Fancy Band: Go. Away.
Thursday had a chance to not bode well based purely on the walk from my car to band. I saw three stupid driving things on my way there, including someone attempting--poorly--to get in a line of cars who ended up completely perpendicular to the line, and they weren't able to move because there were cars waiting to pass the person on either side; someone else going the wrong way down a one-way alley who appeared STUNNED that traffic wanted to move in the correct direction; and then a car that didn't apparently know where to go and just parked itself at the entrance to the concert hall parking lot while I was trying to walk there. This is a driveway. Move along. It's the equivalent of a two- or three-block walk. What the heck.
Then, as I was reaching the doors, I see someone in a tux with two young-looking girls in black dresses coming through the lot. The tux-wearer said hello to me--it was my former band mate, flute D, apparently with a couple students. They must be having a concert here tonight. Well hello, I wondered if that was you.
Inside. Phew. I was able to find a seat and sat and talked with big clarinet T while he was prepping his instruments. He mentioned going to the big area music store and the owner called him into the back of the shop--he passed NBH along the way, as that's where she works now--and showed him this unusual instrument, the sarrusophone. This was a new one on me, to the point where I had no idea how it was spelled until he looked something up online and showed me. By this time trombone P had joined us and was eagerly listening, and he'd apparently heard of the instrument and started looking up pieces that had sarrusophone included in the score. They're double-reed instruments and are sort of like if a bassoon and a saxophone had a baby. The other main topic of conversation had to do with the water bottle filler; it's broken. Dr. K had just made a big announcement about it last week about its existence and how his boss had bought it with her own money, but per the college students there's a problem with a pipe and it's leaking and/or it's unfiltered and unfortunately it is not currently usable. Multiple people were looking forward to filling their bottles upon arrival and were not thrilled to hear that news. Also, trumpet E was being his antagonizing self, to the point where I asked him to come by me so I could kick him. For some reason, he refused. Trombone P was standing near him and I asked him to push E toward me but it didn't happen. Look, I'm old and tired. You have to come to me, people. On the plus side, trombone R was back; he's been gone for personal reasons the last couple of weeks.
We had a different schedule this week, so full band was on at 6:45. We started with the Greek piece and to my relief, we finally worked on the section that has been the worst, but Dr. K hadn't really gotten to it. Get a move on, man; this is our last regular rehearsal. We have our dress rehearsal next week, then our recording session, and then our concert. Ugh. I kind of feel like we're doing too many pieces this time around that we're not able to really dig into some of the tougher literature quite like we used to. It's like he took the opportunity with the longer cycles to add more music, rather than focus more intensely on the regular amount. This part that we worked on, it's been bad since last year, and I said to him that I was glad he finally touched on it. He told me, I have a plan! Great...but I don't get to see the plan and therefore it might as well not exist.
Once we started on the space piece, Dr. K asked if we knew what its name referred to; the title includes 12 seconds. I think it was trombone R who answered, though I said I'd read the blurb inside the front cover last week, heh. It's regarding the first flight made by the Wright brothers, which lasted all of 12 seconds, and the rest of the title refers to where we've gone since that first flight, i.e., space. Speaking of the score, Dr. K can read the numbers now, hooray. Flute L then started joking that I was drawing on the score last week, and Dr. K went, yeah, she wrote mean things in here--you're ugly and bald! Dude...no. Sigh. Anyway, the flutes had a collective brain fart at one point. We have a big rest on a page turn, and several of the flutes miscounted and most of the section came in four measures early. I didn't think it was right and started to come in and went, wait a minute, and then just sat out entirely while the rest of the band played on; I think flute C also was like, what the heck. I wrote myself copious notes for that area because it's a major transition point as well and the band keeps getting faster and faster up until we have a bunch of runs, leading up to the 12 seconds of flight moment. Near the end, we have a reiteration of the beginning; the piece starts off with a French horn solo and then the whole section gets to play when the motif returns. We have two older horn players and three young ones--two of them are current students--so there are some issues at times. Dr. K, being a brass player, can recognize what's going on with them and gave them some pointers. They were overshooting their notes, which isn't uncommon in brass instruments, and he was telling them, don't muscle up to them, use your air. He said he learned that in a now-defunct drum corps back in the day. Okay, I've learned something new about you. Anyway, they tried it, and it worked perfectly. Wow, good tip. I actually ended up using a modified version of that at solo contest yesterday with a trumpet player who was struggling with high notes. They were coming out but sounded strained.
There were two more pieces after that, the toccata and the ribbon song, with the toccata being first. Now, every flute that plays on the toccata sits on an end--W is on one side, and B, C, and I are on the other, and we have to condense into the center of the row. When the other flutes are sitting there chatting and taking their time to go out and wait in the hallway, that means we can't get to our seats, so I looked at NBH and L and went, "Go. Away." They were all pretty surprised to hear that from me; Dr. K looked taken aback. I mean, I wasn't mean about it, but just...hey, I kinda need to get where you're sitting, and the others can't move until I move. I said to Dr. K, sometimes I use all of the words, sometimes I use only a few. It's a camp thing. I got it down to a science there at times. I also pulled out my bags from under my chair and put them by the wall so that when the toccata finished, I could more easily leave and not be stuck there for the entirety of the ribbon song.
Exciting news: Dr. K's errata book finally showed up! The whole thing was scanned and sent to us. It's over 50 pages. Much of the flute errata ended up being missing staccato symbols and changing of slurs, that sort of thing. I'd wondered if we caught all the note typos before we got the book as it seemed like we just played through the piece and didn't stop to correct anything this week. Well, okay, Dr. K did have to stop and correct himself, as somehow he got off the beat and he's not sure what happened. It's a discombobulating piece, fugal, meaning not everyone starts on count 1 with their melodies. I have to count like mad during my rests to make sure I come in in the right place.
There was also a weird moment where Dr. K made an obscure Seinfeld reference right before we started the toccata, and he realized a member of the band wasn't there at that point; they are very active members of some sort of Seinfeld Facebook group. He made it sound like only 6 people were in the group, so it must be pretty nerdy. I said, some of us have other hobbies. He made some sort of jokey comment like, *do* you? But then we got started, so I couldn't answer him right away. Once we finished I said, my hobbies include making little kids cry. I'll be doing it again this Saturday! He went, that's pretty sadistic! Hey, it's solo contest; sometimes it can't be helped. (For the record, nobody cried this week.) I also asked him about Carmina, since the wife of one of the Regular Band clarinet players is in the chorus and they've been rehearsing for a while. Dr. K let me know that he did talk to their director and while the choral music is relatively inexpensive, the rental fee for the band music is something like $1000, so we won't get it before March 1st. Okay, that's fair. As long as he's reached out and knows what's going on, that's what matters.
Next week should be interesting. Both L and NBH will be gone. L's son has a concert, and NBH will be out of town. We also found out that both W and big clarinet T will be in Arizona at the same time, but their itineraries will cause them to just miss each other, which was kind of hilarious. One will be in one place one day, and the next is when the other will be there. But if they do run into each other, that would be fun. That's not until spring break, though, so that's a month down the line.
Then, as I was reaching the doors, I see someone in a tux with two young-looking girls in black dresses coming through the lot. The tux-wearer said hello to me--it was my former band mate, flute D, apparently with a couple students. They must be having a concert here tonight. Well hello, I wondered if that was you.
Inside. Phew. I was able to find a seat and sat and talked with big clarinet T while he was prepping his instruments. He mentioned going to the big area music store and the owner called him into the back of the shop--he passed NBH along the way, as that's where she works now--and showed him this unusual instrument, the sarrusophone. This was a new one on me, to the point where I had no idea how it was spelled until he looked something up online and showed me. By this time trombone P had joined us and was eagerly listening, and he'd apparently heard of the instrument and started looking up pieces that had sarrusophone included in the score. They're double-reed instruments and are sort of like if a bassoon and a saxophone had a baby. The other main topic of conversation had to do with the water bottle filler; it's broken. Dr. K had just made a big announcement about it last week about its existence and how his boss had bought it with her own money, but per the college students there's a problem with a pipe and it's leaking and/or it's unfiltered and unfortunately it is not currently usable. Multiple people were looking forward to filling their bottles upon arrival and were not thrilled to hear that news. Also, trumpet E was being his antagonizing self, to the point where I asked him to come by me so I could kick him. For some reason, he refused. Trombone P was standing near him and I asked him to push E toward me but it didn't happen. Look, I'm old and tired. You have to come to me, people. On the plus side, trombone R was back; he's been gone for personal reasons the last couple of weeks.
We had a different schedule this week, so full band was on at 6:45. We started with the Greek piece and to my relief, we finally worked on the section that has been the worst, but Dr. K hadn't really gotten to it. Get a move on, man; this is our last regular rehearsal. We have our dress rehearsal next week, then our recording session, and then our concert. Ugh. I kind of feel like we're doing too many pieces this time around that we're not able to really dig into some of the tougher literature quite like we used to. It's like he took the opportunity with the longer cycles to add more music, rather than focus more intensely on the regular amount. This part that we worked on, it's been bad since last year, and I said to him that I was glad he finally touched on it. He told me, I have a plan! Great...but I don't get to see the plan and therefore it might as well not exist.
Once we started on the space piece, Dr. K asked if we knew what its name referred to; the title includes 12 seconds. I think it was trombone R who answered, though I said I'd read the blurb inside the front cover last week, heh. It's regarding the first flight made by the Wright brothers, which lasted all of 12 seconds, and the rest of the title refers to where we've gone since that first flight, i.e., space. Speaking of the score, Dr. K can read the numbers now, hooray. Flute L then started joking that I was drawing on the score last week, and Dr. K went, yeah, she wrote mean things in here--you're ugly and bald! Dude...no. Sigh. Anyway, the flutes had a collective brain fart at one point. We have a big rest on a page turn, and several of the flutes miscounted and most of the section came in four measures early. I didn't think it was right and started to come in and went, wait a minute, and then just sat out entirely while the rest of the band played on; I think flute C also was like, what the heck. I wrote myself copious notes for that area because it's a major transition point as well and the band keeps getting faster and faster up until we have a bunch of runs, leading up to the 12 seconds of flight moment. Near the end, we have a reiteration of the beginning; the piece starts off with a French horn solo and then the whole section gets to play when the motif returns. We have two older horn players and three young ones--two of them are current students--so there are some issues at times. Dr. K, being a brass player, can recognize what's going on with them and gave them some pointers. They were overshooting their notes, which isn't uncommon in brass instruments, and he was telling them, don't muscle up to them, use your air. He said he learned that in a now-defunct drum corps back in the day. Okay, I've learned something new about you. Anyway, they tried it, and it worked perfectly. Wow, good tip. I actually ended up using a modified version of that at solo contest yesterday with a trumpet player who was struggling with high notes. They were coming out but sounded strained.
There were two more pieces after that, the toccata and the ribbon song, with the toccata being first. Now, every flute that plays on the toccata sits on an end--W is on one side, and B, C, and I are on the other, and we have to condense into the center of the row. When the other flutes are sitting there chatting and taking their time to go out and wait in the hallway, that means we can't get to our seats, so I looked at NBH and L and went, "Go. Away." They were all pretty surprised to hear that from me; Dr. K looked taken aback. I mean, I wasn't mean about it, but just...hey, I kinda need to get where you're sitting, and the others can't move until I move. I said to Dr. K, sometimes I use all of the words, sometimes I use only a few. It's a camp thing. I got it down to a science there at times. I also pulled out my bags from under my chair and put them by the wall so that when the toccata finished, I could more easily leave and not be stuck there for the entirety of the ribbon song.
Exciting news: Dr. K's errata book finally showed up! The whole thing was scanned and sent to us. It's over 50 pages. Much of the flute errata ended up being missing staccato symbols and changing of slurs, that sort of thing. I'd wondered if we caught all the note typos before we got the book as it seemed like we just played through the piece and didn't stop to correct anything this week. Well, okay, Dr. K did have to stop and correct himself, as somehow he got off the beat and he's not sure what happened. It's a discombobulating piece, fugal, meaning not everyone starts on count 1 with their melodies. I have to count like mad during my rests to make sure I come in in the right place.
There was also a weird moment where Dr. K made an obscure Seinfeld reference right before we started the toccata, and he realized a member of the band wasn't there at that point; they are very active members of some sort of Seinfeld Facebook group. He made it sound like only 6 people were in the group, so it must be pretty nerdy. I said, some of us have other hobbies. He made some sort of jokey comment like, *do* you? But then we got started, so I couldn't answer him right away. Once we finished I said, my hobbies include making little kids cry. I'll be doing it again this Saturday! He went, that's pretty sadistic! Hey, it's solo contest; sometimes it can't be helped. (For the record, nobody cried this week.) I also asked him about Carmina, since the wife of one of the Regular Band clarinet players is in the chorus and they've been rehearsing for a while. Dr. K let me know that he did talk to their director and while the choral music is relatively inexpensive, the rental fee for the band music is something like $1000, so we won't get it before March 1st. Okay, that's fair. As long as he's reached out and knows what's going on, that's what matters.
Next week should be interesting. Both L and NBH will be gone. L's son has a concert, and NBH will be out of town. We also found out that both W and big clarinet T will be in Arizona at the same time, but their itineraries will cause them to just miss each other, which was kind of hilarious. One will be in one place one day, and the next is when the other will be there. But if they do run into each other, that would be fun. That's not until spring break, though, so that's a month down the line.