Adding a new instrument to your repetoire

Posted on October 4, 2006 by Gandalfe
A little over two years ago I bought a nice flute and really have just noodled around with it. I did get 15 minutes of help from a professional instructor because I could not figure out how to hold the instrument when you have no keys depressed. Getting a sound out the instrument was very frustrating at first. And I don’t practice enough on the instrument. But now I can play some basic songs and enjoy having the instrument around. Since the flute is in the key of C, I can read over my wife’s shoulder as she plays piano.
 
About a year ago I started playing clarinet. That instrument, unlike the flute, has different fingerings than my primary instrument, the saxophone. And getting a sound on the clarinet was not easy either. It seemed like there was a lot more resistance on the clarinet and the mouthpiece is definitely much smaller. But imagine an instrument that has three different fingerings for the three G notes. Oh the frustration, oh the pain. Some players can play another octave up, making this instrument have over three octaves in range. 
 
But now I can play some basic songs and my embouchure is improving. I decided to take the plunge, since there are enough saxes for concert band and I’m playing the bass clarinet (Bb). Because the instrument is softer than a sax and has such a low range, it goes an octave and a half below the bari sax, I usually can get away with some flaws until I learn the part. But man do the low notes sound full and delightful. Now if I could only get the clarion (middle) range to speak consistently.
 
Starting a new instrument isn’t for everyone. Most of the players in our band are playing one instrument, trying to become of at least semi-pro status. It is inconceivable that they might play two instruments even if they are fingered the same like any of the saxes. But mostly it is about the costs associated with playing more than one instrument both in terms of dollars and in time.
 
My son, the sax player, picked up trumpet in the last few years. Now that is a direction I would not go. But he did quite well. I’d suggest he take piano lessons. But having just done that for two months, I know how hard and how much time that would take. And he already plays piano to a fashion. Are we having fun yet?
Posted in Music | 1 Comment

Kellylee Evans’ Hooked

Posted on October 4, 2006 by Gandalfe
Every once in a while you hear a song that is so beautiful it haunts you. For the last two weeks it has been Maceo Parker’s "Blues for Shorty Bill" off of his ’93 album ‘Southern Exposure‘. It makes me want to practice that much more. Then a friend of mine gave me the transcription that he did when he, the friend, was in school. Thanks Scott! I ordered the CD that isn’t in print any more. Isn’t Amazon.com wonderful?
 
So Neil and I worked on it with the transcription ‘cuz, of course, Neil had the CD. He cut a copy for me until mine comes in from Amazon and I’ve been working it ever since. Maceo and my friend Scott sound so much alike. He now plays bari sax for the DoctorFunK band which is the Seattle version of Tower of Power.
 
But tonight I’m listening to someone new, Kellylee Evans on Nanda’s MySpace. Oh thanks for for sharing. I’ve listened to it three times now. There is a haunting Milesque muted jazz trumpet in the background and I can’t even hear the works for the melody and beat.
 
Josie, if you’re reading this, go kiss Nicky and tell him how much you love him. He needs it this week.
Posted in Jazz | Leave a comment

Care and feeding of your favorite blogger

Posted on September 29, 2006 by Gandalfe
More and more of my family and friends are blogging and I like it. Here’s what I do to encourage the best to continue:
1. Leave comments. This is cheap and easy to do, lets the blogger know you’ve been there, and unfortunately, is rarely done. The ‘comment’ link is at the bottom of each post. Let the blogger feel your love.
 
2. Visit at least once a week. Especially if this is a family member or friend, it is a nice way to keep in touch.
 
3. Link to the blogger’s site. I can’t tell you how much this is appreciated. It drives up the readership of both sites too. And I get a chance to discover another blog.
 
4. Make suggestions. What would you like to hear more about or less?
There you have it, four easy steps that could improve the quality of your reads and strengthen the bonds of family and friends. Have a great weekend.
4 Comments

Why the Woodinville Community Band

Posted on September 26, 2006 by Gandalfe
When I was returning to music after a 30-year hiatus, hey heretofore the kids and work took up most of my free time, I had lots of community bands and smaller ensembles to consider in the Seattle and surrounding area. Most of the community sites at the time had either no Web presence, or a limited Web page that basicly gave you a phone number or e-mail to contact. I had no idea what the bands played and who they wanted to attract, let alone the audition requirements, if any.
 
So I picked the closest one to my house, the Woodinville band and jazz ensemble. At the time it was directed by a phenominal sax performer and former high school band director, Ray Guyll. When I called the membership phone number, Terri answered.
Hi, I’m thinking about joining a community band.
 
That’s great, what instrument do you play?
 
Sax. How do I audition?
 
Do you own an instrument?
 
Yes.
 
Just show up for practice.
So I showed up to Leota Jr. High and the jazz ensemble was practing the first of three hours. I pulled out my alto sax and sat in. It was exhillerating. After that hour with the band and Ray, we started the two hour concert band rehearsal. At that time Ray also directed that band. We played songs like ‘Georgia On My Mind’, ‘Blue Ridge Autumn’, and some marches. I loved it.
 
That year we did a very jazzy season finale concert with Greta Matassa and her combo, Eric Kloss saxophonist extraordinaire, and both the concert band and jazz ensemble at the Kirkland Performance Center. I purchased tickets for my extended family and friends. The concert was the best concert band concert I have ever been in and I had a short solo in the beginning of ‘Blue Ridge Autumn’.
 
Later I got to hear a lot of the other local community bands. I have yet to find one that I would enjoy as much as the WCB. One band was for seniors where the youngest fellow was in his seventies. One band only played marches. One band only had guys in it with the youngest being in his fifties. And many of the only play classical or near classical music.
 
The Woodinville band has musicians from Jr. High age to one member in his 80s. There are all levels of accomplishment, but most sections have a music major or two to hold the section down and teach the newbies. We currently have Neil Proff, a young high school band director and sax phenom directing and teaching the jazz ensemble. The concert band director, Leah MacDuffie, former high school band director and current Church choir director, directing and teaching the concert band. This year we had over 10 new players join the bands and the band is around 60 people.
Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Suzy the assistant Band Librarian

Posted on September 24, 2006 by Gandalfe
My wife Suzy has graciously offered to help the jazz ensemble and the concert band librarian catch up on some cateloging and copying of music. We recently received a generous donation of jazz ensemble music in folders by parts. Two boxes of music turns out to be around 120 songs, some of which have enough parts to be useful.
 
So Suzy is creating the backup copies because the original music is falling apart. Let’s do the math shall we, 120 songs times 17 parts is 2040 songs times an average of 2.5 pages is 5100 pages to copy. That’s over ten reams of paper. So Suzy is creating one copy for us to play and make a determination whether we will add it to the Woodinville Jazz Ensemble library. She has been working on this on and off for two weeks now. I’ll let you know how many of the 120 songs we actually retain.
 
In concert band, she currently just handing out part and managing that for the next practice session because our librarian Charlotte will be out that week. That is over 25 parts for the ten songs we are preparing for the next concert in December. Are we having fun yet.
 
Note: I am hoping to get the Second-story pit band music sometime this week
Posted in Band, Commuting | 2 Comments

The Range of the Saxophone Family

Posted on September 21, 2006 by Gandalfe
A standard jazz saxophone section is normally 5 pieces: two tenors, two altos, and a baritone sax.
 
Together these instruments span almost 4 octaves; rising from the baritone’s pedal C to the alto’s A above the treble clef.
 
How do they do it?
 
They get bigger. Baritone is double the size of Alto. Tenor is double the size of Soprano. Baritone and Alto are Eb transposing instruments. Tenor and Soprano are Bb transposing instruments.
 
Modern saxophones are built in Bb or Eb: from the very rare Bb Soprillo, Eb Sopranino (rare), Bb Soprano, Eb Alto, Bb Tenor, Eb Baritone and the (rare) Bb Bass.
 
Read more about the basic saxophone family of instruments at musicarrangers.com.
 
Vintage instruments, in addition to the modern ones listed, include such oddities as the F mezzo sax, Conn-o-sax, C Melody (or C tenor) sax, C soprano sax, countra-bass sax, and more. Visit Jay Easton’s site to see some of these.
 
Posted in Saxophone | 1 Comment

Community Band Board Meetings

Posted on September 19, 2006 by Gandalfe
Last night the Woodinville Community Band met to finish the 2007 season planning. We met at a board member’s house and there was a lot of food and non-business conversation. The director was unable to attend personally so we used Windows IM to connect and conduct a teleconference. I was struck with the thought that anyone can do this now. It has been become intuitive and painless to set up. EXCEPT, everytime she got e-mail, there was a big PING that was louder than her voice. The homeowner who hosted the teleconference had hooked up the audio into his stereo so it was loud.
 
If you’ve every wondered what one of these meetings are like, the jazz ensemble opened their 2007 season meeting to everyone in the ensemble. It was much more interesting with everyone. But while the jazz ensemble is only 18 people, the concert band is over 60 strong. It might be hard to fit that many people into one of our houses.
 
We planned for four to five concerts this year, including a trip to Victoria which has become a band favorite in the last few years. We talked about allocating more money for new music purchases. The drum gear is really in need of some more budget. The nice thing is that people in the jazz ensemble donated around $700 this year, which we didn’t have last year. AND Microsoft is paying the band $17 an hour for contributed time in certain categories (performance, but not practice) so we whould be able to fix some long overdue projects.
Posted in Music | Leave a comment

The Dissonance Returns (2006)

Posted on September 17, 2006 by Gandalfe
Last year I put together a pickup group, mostly of musicians from Microsoft for the United Way/King County day of caring. It was the best band I’ve ever played with and for an amateur, very exhillerating. I called us the Dissonance.
 
This year I figured I couldn’t pull it off again until Brad e-mailed me to ask me if we were going to do it again. I got the buzz and it took off. We played the following songs:
 
  • Take Five – Paul Desmond
  • Summertime – George Gershwin
  • On Green Dolphin Street – arranged by Victor Lopez
  • Groovin’ Hard – Don Menza
  • Misty – Erroll Garner
  • Blues in the Night – arranged by Calvin Custer
  • Tastes Like Chicken – Kris Berg
  • Jumpin’ at the Woodside – Count Basie
  • Jungle Boogie – arranged by Victor Lopez
  • Burritos to Go – Victor Lopez
  • Harlem Nocturne – Earle Hagen
  • Night and Day – Cole Porter

I’ve added a photo album that is featured as the primary to this site right now. Enjoy!

Posted in Band, Jazz, Music, My World | Leave a comment

Terry’s Fav Pit Band Experiences and Shows

Posted on September 14, 2006 by Gandalfe
[From Terry Stibal, Sounds of the South Dance Orchestra] Well, I could go ahead and post the list, but that might reek of bragging (I’ve done about twenty or twenty five different shows over the years, with multiple performances of each plus some repeated up to five times). While not up to the numbers our New York Local 802 brethren have accumulated, it’s still a pretty respectable total for someone who has spent most of his life out “in the sticks”.

So, I’ll limit myself to the “top favorites”:

Threepenny Opera:

Very exposed parts in the “bandstration” version (Reed 1 (clarinet and alto) and Reed 2 (clarinet and tenor). Interesting harmonies from the dawn of “modern music”. Lots to watch on the stage. Not likely to be encountered at the high school level, and a little dated for commercial runs, but still popular with colleges everywhere. It’s the source of the “Deathsinger’s Song”, which you probably know as “Mac The Knife”.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum:

An old, many times repeated, favorite (at last count, I’ve done this for no less than eighty performances, including two runs where I was called in as a sub at the last minute). Bass clarinet, clarinet and (very little) baritone. There are parts that I can motor along on the bass clarinet once I get the pitch and the rhythm going right. I’d love to do the “new” version (with the much expanded “House of Marcus Lycus” stuff), but I’ve not seen it out in the sticks yet.

(One time, I had to sight read the hair raising solo at the beginning of “Free”, this when the Reed 2 player didn’t show up until the second act. Written in Mostel’s key (which translated to seven flats on the Bb clarinet), it can be done, but it’s not something you’d like to sight read, I assure you…)

Guys And Dolls:

Along the lines of Forum, only not quite as often. I’ve done perhaps forty shows of this, almost always on the bass clarinet/clarinet/baritone book. Good sax parts, lots of great bass clarinet playing (particularly in “Marry The Man Today”, only marred by too many iterations of “Follow The Fold” and the never-ending “Crap Shooter’s Ballet”.

Hello, Dolly!:

This is another old favorite, more for the music than for the show itself. Excellent bass clarinet parts, demanding clarinet parts (on the “Waiter’s Gallop” in particular; keeping all three clarinets in synchronization is difficult) plus the ever popular “train music” played on the baritone

The Music Man:

I’m not a fan of Meredith Wilson by any stretch of the imagination, but this one holds a special place in my heart solely for the lead soprano clarinet part on “Eccentric Couple Dance” (the extension of “Shipopi!”) that is stuffed into the Reed IV book. Did the copyist pick up the wrong sheet of music when he scored this one? I don’t know, but whatever happened I’m glad that it did.

(This show is also notorious for having the bassoon part shifted over to the bass clarinet in the extended sections of the “Marian The Librarian” dance number. (It’s a repetitive figure on the bottom of that instrument, and I’ve known a number of otherwise excellent bassoon players who have trouble pulling it off for the two or three minutes that it is played.))

Company:

Here included for the three great dance numbers (“You Could Drive A Person Crazy”, “What Would We Do Without You” and the one under the sex scene with the stewardess towards the end, titled “Tick Tock”). A wide variety of musical styles in all three, with “What Would…” having an exhausting clarinet, bass clarinet and soprano sax part, and the sex scene one having two baritone saxes chugging along in a brassy, jazz-based motif under the modern dance taking place on stage.

Also fun for the exposed Eb soprano clarinet part under “Poor Baby”, which I’ve ended up playing on every production save one, since those alto guys and gals don’t seem to own their own.

Superman! The New Musical:

Seldom done, although for the life of me I can’t understand why. Lots of “hits” (“You’ve Got Possibilities”, “You’ve Got What I Need, Baby” both came from this show), a campy plot line, and fantastic, jazzy music. Particularly interesting is the clarinet lead during the “Entracte”; how anyone can play that part is beyond my ken. It reminds me a lot of Bye, Bye Birdie, only with less of a bass clarinet part.

Fiddler On The Roof:

Fun in the versions that I’ve played, since the Clarinet I book contains the bass clarinet part, which means that I got to do the extended “Bottle Dance” solo. Other than that, bo-ring!

And, of course

West Side Story:

Mostly clarinet (even though you get the “all sax” impression from listening to it, it’s still mostly clarinet and bass clarinet), but with some neat sax parts. I’ve always played the book with clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor and baritone (there are, I believe, three books with bass clarinet overall). Excellent jazz idiom stuff for the baritone, very little tenor playing (and all of that in the first act), and the usual difficult Bernstein clarinet writing (or was it Sondheim who scored it out?). A very moving bass clarinet obbligato at the end when everyone is getting killed off.

For musical value, I’d rate the Bernstein shows that I’ve done the highest of all. (I finally got Wonderful Town under my belt last spring, and I’ve also done Candide and West Side Story (two productions of the former, four of the latter).

Those are just the high points in a sea of mostly forgettable shows, the playing of many of which was just as much work as carrying a hod. I may have done a good job of playing the music, but I did not have a good time doing it.

Even there, some experiences stand out above the others. How about two productions of Once Upon A Mattress, all on bass clarinet, in less than five months? Gag me with a spoon. The only good thing there (other than the paycheck, of course) was that I only had to carry one case to the job.

I once had to do Carousel twice during six month’s time, in the process playing through enough dream sequences and poorly scored ballet stuff to put one in one’s grave. (I had to pull out (by hand) half of a cracked tooth during the intermission of one performance, adding to the misery; however, just playing through the ballet sequence caused me more pain than the remaining half of the tooth.)

Stuff like that those, or like Sound Of Music, will be encountered by all who do these meldings of music, art and theater, but they are nowhere near as fun as the ones from the golden age of the musical (say 1955 through 1980).

One other thing: I’ve been initialing the books that I’ve played for over thirty years now. (I do it in very small lettering, inside the rear cover right up at the spine, noting the month/year and my initials (a superimposed capital T over a capital S.) In all of that time, with all of the repeat productions done during that time, I’ve only once seen the same book twice (in a production of Mame, and it was not one of the “frequent fliers” either.

leader of Houston’s Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com

Post from Clarinet BBoard (2006-08-17 16:04)

Posted in Band, Music, Theater | Leave a comment

Pit Crew – Chapter 3 – Audition for Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”

Posted on September 12, 2006 by Gandalfe
Suzy and I arrived a Cathy’s very nice house and heard another candidate in the middle of an audition. Gut check time. Turns out the candidate knew me from my Admin position on Sax on the Web! It’s really a small world after all. He was playing clarinet, flute, and tenor sax–he is a true doubler.
 
I had brought two solos, one for alto sax and one for tenor with piano parts, so that Cathy could hear my sound on both instruments. They are what the ad had requested. Good thing they didn’t need me to play clarinet or flute because I am having a devil of a time adding them to my repertoire. The tenor solo went without a hitch as I have been playing lead tenor in the Woodinville Jazz Ensemble for a couple of months now. But when I pulled out the alto sax, I had a devil of a time tuning it on the fly. Finally I just pulled the mouthpiece out a half inch and bam, I was almost there.
 
Sight-reading isn’t my forte… yet. It is something I am working on with my two sax instructors, Neil Proff for tenor and alto sax and Scott Dart for alto and bari sax. But Cathy pulled out "It’s De-Lovely" and had me play it alone and with piano. She complimented me on my sight-reading skills saying it wasn’t that bad and then talked about how this part of the song would consist of three instruments playing the same line of music. It would need to be tight. And I was munging one part of the music. I will have to get that down better if I get the gig.
 
Cathy also asked me to play with more vibrato. Those who know me know that I am the vibrato maniac–I’d rather vibrato than eat! So I had tried to tone it down. But I was on my alto and after months of working on my tenor embouchure, which is much looser than the alto, it was more of a challenge for me than I would have expected. Moving from alto to tenor is going to take more practice. I think I’ll start playing both in the jazz ensemble just to work on it.
 
Cathy showed me the play book and it turns out this music can not be purchased. You have to rent it from a place in New York! I’d heard of that for orchestra music, but not theater or band music. Also Cathy is an arranger and will be arranging one of the songs to take advantage of the band instrumentation. She really knows the players and their strengths, so this should be a really nice arrangement tailored for this ten piece pit crew.
 
Well, drum roll please, Cathy contacted me the next day and I got the part. I am so happy but know this will be a great learning experience. It is one that I look forward to with great anticipation.
Posted in Music | Leave a comment