Playing In a Musical Theater Setting

[benlewis]

Tim,

If TH ever needed a "Like" button, your last post was it!

Ben

[Mike Sailors]

[tptLad]

[Shaft]

Getting the gig…. Communities will sometimes have a playhouse where local people enjoy acting in their free time. Similar to community band where people of all ages enjoy their hobby by doing musicals. Network and see if you can sit in sometime on a rehearsal. Reach out to the trumpet player(s) and maybe they will take you under their wing. A lot of times these adults will have a scheduling conflict during an month long run and need a fill in. Sometimes these pay a small amount and sometimes they do not. Don’t sweat that part.

A local college may also be an option. Especially if their trumpet studio is not deep or the students have a heavy semester.

Play clean & don’t overblow. The audience tends to be a more intimate setting and in addition to sticking out the woodwind players and conductor do not want to have to always be requesting less from a headstrong trumpeter. At the same time if you have not already been working on this skill…learn to project at low volumes with a focused tone.

These are your new colleagues so be professional and on point during rehearsals.


Listening & reading

Add West Side Story, Fiddler, and do a search for common musicals to listen to as well. See if you can get a look at the trumpet parts in your spare time.
They may look easy sometimes but those time/ tempo/ style changes happen quick. Play along w/ the recording and see if you get a chance to get some parts.

Reread and implement Tim’s post and the other advice here as often as needed.

[kehaulani]

Just a comment to tptLad and not having anything technical to the subject, but playing in a pit can be very rewarding and a lot of fun.

You not only develop a comradery with a (usually) small and tight group of musicians, but can extend that to cast members, as well. You wind up knowing and repeating key lines to the show, enjoy inside jokes going on from the actors while the production's going on, catching the upstaging that might go on,
and the cast parties- oy gevalt!

I've done just about everything in music I can think of and played/conducted in just about every style and if I could only pick one kind of activity I was happiest doing it was performing musicals and dramas.

As the song goes, "Nice work if you can get it and you can get it if you try".
_________________
"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn

[Tpt_Guy]

[Rapier232]

Musical theatre is my absolute favourite playing situation. The rehearsals, the performances, the energy from the cast and audience. Love it all, except idiot arrangers that think a crotchet rest is enough time to change mutes. Or even worse, expect you to be able to remove the tube from a Harmon mute for a few bars and to put in back in within a couple of beats. I just bought a second Harmon.

Can’t recall what show but I needed, straight mute, cup mute, plunger, 2 Harmon, solo tone, bucket and derby hat. Plus trumpet, cornet and flugel. They didn’t need a trumpet player, they needed a juggler. 😀
_________________
"Nearly as good as I need to be. Not nearly as good as I want to be".

Smith-Watkins Bb
Will Spencer Bb
Eclipse Flugel
Smith Watkins K2 Cornet
JP152 C Trumpet
Besson Bugle

[cheiden]

I appreciate the challenge of the instrument/mute choreography. Want to up the ante? In addition to all the trumpet-shaped things try also covering some of the French horn parts AND covering some of the string parts on a synth. Yup, three books in three different keys. I did it for a children's production of Les Mis. Good times.
_________________
"I'm an engineer, which means I think I know a whole bunch of stuff I really don't."
Charles J Heiden/So Cal
Bach Strad 180ML43*/43 Bb/Yamaha 731 Flugel/Benge 1X C/Kanstul 920 Picc/Conn 80A Cornet
Bach 3C rim on 1.5C underpart

[patdublc]

Music theater pits are far and away my favorite performance medium. I'm approaching 100 separate productions. I'm not a full time musician so I'm not in Tim's class. But, I can share some experiences similar to what others have said.

I've used Bb, C, A picc, Bb picc, cornet, flugelhorn, and F contralto trumpet in pits. I've also doubled on french horn, trombone, percussion, and (easy) keyboard parts.

I've used a gazillion mutes including all the ones mentioned so far plus several mutes for picc.

When covering french horn parts, I prefer to use an F contralto trumpet because it is easier for me to put down and switch to Bb trumpet than using a french horn. But, I've needed to do both.

I did cover trumpet and trombone for a college production of Sweeney Todd. That was fun, but quite difficult.

There are a few shows where I prefer to use C trumpet. I've done that for Les Mis and Into The Woods. And, I used a rotary C for Jekyll and Hyde. These were my choice, not the music directors. If I recall correctly Jekyll & Hyde did not use trumpet for the broadway production. But, there was a part for the rentals. What made it interesting was that french horn had the lead brass line most of the time and trumpet was supporting it. So, By trumpet just didn't feel right for me; hence my choice of C rotary.

I've played some shows with a lot of high notes like All Shook Up. Like Tim said, you gotta be honest with yourself if you can do it or not.

Last year, I played Singin' in the Rain and the Moses Supposes number was kicking my butt. It wasn't terribly high - only up to high E, but you just played above the staff for what seemed like forever. And, we decided to repeat it twice for scene change. I finally decided that I needed to play this piece on picc instead of Bb so avoid making a real mess of it. It worked. Nobody in the audience cared.

What I really want to say is I love playing music theater but follow Tim's advice - be honest with yourself and do what you need to do to sound good and don't try to be a hero.
_________________
Pat Shaner
Play Wedge Mouthpieces by Dr. Dave exclusively.
Experiment with LOTS of horn makes and models.

[Dale Proctor]

In a nutshell, you need to be a reasonably accomplished, well-rounded player, have good sight reading skills, a couple sharp pencils, a really good eraser, and the ability to match the style if the 1st trumpet.
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"Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away ." - Sir Thomas Beecham

[jbueno]

Paul Baron has a great book that he came out with called, The Broadway Trumpeter. It has a lot of great material in it! He just released another one, Vol. 2. Great stuff!
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Jaden Bueno

Olds Recording, 1966
Olds Mendez, 1976
Bach 37
Cannonball Flugel
Yamaha 9830 Picc