My Fragile Trumpet Player ego.

[ghelbig]

I'm wondering how other people would react in my situation. I'm leaving out details that I don't think are important.

I'm playing in a community orchestra because I want the group playing time - so that I will be a better player. Beethoven is not particularly challenging outside of trying to match intonation after very long rests.

At one rehearsal the conductor commented that he "liked what he was hearing", and then we changed some dynamics from the original.

At the next rehearsal the conductor apologized that he hadn't had a chance to get someone to check over my transposed copy - it was originally for an Eb trumpet, and I wanted someone to check for my mistakes.

The next feedback I got was from a local posting saying "Symphony TRUMPET NEEDED" (his all-caps, not mine). I emailed (his preferred method) him about the posting, but haven't gotten a reply.

I'm thinking that he isn't being honest with me about the areas I need to improve, and I'm wondering about the benefit to me playing under a conductor with poor communication skills.

You-all's opinion?
Gary.

[gbdeamer]

[ghelbig]

[Crazy Finn]

I don't understand what part you were playing from.

Did you ever get an original - as in the part everyone else in the group was playing from?

What's the primary instrument of the conductor? Often those who are not brass players don't understand orchestral brass parts and their transpositions/realities.
_________________
LA Benge 3X Bb Trumpet
Selmer Radial Bb Trumpet
Yamaha 6335S Bb Trumpet
Besson 709 Bb Trumpet
Bach 184L Bb Cornet
Yamaha 731 Bb Flugelhorn

[ghelbig]

[Craig Swartz]

Face to face and forget coming here. Perhaps he's looking to replace the other guy, who know? It's too bad that the higher the level of "education", the less plain language people seem to use. There's something to be said for communicating in a slightly Neanderthal manner, at least everyone knows where they stand when it's over. WTH? In cases like this (if the OP is reading things correctly), feelings are going to get bent, anyway.

[ghelbig]

[RandyTX]

If you really have an interest in playing in an orchestra much "down the road", you're not going to want to be spending your time entering all those Eb, F, A, C, D, etc. parts into some software and transposing them, then looking for somebody to check them for you.

It'll be painful initially, but you're far better off working through the transpositions and getting used to reading off the originals.

I had the same temptation early on, but the sheer volume of sheet music written for other keys soon made the idea overwhelming and gave in and started working on reading the parts up/down appropriately. It may surprise you how fast you catch on to it, despite the initial pain. Beethoven's trumpet writing is particularly amenable to doing this without a lot of prior transposing experience.

[ghelbig]

[Nonsense Eliminator]

I don't think there's enough information here to draw any conclusions from, but I would say that it is almost always a bad idea to ask a conductor to double-check your transposition. This is particularly true in the case of Beethoven, where there are probably only about 5 different pitches to worry about. It's certainly not unheard-of to make transposition errors when you're doing it on the fly, but you absolutely need to have the skills to double-check with 100% accuracy when you have time to sit down and work it out. I'm not saying that the conductor handled things properly, but it certainly isn't surprising that asking him to check your transposition would set off big alarm bells.
_________________
Richard Sandals
NBO

[ghelbig]