Regular Band: Where were you on Sunday?
Yes, I had another rehearsal with a different band this week. I haven't forgotten.
(...This is why I literally have a checklist to make sure I do certain things. I'm way behind with this because Monday was so chock-full of things.)
So. Monday. Work electronics shenanigans, eclipse, and the drive-thru visit to Morton. I got to band probably around 7 PM, later than typical, but still with plenty of time to get set up.
The first thing that was off was that the whiteboard had been resurrected and had something written on it, and that there would be a change to our pre-assigned rehearsal order. Then, when I walked it, we discovered a bunch of flutes were gone. I already knew that our section leader and her husband the clarinet player had covid. I know the drummer for the offshoot big band, which Shecky the clarinet player leads, and they'd had a rehearsal on Thursday. AD2 was there instead because he was sick. If you remember, back in the fall, a relatively new trombone player died in a car accident; his memorial service finally happened this past Saturday and a small combo from the big band was asked to play in that, and I guess AD2 must've had to help with that with Shecky out. Our section leader, who has underlying health issues, apparently got pretty sick. I was not surprised that they weren't there. But then the piccolo player was out--I did not cover her parts, for the most part--and several other flutes were missing, to where DB moved over to sit with Two-Chairs-Down on the far end of the section next to the bassoons. One of the gals I'm subbing for, flute L, ended up sitting in our section leader's spot, because the high school gal joining us for this concert showed up. It was funny, because ADB introduced the girl to me and said I'd show her around, and then right behind her was Tex, who actually sits next to her, and Tex totally took the girl under her wing. Flute L helped as well. The girl seemed pretty bewildered, which is not surprising for the Balkan piece, but we assured her she'd be fine and not to worry about making mistakes.
Now, I'd seen Mr. AD2 around the band, but AD2 wasn't there. Flute S, who for now sits to my left, mentioned something to me about why AD2 was gone, but she was a bit confused about what happened and didn't want to give me bad info. When ADB took the podium, he explained that on Sunday, AD2 had an incident with a shopping cart at Menards, fell, broke her glasses, and has a goose egg on her head, among other things, and based on some of her symptoms got diagnosed with a concussion, so she was not there that night. Holy cow. It sounded pretty bad. ADB made a joke about it--not mean, at least--about how his plan for domination was coming to fruition, something along those lines. This was the first time he'd gotten to do an entire rehearsal by himself. Um...where were you this past Sunday, sir? Did you happen to go to Menards by chance? (I can't see him doing that, but when you joke about domination, hmm...)
Honestly, the rehearsal went fine. Even if he doesn't know AD2's exact interpretation for things, he can still go through rhythms and notes and things, which is fine. And when it comes to the songs he'll be doing, he is VERY specific with how he wants us to play stuff. Crescendos, decrescendos. Changing of dynamics, typically to something softer. He keeps reminding us that we do have the ability to play softly. Well, unless you're the high school kid playing bass drum for one of the pieces, I think the march. ADB--a talented percussionist in his own right--actually ran back there to show the kid how to bang the drum loudly enough in one section. And then reminded him that when you play a march, and you're on bass or cymbal, you don't even need to look at the music; the conductor will cue you, so you just need to watch. Those of us who've been in band long enough know that. Heck, I could get up and conduct the national anthem purely because of that--Oh, say can you *boom* *crash* By the dawn's ear-ly *boom* *crash*.
The one piece I remember the best, this far down the week, is the Balkan one, only because of the piccolo solo. We'd started at the end, which we didn't get to last time, and worked our way back. We're getting better at the 5 sections, which were played more like 6 last time. ADB reminded us to think of the counting as 1-2-3, 1-2, rather than 1-2-3-4-5. In the ethnic dances, they're thought of as long and short beats. I ended up looking at a few of the related ethnic dances on YouTube last weekend and the dances are relatively simple despite the counting being awkward for Western people. Also, the North Bulgarians have a dancing outfit that reminded me of my Polish dancing outfit from when I was a kid--red skirt, white shirt, red beads for necklaces. Anyway. ADB backed us up to the section that starts with the piccolo solo and, with our picc player absent, he asked if any of the flutes had the cues and wanted to play it. We actually don't have cues because there's a long tone solo in the first part underneath it, but I have the picc part, so he asked me to play it, just on flute. ...And I crapped all over myself. It's funny, I can totally play it, and close to tempo even, and played it just fine when I did the lick with the flute part. I don't know what happened. I'm just lucky that the others have heard me on piccolo and know that I am a decent player, but dang. I know it's not easy and it's an awkward melody but it shouldn't have been that bad. Hopefully next week will be better--and AD2 will be back.
(...This is why I literally have a checklist to make sure I do certain things. I'm way behind with this because Monday was so chock-full of things.)
So. Monday. Work electronics shenanigans, eclipse, and the drive-thru visit to Morton. I got to band probably around 7 PM, later than typical, but still with plenty of time to get set up.
The first thing that was off was that the whiteboard had been resurrected and had something written on it, and that there would be a change to our pre-assigned rehearsal order. Then, when I walked it, we discovered a bunch of flutes were gone. I already knew that our section leader and her husband the clarinet player had covid. I know the drummer for the offshoot big band, which Shecky the clarinet player leads, and they'd had a rehearsal on Thursday. AD2 was there instead because he was sick. If you remember, back in the fall, a relatively new trombone player died in a car accident; his memorial service finally happened this past Saturday and a small combo from the big band was asked to play in that, and I guess AD2 must've had to help with that with Shecky out. Our section leader, who has underlying health issues, apparently got pretty sick. I was not surprised that they weren't there. But then the piccolo player was out--I did not cover her parts, for the most part--and several other flutes were missing, to where DB moved over to sit with Two-Chairs-Down on the far end of the section next to the bassoons. One of the gals I'm subbing for, flute L, ended up sitting in our section leader's spot, because the high school gal joining us for this concert showed up. It was funny, because ADB introduced the girl to me and said I'd show her around, and then right behind her was Tex, who actually sits next to her, and Tex totally took the girl under her wing. Flute L helped as well. The girl seemed pretty bewildered, which is not surprising for the Balkan piece, but we assured her she'd be fine and not to worry about making mistakes.
Now, I'd seen Mr. AD2 around the band, but AD2 wasn't there. Flute S, who for now sits to my left, mentioned something to me about why AD2 was gone, but she was a bit confused about what happened and didn't want to give me bad info. When ADB took the podium, he explained that on Sunday, AD2 had an incident with a shopping cart at Menards, fell, broke her glasses, and has a goose egg on her head, among other things, and based on some of her symptoms got diagnosed with a concussion, so she was not there that night. Holy cow. It sounded pretty bad. ADB made a joke about it--not mean, at least--about how his plan for domination was coming to fruition, something along those lines. This was the first time he'd gotten to do an entire rehearsal by himself. Um...where were you this past Sunday, sir? Did you happen to go to Menards by chance? (I can't see him doing that, but when you joke about domination, hmm...)
Honestly, the rehearsal went fine. Even if he doesn't know AD2's exact interpretation for things, he can still go through rhythms and notes and things, which is fine. And when it comes to the songs he'll be doing, he is VERY specific with how he wants us to play stuff. Crescendos, decrescendos. Changing of dynamics, typically to something softer. He keeps reminding us that we do have the ability to play softly. Well, unless you're the high school kid playing bass drum for one of the pieces, I think the march. ADB--a talented percussionist in his own right--actually ran back there to show the kid how to bang the drum loudly enough in one section. And then reminded him that when you play a march, and you're on bass or cymbal, you don't even need to look at the music; the conductor will cue you, so you just need to watch. Those of us who've been in band long enough know that. Heck, I could get up and conduct the national anthem purely because of that--Oh, say can you *boom* *crash* By the dawn's ear-ly *boom* *crash*.
The one piece I remember the best, this far down the week, is the Balkan one, only because of the piccolo solo. We'd started at the end, which we didn't get to last time, and worked our way back. We're getting better at the 5 sections, which were played more like 6 last time. ADB reminded us to think of the counting as 1-2-3, 1-2, rather than 1-2-3-4-5. In the ethnic dances, they're thought of as long and short beats. I ended up looking at a few of the related ethnic dances on YouTube last weekend and the dances are relatively simple despite the counting being awkward for Western people. Also, the North Bulgarians have a dancing outfit that reminded me of my Polish dancing outfit from when I was a kid--red skirt, white shirt, red beads for necklaces. Anyway. ADB backed us up to the section that starts with the piccolo solo and, with our picc player absent, he asked if any of the flutes had the cues and wanted to play it. We actually don't have cues because there's a long tone solo in the first part underneath it, but I have the picc part, so he asked me to play it, just on flute. ...And I crapped all over myself. It's funny, I can totally play it, and close to tempo even, and played it just fine when I did the lick with the flute part. I don't know what happened. I'm just lucky that the others have heard me on piccolo and know that I am a decent player, but dang. I know it's not easy and it's an awkward melody but it shouldn't have been that bad. Hopefully next week will be better--and AD2 will be back.