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gander
Regular Member
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 71
Location: Seattle WA
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 Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:20 am Post subject: Busy Season Benefits |
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Well as a comeback player I have been struggling to regain range and endurance. Practice and the community band schedule was helping but I felt I needed more. In October, I maneged to find just the right folks to start a brass quintet. I really like the music and figured it would be a fun addition to the mix.
So we got started. played a few times and then decided that maybe we were good enough to get a few Christmas gigs. We stepped up practices and low and behold ended up with roughly 7 performances on our schedule (2 of them outdoor 2 hour gigs)
Some went very well. Some showed we needed work. The last 5 were in succesive days. I was very worried that my endurance would not hold up. And while it was a close thing, I felt that my chops responded well. Each day I felt stronger at the end of the performance than the previous day.
There is something about the intensity of a performance that is different them just practicing. To all my fellow comeback players, I'd suggest finding as many opportunities to play as possible. It was alot of fun, musically rewarding and beneficial.
Now that we're done, I need to try and maintain some of that intensity.
Gary
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Gary Anderson
Kanstul Chicago 1000
Reynolds Contempora Cornet
Conn Vintage 1 Flugelhorn |
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cbtrumpet
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Joined: 28 Nov 2004
Posts: 70
Location: Western Illinois USA
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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Sounds like fun.
What all did you play? Two hours is a long time, all right. |
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_PhilPicc
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Joined: 15 Jan 2002
Posts: 2286
Location: Clarkston, Mi. USA
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| Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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I think that is great. How often did you practice and how did you learn 2 hours of material for the gig?
I'm impressed. Great going and keep it up.
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Philip Satterthwaite
We cannot expect you to be with us all the time, but perhaps you could be good enough to keep in touch now and again."
- Sir Thomas Beecham to a musician during a rehearsal |
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gander
Regular Member
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 71
Location: Seattle WA
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| Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:25 am Post subject: |
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| PhilPicc wrote: | I think that is great. How often did you practice and how did you learn 2 hours of material for the gig?
I'm impressed. Great going and keep it up. |
We practiced one a week. We would have been crisper if we'd practiced more, but it was okay as was. The truth was our set was about 40 minutes of music.
The two hour gigs were at for the Santa train at the Northwest Railway Museum http://www.trainmuseum.org/Trains/SantaTrain.htm
Since this was a continuous stream of new people we could repeat without anyone hearing the same song twice. The Santa train gig was really great because alot of yooung children got to see the quintet. There were alot of big eyed stares. Obviously most had never seen brass intruments up close.
G
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Gary Anderson
Kanstul Chicago 1000
Reynolds Contempora Cornet
Conn Vintage 1 Flugelhorn
Last edited by gander on Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:33 am; edited 1 time in total |
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gander
Regular Member
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 71
Location: Seattle WA
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| Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:32 am Post subject: |
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| cbtrumpet wrote: | Sounds like fun.
What all did you play? Two hours is a long time, all right. |
Indeed two hours was along time. As noted above, we were able to repeat songs without anyone hearing the same one twice. Those gigs were almost too much. In addition they were outside in 30-40 degree weather.
We mostly played songs from Camp Kirland's Christmas collection, with a few additional pieces thrown in.
G
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Gary Anderson
Kanstul Chicago 1000
Reynolds Contempora Cornet
Conn Vintage 1 Flugelhorn |
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