The Bis Key Chronicles

I got a email from a Sax Professor and repair tech asking for playing opportunities for an adult returning to music performance. I thought I’d capture my response so that I can point to it again (rather than redraft it) as I get these requests many times a year.

The groups I play with in the Redmond (Eastside part of Seattle) have *long* sub lists that can be both frustrating at first blush and interesting as to the possibilities. The number of people wanting to join got so big a couple of years ago that we had to institute an audition process. But all is not lost. Consider these options and from a hobbyist like me who mans the 2d alto and tenor chairs mostly:

1. The complete list of Community band in the US and around here is at http://boerger.org/c-m/commother.shtml. I search on the string ‘WA’ and then work my way through the list. With over 1100 community bands listed, that’s the most efficient way I know to search. I know that Monroe and Shoreline were looking for clarinets and saxes last year. I joined the community band to start networking with other hobbyist musicians. Concert band isn’t my thang, but it catapulted me into jazz in a big way.

2. Create your own sax quartet. I did this and now have ~12 people who rotate in during the year. Last year we actually gigged three times. Here is one of the videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udy4n8ggWys All I had to do was procure the music and start pokin’ around for sax players in my part of town. I actually converted my wife into a sax player from her primary instrument of clarinet. My collection of sax quartet charts is now over 100.

3. Create your own Big Band. I did this a number of times and now run the Microsoft Jazz Band at work performing 4 times a year and the Pacific Cascade Big Band performing at swing dances monthly. These groups have the longest sub list of anything I do. And my personal library of jazz charts is over 200.

4. Start playing to Aebersold Jazz play-along books if you aren’t already. Great for developing those solo chops. If you’ve never done this start with the ‘Maiden Voyage’.

5. Open mics are around town like at Crossroads of Bellevue in this part of town. I don’t do this kind of thang because I prefer to play an hour or more of music to playing one song a night.

6. Just start taking lessons and see if your instructor can hook you up with playing opportunities.

It may take you some time to get into the network of fellow musicians interested in the kind of music you prefer. But I believe it’s more about the journey to where you want to be than getting there. Along my trip I’ve started up jazz combo like the Dissonance that gigged about 8 times a year. After three years I gave up on it even though we were getting gigs. I am sooo an intermediate player, but there are a lot of us out there. And if you have organizational and networking skills like I do, it can be easier.

BTW, I’m taking two lessons a week and have for the last three years or so. I started playing after a 29 year hiatus and found out that I probably never was a very good player even though I played first chair throughout high school. If you are pretty good on your instrument, start with the Community band list (item 1 above) to find a community band in your part of town and work it from there.

I was listening to Ken Robinson, author of “The Element” speak last week and I keep coming back to a little story he tells. It goes something like this.

A friend of mine was at a party and became enthralled by the performance of a jazz pianist. During a break he approached the pianist and said, “I would like so much to become a good pianist.” The pianist looked at the 50 year old friend of mine and said,

“No, no you don’t. If you wanted to become a musician you’d be one already. I practice over 5 hours a day and gig 6 nights a week. If you wanted to be a musician, you’d be one already. You don’t want to be a musician, you like the idea of being a musician.” Or words to that effect.

I often give lessons to high school kids who aren’t quite making it in music, late bloomers who are coming back to music and my grandkids like Amber in the picture to the left. In one session I will cover all the tricks to becoming a good musician. Like practicing only the hard parts in a set list, long tones for the woodwind player, Aebersold for the would be jazzer, and so on. Many of the things I demonstrate are things I wish I’d known when I was performing in high school. After the first lesson and if it is obvious to me that the student is inclined to put in the time necessary to become a good musician, I’ll recommend lessons by some of my favorite local instructors.

And I audition people for chairs in three to four groups like the Microsoft Jazz Band, the Pacific Cascade Big Band, the Professor Gadget Sax Quartet and the Woodinville Community Band sax section. The auditions usually go like this:

1. Get email from musician saying she/he want to get back into music. Nine out of ten times there is no indication of the skill level of the candidate.

2. Write response for any open chairs with these requirements; must own instrument/gear, know major scales, be able to read changes in solos, and for a trumpet hit high C. ~90% of the candidates never write back.

3. For those who are interested we audition them. If they are good they audition by subbing during a practice session.

4. If the candidate is even half as good as we would wish we offer them a chair or a position on the sub list.

In community bands in major metropolises you can get away with this; there are a lot of wanna be’s. It also saves you a lot of time with candidates who would waste your time, often for years. Doing this over and over for the past 4 years has brought me to this conclusion. Most people won’t put the work in to become a musician unless they are really passionate about music performance.

For example, I take two lessons a week, practice ~5 hours a week, and play with a number of bands. All this with a day job and family commitments that take up a lot of my time. I’ll never be a professional musician. But I will put in the time to become a decent hobbyist and often be called upon to solo. Maybe in ten years I’ll get there. And I am enjoying the process of learning, practicing, and performing.

I’m passionate enough about music to be an admin in the Woodwind Forum, play sax and clarinet, teach what little I have to offer, and practice. When I hear, over and over, people say, “I want to be a musician.” I usually think to myself, “No, no you do not.” Sometimes, I’ll even tell them that to their face… in a nice way.