Post orchestra run-down
Okay, so I'm home now from orchestra rehearsal, and here's what's up.
It was just me and an 11-year old boy, the son of the ensemble's stage manager. None of the other people in the section showed up. My new protege is new to percussion, but he can read music. He was quite good at sight reading, too. He impressed me with his willingness to learn. Once his mother stopped talking over me and let me take care of him and show him how it was really done (because while no doubt a musician of some kind, it was obvious she was not a percussionist), we rocked the place. Plus, he was so cute after I did this castanet part in a piece by Saint-Saens, he turned to me saying how good that sounded. It's hard not to appreciate someone who likes the way you play.
The main conductor wasn't so bad, either. She'd obviously been in score study, and maybe she'd been practicing in the intervening months since the last time we'd worked together. The assistant conductor/principal clarinetist is still a pain in the ***, but she doesn't bother me any more. She was the one who handed me the cheap-o castanets after I was trying to play the part on claves. I snarked that "oh, yeah, like those will be accurate," but to my credit, I got them to work. It was obviously good enough that it impressed NG (my new percussionist).
After it was over, both mother and son thanked me for my help separately. It was a very sweet gesture. The kid was soaking it up like a sponge. It makes it a pleasure.
I can tell him the way things should be done, teach him musician's manners, instead of having him turn out to be just a "drummer." (i.e. A basher, unskilled in true music, not to be confused with a drumset player who can, indeed, be a skilled musician.) We use pencil on our scores. We muffle vibrations on ringing instruments when the conductor cuts off. We turn the snares off when the snare drums are not in use. (Gah! Snare rattle is a pet peeve of mine. I want to yell at those so-called percussionists, "Don't you know any better?!") We put away the instruments and clean up after ourselves when we're done. (No, this isn't an all-encompasing list, but it's a place to start.)
In short, it was much better than I anticipated it being. I was pleasantly surprised. Add this to my list of positive things to write about this year. Who would have thought, right? By the way, the New World Symphony was nowhere in sight, which possibly means the announcement of it was a mistake, or it was retracted, or we're not rehearsing that until next week.
I can put my ranty pants away now.
It was just me and an 11-year old boy, the son of the ensemble's stage manager. None of the other people in the section showed up. My new protege is new to percussion, but he can read music. He was quite good at sight reading, too. He impressed me with his willingness to learn. Once his mother stopped talking over me and let me take care of him and show him how it was really done (because while no doubt a musician of some kind, it was obvious she was not a percussionist), we rocked the place. Plus, he was so cute after I did this castanet part in a piece by Saint-Saens, he turned to me saying how good that sounded. It's hard not to appreciate someone who likes the way you play.
The main conductor wasn't so bad, either. She'd obviously been in score study, and maybe she'd been practicing in the intervening months since the last time we'd worked together. The assistant conductor/principal clarinetist is still a pain in the ***, but she doesn't bother me any more. She was the one who handed me the cheap-o castanets after I was trying to play the part on claves. I snarked that "oh, yeah, like those will be accurate," but to my credit, I got them to work. It was obviously good enough that it impressed NG (my new percussionist).
After it was over, both mother and son thanked me for my help separately. It was a very sweet gesture. The kid was soaking it up like a sponge. It makes it a pleasure.
I can tell him the way things should be done, teach him musician's manners, instead of having him turn out to be just a "drummer." (i.e. A basher, unskilled in true music, not to be confused with a drumset player who can, indeed, be a skilled musician.) We use pencil on our scores. We muffle vibrations on ringing instruments when the conductor cuts off. We turn the snares off when the snare drums are not in use. (Gah! Snare rattle is a pet peeve of mine. I want to yell at those so-called percussionists, "Don't you know any better?!") We put away the instruments and clean up after ourselves when we're done. (No, this isn't an all-encompasing list, but it's a place to start.)
In short, it was much better than I anticipated it being. I was pleasantly surprised. Add this to my list of positive things to write about this year. Who would have thought, right? By the way, the New World Symphony was nowhere in sight, which possibly means the announcement of it was a mistake, or it was retracted, or we're not rehearsing that until next week.
I can put my ranty pants away now.