odd things about (some really fine) wind bands

[1 Ton Tommy]

The previous conductor of the orchestra I play in had the orchestra play a scale in our instrument's home key after tuning at the start of rehearsal. First whole notes, then half notes, then quarters and so on. This produced some very interesting sounds. Conductor said, "listen to the harmonics outside your section." Then we'd begin rehearsal. We had and still have a wide range of ages with some of us older folks with hearing loss. Older now, I no longer hear some of the harmonics. The present conductor has abandoned this practice and I think the orchestra's intonation has suffered. Could be that I hear dis-intonation now having moved from trumpet in the center of the orchestra to tuba on the edge with the basses. I now hear the all low strings better.

In winter, I've been asked during rehearsal why I've got the tuba on my face when I have no part to play. "keeping it warm is my reply." I'm not sure he believes me. Maybe there is some sort of electric tuba heater... some relative of an electric blanket. I do keep my mouthpeice in my pocket during tacit movements. I did that on trumpet too. Nothing like having an entrance on high G after sitting for half an hour. The horns simply couldn't do it in tune so the conductor moved that chord to the trumpets.

[bloke]

I sort of liked the strategy that the just previous music director of a freeway philharmonic (per service orchestra of which I'm a contractee) used:

He started out with the most difficult movement or section of the most difficult piece (and about five clicks above where it's ever played) right off the bat, at the beginning of the reading rehearsal of each series.

After a few of those, people showed up with their parts ready to play.

[MikeS]

In winter, I've been asked during rehearsal why I've got the tuba on my face when I have no part to play. "keeping it warm is my reply." I'm not sure he believes me. Maybe there is some sort of electric tuba heater... some relative of an electric blanket. I do keep my mouthpeice in my pocket during tacit movements. I did that on trumpet too. Nothing like having an entrance on high G after sitting for half an hour. The horns simply couldn't do it in tune so the conductor moved that chord to the trumpets.

The folk at Chicken Hawk Racing make tire warmers for a wide range of vehicles.



If the ones for motorcycle tires don’t fit your horn, they will do custom work.

https://chickenhawkracing.com/industrial-applications/

[1 Ton Tommy]

Wow! I wonder how much current they draw -- like how many stand lights worth. A motorcycle one might just do the trick.

[bloke]

The (mostly) band directors ("and other musicians") band concert was tonight.

It went well...There were only some extremely minor intonation issues (what do you expect with a whole hassle of flutes and clarinets, and only four rehearsals?), no real rhythmic precision nor transition problems, and no compromising of tempi.

The U of Memphis band director - who put this all together and is the conductor/director of the band (Albert Nguyen) seemed extremely pleased.

The crowd was sparse-ISH, but (well...still) probably a-hundred-something attendees on a stormy/tornadic Tuesday night.

I believe the next one will be a November thing, and - the one after that - once again in May.

It's good enough - and fun enough - that it's absolutely worth my while (freebee - and 45 minutes/45 miles from blokeplace).

I wonder what literature he'll pull out for the fall concert...

You guys who play in these bands all the time...
Y'all play a bunch o' notes...and these wall-to-wall fists-full-of-flying-notes concerts that last (ok...maybe a 15 minute intermission in-between two 30-minute halves...??) for a full freakin' hour...

[Yorkboy]

You could say I’m semi-retired (meaning I don’t “chase” gigs anymore, although I certainly will play them when they come along). Those “wall to wall fists full of flying notes” concerts are perfect for keeping in shape during the times in between.

It’s easy for me to say because I’m in an advanced phase of my life; but even when I was hustling gigs for a living, I still put aside time to play occasional “freebie” musical opportunities that were particularly appealing to me. At first I didn’t, for various reasons - however, after a while I reminded myself why I went into music in the first place - and, as any free-lancer knows, even though paying gigs might feed the belly, a large portion of them fall short of feeding the soul.

[tofu]

You guys who play in these bands all the time...
Y'all play a bunch o' notes...and these wall-to-wall fists-full-of-flying-notes concerts that last (ok...maybe a 15 minute intermission in-between two 30-minute halves...??) for a full freakin' hour...

Concert for us is typically 90 - 105 minutes - no intermission. Only break is the introductions of the typical one or two soloists before their pieces. We play somewhere between a top college band and say the Civic Orchestra. Several ex Armed Services band members and HS / University music instructors. Conductor is director of a top Grammy Awarded HS music program and assistant director is a retired HS band director & percussionist for a regional symphony. Time and tuning is a big deal with us. Constant attention throughout every rehearsal. We are also an audition group (little turn over) and are paid pretty decently - especially for a muni band - so that helps as well.

But yeah - it’s a fist full of notes - we rehearse every week all year - doing maybe 25 concerts - so that helps with endurance, but still I’ll often look at a future program and think - “That’s gonna be one big long blow”. For a long time we had a string bass and I really appreciated that - not only for how it worked so well with the tuba sound, but it was nice for taking the load off me not having to play the string bass cues as well. I find the big endurance busters not lots of flying notes, but the John Williams type of stuff with the loud & long (often low) sustaining passages. We do a lot of those during the summer outdoor weekly concerts. Having a very good section helps a lot with a 90 piece group.

Recent typical program:

Ballet Du Plasir
Concord
Kalos Eldos
Beautiful Colorado -Euph soloist former Navy Band
Nessun Dorma -Euph soloist “ “ "
Cousins -Euph & Cornet duet - Cornet former Marine Band
Armenian Dances
Valdres
Symphonic Dance No. 3
Shenandoah
Blue Danube
Emperata Overture (I really like this Claude Smith piece - the little tuba solo in the middle is lovely and fits so nicely)
Joseph and the Amazin Technicolor Dreamcoat

The most endurance buster concerts I’ve ever done were when Merle Evans (Ringling Brothers Band Director for 50 years - never missed a performance) would come up the week of the Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee on their dime from Florida and do a circus routine concert with us the Thursday night before the Saturday parade. The guy even in his late eighties and early nineties was a human dynamo and talk about a fistful of flying notes - he’d do it just like at the circus. We’d have a dressed Ringmaster and Merle would bang out 12-15 circus pieces one after the other. Great fun - a big blow and great respect to all those fabulous circus musicians of days gone by. Merle was great fun and had great stories of him and his room mate on the road the great clown Emmett Kelly.

[bloke]

An hour's enough for me, and four rehearsals and a concert twice a year is enough for me as well, unless it was part of what I do for a living.

I'm still playing some 3-hour jazz combo gigs but it's divided into an hour set and two 45-50:minutes sets. Of course, I'm playing on every beat of every bar and often more than two events per beat, if not several, because I have to play a lot of choruses - being that there are only three or four of us... But I'm not carrying a 60 piece band of strong players (musically substituting rack of transcriptions for a section of upright basses, as well as when the tuba itself is actually appropriate) and executing endless crescendos to fff

...ie. there I sit over there balancing all these wind players and feeling like I'm playing Tannhauser over and over.