How many Piccolos does your Band have?

FltnPicc_David · Post by **FltnPicc_David** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:54 pm

ast year I was the only one but this year its me and my Section Leader. I have seen bands with like 12 piccolos and last year's All County 11th and 12th grade band (in FL All County only takes 12 flute players) but like 7 were piccolos! Major headache...

Starqle · Post by **Starqle** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:14 pm

Currently, I'm the only picc player. There are four other flute players. In most groups where I've played picc, I was the only one. Sometimes I've had to trade off with someone else. At times, there were picc duets, so someone else joined me.

Band_Geek · Post by **Band_Geek** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:08 pm

Right now, there are 2 piccolos playing. One girl needs to get the piccolo from her aunt and the other is still deciding if hes going to go through with it and play. So by the concert, 4 will be playing, myself included.

MeLizzard · Post by **MeLizzard** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:16 pm

How large are these bands? Typically, one is enough, especially in an "honor" band. If the person can play, anyway. I've seen bands with no flutes and all piccs, but this contributes to a very harsh sonority in a band. For two years, I was the (sole) piccoloist for a 200-piece band. (Yes, my playing was audible!) Likewise, in orchestras and wind ensembles, unless two parts were composed, there usually should be only one. Good grief, there's one band in my area with a total of 50 members, three of whom were assigned piccolos!!!!

Two of them really aren't playing those things very well--if they were, that would wipe out the entire band!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Band_Geek · Post by **Band_Geek** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:20 pm

This is an estimation but there are 20 flutes, 4 piccolos, 20 clarinets, 10-15 trumpets, a basoon, 5 bass clarinets, 4 tubas, 2-3 trombones, and 10 drummers. So its about 82 people. Even with that amount of kids playing, even one piccolo is noticable. I can understand what your talking about Lizzard. Its crazy. If my band director goes through with this and lets 4 piccolos play, its going to be a mess.

Starqle · Post by **Starqle** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:22 pm

4 tubas is nice... but not French horns, euphoniums, saxes, or oboes...?

Band_Geek · Post by **Band_Geek** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:23 pm

Oh I completely forgot. I cant tell the difference betweena tuba and euphoniums. So we might have 1 or 2 euphoniums. No french horns, or oboes. There 4 alto saxes and one tenor sax.

MeLizzard · Post by **MeLizzard** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:29 pm

Hmmm...maybe she should switch a coupla trumpets or flutes to horn, and a coupla clarinets to oboe!

Flute to bassoon is also an amicable switch.

Starqle · Post by **Starqle** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:41 pm

Someone switching to the bari (sax) wouldn't be a bad idea, either...

Realistically, though, none of that is going to happen.

Euphoniums are kinda small, tubas are huge. The bell of a tuba is usually higher than the player's head and while a euphonium bells are usually lower.

ClariFlute · Post by **ClariFlute** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:40 pm

My band has 1 piccolo and theres about 23 people in my band altogather. Believe me, 1 piccolo is enough.

FruityFlutie · Post by **FruityFlutie** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:15 am

When I got up into 9th grade (in marching band), my section leader and I both started on piccolo, but one was always playing on the lower octave. After band camp, I was asked to switch back to flute, so we just had one picc. Last year there were no piccolos since our woodwind sound was fine, but in symphonic band, there were occasional picc. duets.

This year in marching band, I play piccolo since there are only 3 flutes (pathetic, I know) in the section. And in symphonic band, I trade off between flute and picc.

However, I did see one marching band (close to our size- 70 marchers) and out of the 11 flutes, 9 played picc! It was like, "Holy s___!!!!" Especially knowing that the crowd can hear the flutes just fine with only 3 in our band. But 9?

juneroses · Post by **juneroses** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 9:00 pm

2 for marching band
0 for concert band
1 for symphonic winds
1 for wind ensemble

Amateur_Flautist · Post by **Amateur_Flautist** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:58 pm

Our tradition is to have all the senior flute play piccolo during marching season, and 1st chair gets any picc solos during concert season (which is rare because our director doesn't really like piccolos). This year we had two, which is actually a first because we usually just have one senior (fairly small school).

be9nine · Post by **be9nine** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:34 pm

there were 11 flutes and 5 piccolos in marching season and in concert season there are 18 flutes and 1 piccolo