines even more out. The bopping didn't quite work where we wanted. That's okay. At least we helped, show the entire ensemble, where the moving lines were. So, let's bring it out even more, so if you have a moving line really energize it going into the next line. Same thing. [MUSIC]. Let's breathe together. It's slow music is so much harder than fast music, there's so much space between beats. We have to really be, consistent with our subject. [MUSIC]. That's pretty good. So some of these moving lines are melodic, like. [SOUND]. Some of them are harmonic. Alto voice has the downbeat of the second measure, right? That moves the beat, too, the only folks who move. And that means to have a little bit of extra energy on that downbeat, because of the, because of the suspension. [SOUND] Let's try it one more time, base voices measure four. Right? [SOUND]. That could be energized a bit also. Measure one. [MUSIC]. I'm just not convinced of that first note. Let's read together. [MUSIC]. And another way to bring that out, it may not need it here, but another possibility, is to simply to ask the moving notes to play at a different dynamic than the non. On moving notes, so let's try that. If you have a moving note, an eight note especially, or a note that moves when none else does, play that moving note, forte, and play everything else meta forte. So we'll really bring these moving lines and let them pop out. [MUSIC]. And clearly that's an exaggerated version of what we're going for but there are certain textures in certain situations where that can really help, and then we just essentially homogenize it out to our final version which is this. [MUSIC] Bopping is also a great technique, just to give ensembles to play short, so we have an example that sounds like this. [MUSIC]. Okay, you can simply ask a group to [SOUND], which is just say [SOUND] on each note or [SOUND] or [SOUND] on each note. Let's try that. [BLANK_AUDIO]. [MUSIC]. That might be an exaggerated, but sometimes it's easier to go from the very, very short and then fatten it a bit as opposed to constantly trying to find ways, to get a long note to be shorter. Bopping is a really good shortcut to get there. So let's fatten that just a bit, so it's a bop, bop, or dot. So it just goes bop! [MUSIC]
