Fancy Band: Slow and what now?
Week 2 of the cycle. I was part of the earlier group, so I needed to be there on time. Easier said than done, though, and I was reminded of why I hate Naperville. I have to cross a busy street to get to school, one that is notoriously crowded on a good day, but now it has major construction down the road and it's worse than usual. I'm stopped at a red light waiting my turn, and it's clear that cross traffic is heavy and not moving southbound. When their light turned yellow, there was enough room for a couple cars to cross, but this third one decided to go for it too, and proceeded to block the intersection. There are four lanes for the street I was on: Westbound, eastbound left turn, eastbound straight, and eastbound right turn. I was going straight; the car was blocking my lane and the left turn lane. Meanwhile, the cars behind me are honking because I'm not going anywhere. Like, hello, my lane is blocked. So now they start going around me into the westbound lanes because, well, the light is green! Green means go! Obstructions be damned! ...Do y'all realize how unsafe this is? Seriously. Are you the people who go around down railroad crossing gates, too? Finally the car moves up enough that I'm able to go around it in the left turn lane, but really. Naperville, and its drivers, can really suck at times.
Thankfully band gets me out of my headspace. Being one of the early people, I was able to claim my spot on the end of the second row with no issues. It makes it *really* easy to hop out and run to the bathroom once my dinner apple makes itself known. What can I say, they are very juicy this fall. Anyway. Dr. K showed up shortly before band started and went, did everybody sign in? This is something new; he'd sent out an email asking us to sign off that we'd shown up, but the signs weren't in an obvious-to-the-band place. They were on the wall by the bulletin board outside the band room, and the non-students in the band (of which there are many) don't really pay attention to them since they're not pertinent to us. And they also weren't clearly labeled as to who was on what list, as there were several, so we all had to look at them closely to see which instrument grouping was where. It was pretty amusing to see the majority of the band make a collective swear and rush out in the hallway to sign in though, heh. D the clarinet player--the Regular Band expat--made the comment of, we need a middle school band director to referee out here and get us sorted out! Well, take your pick; we have a lot of them in this group!
Actually, a lot of people were missing last night. There were conferences and some people were out sick. This directly affected the flute section, as W was gone, and as we opened on the slow, pretty song in which she has a major solo, that was kind of a big deal. Flute D and HW (one of the new girls) were the only two first flutes, and apparently they'd conferred with each other and said to me, you're playing the solo! Uh...okay...you guys know I'm on second part, right? Now, I did print out the first part, and I have practiced the solo because that's how I roll. I mean, if need be, sure. Whatever. Except there's the little thing of the second part having a solo as well, which dovetails the first part, and somebody needs to play that, and it had defaulted to me last week. So here I am, when rehearsal should be starting, talking to Dr. K about how the firsts want me to play the solo (and it was around then that it dawned on me, I was the oldest flute player there--that was confirmed later on when CR said she'd graduated high school in '97, two years after I did). At first he was going to let me do it, but when he realized I'd have to play the second flute solo, and while possible to do both it wasn't exactly a good thing (there's a reason the second flute solo exists in the first place), he told me to stick to my part and he made D take the solo. Aside from some counting miscues, he was fine. The issue has to do with intonation. This is the main thing we need to work on in this song, and we did spend some time on it. Blending with the existing player is really hard. You have to know your instrument and where you fall. I'm already going to have to blend with W's pitch and tone coming out of her solo, but where I come in, there are other instruments like the oboe who have to match pitch as well. Even just the first couple measures, Dr. K worked hard with the French horns on figuring out where the pitch is, and this younger player, C, admitted to having some valve issues and that could be part of her problem. We were told to spend time with a tuner to see where we fall. Even with a tuner, though, the horn player's pitch was still off--she said she was sharp on whatever note was in question, yet she still sounded flat to the band, which was wild. Sounds, man.
Once the rest of the band joined in, we spent an hour on the ritualistic piece. If I didn't mention it, Dr. K pulled his piece from the concert and will be substituting something else which hasn't been passed out yet. That makes the ritualistic one the most difficult song we have as a whole, rhythm-wise. He started us at a later section, focusing on the trombones...and some of them clearly hadn't practiced this. It was rough and people were miscounting. The thing is in 7. This is a super-awkward time signature (7/8, plus 7/16) before you add in any notes or rhythms, and some of that stuff combined cannot be sightread. I know the younger players in the band, my college kid buddies, kind of have the attitude of being able to just come in and play. Dudes, no. Now, they are in a bunch of performing groups; they do have a lot of experience for being young ages. But unless you've done this particular piece before and you have this awkward counting down right, you aren't going to just up and get it the first time through. That was obvious to the rest of the band, because we spent a lot of time just sitting there while the trombones ran through several sections of music. Eventually the rest of us joined in, and seeing how everything fits together was helpful, but there are still some awkward sections and we have yet to do the beginning pretty much at all. I will say that Dr. K got frustrated-slash-annoyed with the trombones early on and said something to them; it wasn't like flat-out yelling or anything, and it wasn't really mean, but just like the French horns last cycle he did eventually apologize for it. I hate it when he does that. Don't apologize for having standards. And, in fact, one of the older players even went, what, it was true; we sucked. That made us laugh. The guy wasn't wrong. I want to tell Dr. K not to feel bad about calling us out. If we're supposed to be a professional band, we need to act professionally, and that means knowing our parts to a particular degree. (I expect to email him later tonight or tomorrow about a few things, but this is one of them.) Part of Dr. K's apology was saying how he was having a busy week--he'd mentioned judging a competition out at Western Illinois University last weekend; that's about a 4-hour trip--and he came into rehearsal in a not-great mindset, so that didn't help matters. He seemed to get better as the night went on, at least.
Getting into the dance song helps a lot, too. You should see the band all moving and swaying to this thing. It's pretty much impossible not to. Last week, at the beginning, we were told that it would be slow and sultry. My brain, which I swear was not on drugs, read my note as "slow and slutty." Oh, my. Then Dr. K started describing the mood--think of being in this dirty, grimy back alley in Rio de Janeiro, dancing the tango. There was more to it but all in all, my misread description fit the bill after all, heh. It starts with a clarinet solo and I think the player had a hard time starting off after that because the band was trying not to laugh. Also, I was writing myself a couple notes and I completely missed something Dr. K said, but he was totally discussing '90s references and that's when I heard CR say when she'd graduated from high school. Part of me is wondering if he mentioned the Lambada. The current college kids would have no idea what that was but those of us of a certain age would.
The other small group number was last, and the rest of us had to get out of there so they could play. I chucked my flute into its case and took my stuff into the hallway, where I crouched against the wall to clean my flute out. A few people ended up going into the stairwell as there was a bit more room. I had turned around and could hear a voice near me in the hall that didn't sound familiar; I thought maybe it was the security guard I'd just seen heading down the hall. It ended up being this guy in this muted but still snazzy jacket. Soon after, a group of them were back there--a show was going on and they were the performers, oh wow. Dr. K had said earlier, when discussing the sign-in forms, that the concert hall workers had discouraged him from putting anything further down the hall. (I think I'd asked him why he didn't put reminders on the doors to the band room; he may do that next week. I also reminded him after our break to have the more recent arrivals sign in. Commence another good-sized portion of the band getting up with a few choice words to go find their names and check them off. I also sort of think it's a way to make sure we have pencils, too.)
Two of the college boys, trombone P and trumpet E, headed downstairs for a bit. P was following E and E said to me, tell him to stop stalking me! I went, go get 'im, P! E didn't really care for that. I went to the bathroom shortly after and when I came back out, P was back upstairs and juggling three instruments. Several people were standing around talking--flute players D and E, plus J the alto sax player. We were all current students or alums at that point. J is a band director and had suggested to P to hook the strap from one of his instruments around his neck and shoulder to help him carry it; he could then carry the other two by their case handles. Look at this--Cardinals helping Cardinals. I was leaving right then so I got the door for him. Goodness, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that. He's young; it's good for his health.
One thing that had come up during rehearsal was the possibility of sectionals, where we'd break into smaller groups to better work on certain sections, rather than taking up rehearsal time. This makes sense, but the building isn't really set up for that, alas. (It *really* could've used at least one more floor.) That meant Dr. K was asking some of the area band directors if we could use their facilities and have parts of the band go elsewhere. I am so not a fan of that idea. I think Dr. K wants us to meet elsewhere, then come to the college for a regular rehearsal. That's so disruptive. This would really need to be thought through a bit more to work out. Now you know another topic to touch on for the email.
I missed a couple things from last week. One was that, after the other small group was dismissed, we were working on the slow, pretty song when I saw the side door open. Dr. K was at a stopping point and went, did that door just open? Yes, I told him; someone just went out that way. I think it was one of the percussionists. You have to understand it's a fire door and not to be used except in an emergency. An alarm is supposed to sound, which was part of why Dr. K's hackles were raised. There's a student in the percussion section who went, yeah, we figured it out in choir that the alarm doesn't work. ...That's...not really all that comforting. As far as I'm aware, nothing bad happened, like the fire department didn't show up or anything. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but no, please don't use the fire door unless absolutely necessary. Also, we'd done the first run-through of his piece, and part of why he pulled it was because it's not finished. I mean, he thought it was, but as we were playing it he realized there were likely editing issues, and people were stopping and asking questions about particular notes and he was readily accepting of the feedback. I know I would've liked some courtesy accidentals in places so I think I'll mention that to him. He'd said it felt too marching band-y and there was too much thickness to some of the parts so he was going to pare it back a bit and we'll likely play it for our last concert, which he said still needed a piece anyway, so that worked out. We've yet to receive our assignments for that concert but I have a strong feeling I'll be on second part, no biggie.
Thankfully band gets me out of my headspace. Being one of the early people, I was able to claim my spot on the end of the second row with no issues. It makes it *really* easy to hop out and run to the bathroom once my dinner apple makes itself known. What can I say, they are very juicy this fall. Anyway. Dr. K showed up shortly before band started and went, did everybody sign in? This is something new; he'd sent out an email asking us to sign off that we'd shown up, but the signs weren't in an obvious-to-the-band place. They were on the wall by the bulletin board outside the band room, and the non-students in the band (of which there are many) don't really pay attention to them since they're not pertinent to us. And they also weren't clearly labeled as to who was on what list, as there were several, so we all had to look at them closely to see which instrument grouping was where. It was pretty amusing to see the majority of the band make a collective swear and rush out in the hallway to sign in though, heh. D the clarinet player--the Regular Band expat--made the comment of, we need a middle school band director to referee out here and get us sorted out! Well, take your pick; we have a lot of them in this group!
Actually, a lot of people were missing last night. There were conferences and some people were out sick. This directly affected the flute section, as W was gone, and as we opened on the slow, pretty song in which she has a major solo, that was kind of a big deal. Flute D and HW (one of the new girls) were the only two first flutes, and apparently they'd conferred with each other and said to me, you're playing the solo! Uh...okay...you guys know I'm on second part, right? Now, I did print out the first part, and I have practiced the solo because that's how I roll. I mean, if need be, sure. Whatever. Except there's the little thing of the second part having a solo as well, which dovetails the first part, and somebody needs to play that, and it had defaulted to me last week. So here I am, when rehearsal should be starting, talking to Dr. K about how the firsts want me to play the solo (and it was around then that it dawned on me, I was the oldest flute player there--that was confirmed later on when CR said she'd graduated high school in '97, two years after I did). At first he was going to let me do it, but when he realized I'd have to play the second flute solo, and while possible to do both it wasn't exactly a good thing (there's a reason the second flute solo exists in the first place), he told me to stick to my part and he made D take the solo. Aside from some counting miscues, he was fine. The issue has to do with intonation. This is the main thing we need to work on in this song, and we did spend some time on it. Blending with the existing player is really hard. You have to know your instrument and where you fall. I'm already going to have to blend with W's pitch and tone coming out of her solo, but where I come in, there are other instruments like the oboe who have to match pitch as well. Even just the first couple measures, Dr. K worked hard with the French horns on figuring out where the pitch is, and this younger player, C, admitted to having some valve issues and that could be part of her problem. We were told to spend time with a tuner to see where we fall. Even with a tuner, though, the horn player's pitch was still off--she said she was sharp on whatever note was in question, yet she still sounded flat to the band, which was wild. Sounds, man.
Once the rest of the band joined in, we spent an hour on the ritualistic piece. If I didn't mention it, Dr. K pulled his piece from the concert and will be substituting something else which hasn't been passed out yet. That makes the ritualistic one the most difficult song we have as a whole, rhythm-wise. He started us at a later section, focusing on the trombones...and some of them clearly hadn't practiced this. It was rough and people were miscounting. The thing is in 7. This is a super-awkward time signature (7/8, plus 7/16) before you add in any notes or rhythms, and some of that stuff combined cannot be sightread. I know the younger players in the band, my college kid buddies, kind of have the attitude of being able to just come in and play. Dudes, no. Now, they are in a bunch of performing groups; they do have a lot of experience for being young ages. But unless you've done this particular piece before and you have this awkward counting down right, you aren't going to just up and get it the first time through. That was obvious to the rest of the band, because we spent a lot of time just sitting there while the trombones ran through several sections of music. Eventually the rest of us joined in, and seeing how everything fits together was helpful, but there are still some awkward sections and we have yet to do the beginning pretty much at all. I will say that Dr. K got frustrated-slash-annoyed with the trombones early on and said something to them; it wasn't like flat-out yelling or anything, and it wasn't really mean, but just like the French horns last cycle he did eventually apologize for it. I hate it when he does that. Don't apologize for having standards. And, in fact, one of the older players even went, what, it was true; we sucked. That made us laugh. The guy wasn't wrong. I want to tell Dr. K not to feel bad about calling us out. If we're supposed to be a professional band, we need to act professionally, and that means knowing our parts to a particular degree. (I expect to email him later tonight or tomorrow about a few things, but this is one of them.) Part of Dr. K's apology was saying how he was having a busy week--he'd mentioned judging a competition out at Western Illinois University last weekend; that's about a 4-hour trip--and he came into rehearsal in a not-great mindset, so that didn't help matters. He seemed to get better as the night went on, at least.
Getting into the dance song helps a lot, too. You should see the band all moving and swaying to this thing. It's pretty much impossible not to. Last week, at the beginning, we were told that it would be slow and sultry. My brain, which I swear was not on drugs, read my note as "slow and slutty." Oh, my. Then Dr. K started describing the mood--think of being in this dirty, grimy back alley in Rio de Janeiro, dancing the tango. There was more to it but all in all, my misread description fit the bill after all, heh. It starts with a clarinet solo and I think the player had a hard time starting off after that because the band was trying not to laugh. Also, I was writing myself a couple notes and I completely missed something Dr. K said, but he was totally discussing '90s references and that's when I heard CR say when she'd graduated from high school. Part of me is wondering if he mentioned the Lambada. The current college kids would have no idea what that was but those of us of a certain age would.
The other small group number was last, and the rest of us had to get out of there so they could play. I chucked my flute into its case and took my stuff into the hallway, where I crouched against the wall to clean my flute out. A few people ended up going into the stairwell as there was a bit more room. I had turned around and could hear a voice near me in the hall that didn't sound familiar; I thought maybe it was the security guard I'd just seen heading down the hall. It ended up being this guy in this muted but still snazzy jacket. Soon after, a group of them were back there--a show was going on and they were the performers, oh wow. Dr. K had said earlier, when discussing the sign-in forms, that the concert hall workers had discouraged him from putting anything further down the hall. (I think I'd asked him why he didn't put reminders on the doors to the band room; he may do that next week. I also reminded him after our break to have the more recent arrivals sign in. Commence another good-sized portion of the band getting up with a few choice words to go find their names and check them off. I also sort of think it's a way to make sure we have pencils, too.)
Two of the college boys, trombone P and trumpet E, headed downstairs for a bit. P was following E and E said to me, tell him to stop stalking me! I went, go get 'im, P! E didn't really care for that. I went to the bathroom shortly after and when I came back out, P was back upstairs and juggling three instruments. Several people were standing around talking--flute players D and E, plus J the alto sax player. We were all current students or alums at that point. J is a band director and had suggested to P to hook the strap from one of his instruments around his neck and shoulder to help him carry it; he could then carry the other two by their case handles. Look at this--Cardinals helping Cardinals. I was leaving right then so I got the door for him. Goodness, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that. He's young; it's good for his health.
One thing that had come up during rehearsal was the possibility of sectionals, where we'd break into smaller groups to better work on certain sections, rather than taking up rehearsal time. This makes sense, but the building isn't really set up for that, alas. (It *really* could've used at least one more floor.) That meant Dr. K was asking some of the area band directors if we could use their facilities and have parts of the band go elsewhere. I am so not a fan of that idea. I think Dr. K wants us to meet elsewhere, then come to the college for a regular rehearsal. That's so disruptive. This would really need to be thought through a bit more to work out. Now you know another topic to touch on for the email.
I missed a couple things from last week. One was that, after the other small group was dismissed, we were working on the slow, pretty song when I saw the side door open. Dr. K was at a stopping point and went, did that door just open? Yes, I told him; someone just went out that way. I think it was one of the percussionists. You have to understand it's a fire door and not to be used except in an emergency. An alarm is supposed to sound, which was part of why Dr. K's hackles were raised. There's a student in the percussion section who went, yeah, we figured it out in choir that the alarm doesn't work. ...That's...not really all that comforting. As far as I'm aware, nothing bad happened, like the fire department didn't show up or anything. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but no, please don't use the fire door unless absolutely necessary. Also, we'd done the first run-through of his piece, and part of why he pulled it was because it's not finished. I mean, he thought it was, but as we were playing it he realized there were likely editing issues, and people were stopping and asking questions about particular notes and he was readily accepting of the feedback. I know I would've liked some courtesy accidentals in places so I think I'll mention that to him. He'd said it felt too marching band-y and there was too much thickness to some of the parts so he was going to pare it back a bit and we'll likely play it for our last concert, which he said still needed a piece anyway, so that worked out. We've yet to receive our assignments for that concert but I have a strong feeling I'll be on second part, no biggie.