Valley of Shadows

Starting aggressively with a simple melody and active percussion, this piece about the adventure of walking through a scary forested valley lets you introduce programmatic music to your students in a fun and entertaining way. Along the journey, they will encounter a snake represented by a ratchet, and they'll use contemporary techniques like dissonance, screaming, and clapping. With active percussion and plenty of rhythmic challenges, this is at the upper level for a beginning band composition and is most appropriate for a second-year concert or advanced first-year band.