"we professionals..." 🤥💩

[bloke]

I HATE it when I hear some elitists begin a sentence with those words...

...but (well...) when there's a gig - and stuff to play (no matter how nutty the arranger of any particular chart happened to have been) the man with the stick is going to expect "we professionals" to play the parts - and to play them well...and without giving us several "trys" at them.
...and seriously: This is way-way-way easier to read/play than crap that a large percentage hah-skooo & kolig stooundts are assigned in their private lessons, but still: It's good to take a peek at the stack of charts (instead of just thinking..."meh...It's just xmas crap") BEFORE the (single) rehearsal for the the three shows.
With only "a" rehearsal, the music director isn't going to appreciate having to spend ANY extra time nursing some dumb-ass tuba player through a simple everyone-knows-how-it-goes ballad, JUST BECAUSE the tessitura of the part is a bit stretched.



bloke "...and I'm assuming that the alternate-key version - beginning at E (based on the printed part) - features an F NATURAL."

[bort2.0]

...charts...

Jargon of the biz...

[Three Valves]

1. E +5 bars 8vb??

2. Why did they hand you the string bass part??

[bort2.0]

But I completely agree with Joe, I've never ever ever never understood how people can seriously mess up Christmas songs.

You KNOW what it's supposed to sound like.

And for non-Christmas tunes (band stuff, symphonies, an of the awful tuba solos...), even if the music is more obscure, it's your job* as a musician to know the music, so that you KNOW what it's supposed to sound like, and you can play it correctly. The old idea of rehearsal vs. practice (which it seems that college band directors just LOVE to go on and on about ...)

*it being a job makes you a professional

[bort2.0]

.

[Mary Ann]

bloke "...and I'm assuming that the alternate-key version - beginning at E (based on the printed part) - features an F NATURAL."

And I'm assuming you didn't play the as-written F# because you preferred to be invited back. We professionals figure such things out.

[bloke]

And I'm assuming you didn't play the as-written F# because you preferred to be invited back. We professionals figure such things out.

...as well as playing the missing flag between the (actual) F-sharps.

...and there's no azz-hole-izing (ie. asking the music director about the mistakes in the parts)...just figure out what it should be, play it, leave that poor man - up there - alone, and let the rehearsal end as soon as it possibly can...Dinner's being kept warm, back at blokeplace.

[bloke]

...charts...

Jargon of the biz...

I could have typed "selection"...just as garbage-factories/big-food producers use the word "serving", and real estate confidence men use the term, "home"...

I've played it through (a few times.all of it...both keys) on a comp' euphonium (the one where - in another thread - I just recently "fixed" the #3 comp slide for the "low C", which is required, here).
It's good. I'm taking it to the rehearsal.

bloke "Torme's relaxed/calm/pleasant/matter-of-fact song seems more suited to 'middle-octave baritone horn' than it does to 'hooty tuba'…
… anyway, I’m glad I have formed the habit (even though this was just a bunch of ”xmas music”) of looking at the emailed PDFs of the music before the first rehearsal, so this kooky-high lick - in A - didn’t blindside me.”

[tofu]

.

[Three Valves]

Hanging out with you all has helped me immensely.

There is a note in a part we are playing that didn't "sound" right. My ear was expecting a different note to sound even though I was playing the written note. (A mid staff D written, the C just below it is what I heard) so I kept squeaking it.

I was going to ask the director if the D was in the score as some strange chord I couldn't appreciate from where I sat.

I thought of you, got out my pencil, kept my mouth shut, and changed it instead.

God bless us, everyone!!

[bloke]

Arrangers’ substitute chords are not uncommon, but notes that look as though they might be wrong will fit in the substitute chords that are written by an arranger…
…and - if the music isn’t tonal - what difference does it make whether a printed note is “wrong”, or not (unless our part and another part are following along in unison, and one of the pitches grinds) ?

I guess that the two main points of the post/thread are that
- It’s a good idea to look at the tunes prior to the first/reading rehearsal – even if only that only means showing up thirty minutes before the first rehearsal starts, and looking through them for wild/kooky/hard licks.
- Always try to avoid asking the music director a question. They have things they are trying to specifically accomplish, and questions - that are somewhat off-topic - distract them from their trains of thought. Nearly always, an answer can be ascertained either by quietly consulting colleagues or a little bit of thinking. The less chitchat that occurs - between individuals and a music director - defines that more is accomplished in a rehearsal…
… and – of course - the “professional” crap was me being facetious, and of course this pertains to any musicians rehearsing anywhere with any large group.

[Three Valves]

(unless our part and another part are following along in unison, and one of the pitches grinds) ?

I may have to play as written if the trombones decide to show up.

[Rick Denney]

...and of course this pertains to any musicians rehearsing anywhere with any large group.[/b]

Oh, yes. I do roll my eyes a bit when someone in the (strictly amateur) ensemble demands a tiny correction to what most had already just figured out.

It reminds me of Peter Schikele's standard schtick at the beginning of P.D.Q. Bach "lectures". It goes something like this.

"But first, I would like to illuminate something in your programs. Please turn with me to Page 23. No, that's Page 22. Count with me down to the eighth paragraph. Is everyone there? That's the paragraph that talks about the research program at the U. of S.N.D. at H. In the third sentence of that paragraph--the one that talks about the special study, musicology-wise-speaking, of P.D.Q. Bach's ouvre--notice the fifth word. Right after that word is a comma. It should be a semicolon."

But worse than that is "are you going to speed up there?" Well, maybe.

Rick "known to occasionally go look at the score during a break" Denney

[bloke]

...the ENTIRE (hired) orchestra thinks to themselves:
"Oh...OK...He's morphing from 2 in to 4 during this bar."
...EXCEPT for one percussionist:
"Where are you going into 4 ?"

...which prompts the music director to do that conducting pattern 2-to-4 morphing more awkwardly, from then on.

...and of course this pertains to any musicians rehearsing anywhere with any large group.[/b]

Oh, yes. I do roll my eyes a bit when someone in the (strictly amateur) ensemble demands a tiny correction to what most had already just figured out.

It reminds me of Peter Schikele's standard schtick at the beginning of P.D.Q. Bach "lectures". It goes something like this.

"But first, I would like to illuminate something in your programs. Please turn with me to Page 23. No, that's Page 22. Count with me down to the eighth paragraph. Is everyone there? That's the paragraph that talks about the research program at the U. of S.N.D. at H. In the third sentence of that paragraph--the one that talks about the special study, musicology-wise-speaking, of P.D.Q. Bach's ouvre--notice the fifth word. Right after that word is a comma. It should be a semicolon."

But worse than that is "are you going to speed up there?" Well, maybe.

Rick "known to occasionally go look at the score during a break" Denney

[Casca Grossa]

They misspelled Cimbasso at the top, left corner of that chart.

[bloke]

I could go with that, but I'm not dragging that thing to a rehearsal, two shows, and a run-out for one tune.

They misspelled Cimbasso at the top, left corner of that chart.

[tubanh84]

Rick "known to occasionally go look at the score during a break" Denney

This right here. If you want to know what's in the score, play what sounds right until a break, then go check. Or don't check. Play what sounds right, and if the MD stops and asks why you're not playing the obviously wrong note obviously wrongly, apologize and embrace the dissonance.

But I always go back to my fundamental principle: As long as nothing is jarring, no one will care. Even if they're listening to you.

[Three Valves]

...embrace the dissonance.

[Doc]

...embrace the dissonance.

EMBRACE THE WOOF!

[iiipopes]

In recent years, I have become more and more a disciple of the rehearsal philosophy of doing everything I can to never be called out for any reason whatsoever. Think about that in the larger context.