Ensemble-playing-practice

[Flueskum]

Hello everyone, im home for the summer just working a day time job.
I want to work on my ensemble playing but there are not many musicians here in my town to play with, We are doing a lot of pieces in school next school year and i was wondering if there is any way for me to improve my ensemble playing without playing with someone, perhaps there is some ways to work on it. I know it might be a long shot but i want to see what you all have to say
thanks in advance
Flueskum

[zaferis]

Being in control of your instrument will obviously help so, while you might not have the opportunity to rehearse, work on your skills/techiques. Use a metronome and a tuner. Look for play-a-long things; SmartMusic comes to mind. Read new things and always keep focus on time and rhythms-put things in the right place.

Then don't shy away from playing/reading duets, trios, etc - and you don't have to have an entire "ensemble" to have an effective session.
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[trickg]

Flueskum, I work with recordings A LOT. With the wedding band that I'm in, everything is almost always arranged according to the original that was played on the radio, so I can play the original recording of the tune and play along to that. Also, we use backing tracks and there are two versions of the tracks - one with bass, and one without - it depends on what the bandleader is doing for that particular tune - sometimes he's playing bass, sometimes keys, sometimes sax, and sometimes he singing. In any case, those backing tracks are recorded to a click track which is featured on one side of the stereo mix, so that's a built in metronome.

You can find a recording for almost anything that isn't obscure on YouTube as well. My practice room is set up as a multi-purpose room, so in that room I have my recording setup, which incorporates a set of KRK Rokit 6 studio reference monitor reference speakers, so when I'm working tunes for the party band, I turn up the volume, pull up the tune in iTunes, and practice that way.

I've found that working with recordings, it helps your time, inflection, phrasing, timing, articulation, dynamics, intonation, - it's not as good as playing in a real ensemble, but it's a close second IMO.

When I prep to play my Christmas and Easter gigs, we almost always play the Hallelujah Chorus - I pull up the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's recording on Youtube and play that. Over the last couple of years, I have found recordings of almost everything we do on those gigs, and I think that they are a great resource to use to help prepare.
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Patrick Gleason
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"95% of the average 'weekend warrior's' problems will be solved by an additional 30 minutes of insightful practice." - PLP

[dstdenis]

Play along with recordings you like. Practice with an electronic drone to improve pitch awareness and a metronome to improve rhythm. Have fun!
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