Most people who have been playing as long as I have (stop giggling) have had their share of strange gigs. It comes with the territory of being "seasoned." One of my early ones was at the Hyatt House in Lincolnwood, Illinois. Now to begin with ...you have to know this hotel was painted purple, which should have been a tip off. Anyway...the people that booked this wedding overbooked the room, meaning there were too many people for the size of the room.
I was in a quartet in my fairly new tuxedo, giant velvet bow tie and ruffled shirt (this was the 60's after all) and set up before the leader arrived. It was obvious that there would not be enough room for the band. The leader arrived and saw the same thing. He was ticked. Not at me...but with the stupid situation. You see, union rules require a larger group of musicians for a larger room. If this had been in a larger room to accommodate all these noisy people it would have meant more money for the leader!
I did the only thing I could under the circumstances...I set up in one of the little hallways where the swinging doors were to and from the kitchen. Half in the room...half in the kitchen. Oh it was a fun night...let me tell ya! Got a lot of free food though!
cn
Monday, August 31, 2009
Practicing
Do I still practice? Yes! Practicing is a way of life for a musician. You can either look at it as one of those boring "chores" that you have to do, or you can approach it as a way of bettering your playing skills.
Playing percussion, I have to keep my chops up on set, snare, timpani, mallets, and congas. I also play piano which is an instrument with which I "relax".
So what do I practice? For starters let me say there is quantitative practicing where you work on things such as scales, rudiments, excerpts, patterns, and in the process attain accuracy and authority at various tempi. This builds your hands/feet, strength, and stamina. It also builds headroom into your performance playing. Headroom is the difference between a car that is built to go 140 miles an hour and is only being driven 65 miles an hour, and a car that can only go 65 miles per hour at its top speed. Both cars can go 65 but one is cruising while the other is overloaded, rattling, and about to fall apart in the process. If you always feel like the second car being overloaded when you perform, then you need to practice in this manner with a metronome to measure improvement.
Qualitative practicing deals with approaching the material on your music stand to better understand what the composer/arranger had in mind for the music. The nuance of the music. The dynamics of the piece. The tempo where the music starts to make sense and sound right. As an experiment...right now... sing Jingle bells very softly and very... very slowly. You will notice that while you may be getting the correct notes, you are probably not singing the song in the joyous, exuberant, and fun way James Pierpont intended. That's a huge difference. Get away from the notes and into the music.
More on practicing in another post.
cn
Playing percussion, I have to keep my chops up on set, snare, timpani, mallets, and congas. I also play piano which is an instrument with which I "relax".
So what do I practice? For starters let me say there is quantitative practicing where you work on things such as scales, rudiments, excerpts, patterns, and in the process attain accuracy and authority at various tempi. This builds your hands/feet, strength, and stamina. It also builds headroom into your performance playing. Headroom is the difference between a car that is built to go 140 miles an hour and is only being driven 65 miles an hour, and a car that can only go 65 miles per hour at its top speed. Both cars can go 65 but one is cruising while the other is overloaded, rattling, and about to fall apart in the process. If you always feel like the second car being overloaded when you perform, then you need to practice in this manner with a metronome to measure improvement.
Qualitative practicing deals with approaching the material on your music stand to better understand what the composer/arranger had in mind for the music. The nuance of the music. The dynamics of the piece. The tempo where the music starts to make sense and sound right. As an experiment...right now... sing Jingle bells very softly and very... very slowly. You will notice that while you may be getting the correct notes, you are probably not singing the song in the joyous, exuberant, and fun way James Pierpont intended. That's a huge difference. Get away from the notes and into the music.
More on practicing in another post.
cn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
