Ain’t it the Gospel Truth
The Christmas Musical Draws to a Close
It seemed like it went by all too fast. About 5 days ago I was worried about “hell week” – a 5 day marathon of taxing playing. But now after three performances of the Christmas Musical, it seemed to go by all too quickly.
And I still haven’t had my fill of Christmas music this year. I suppose there’s still two weeks to go…
Here are the two highlights of my night.
The first is me, in the style of Martin Luther an his theses, nailing the high Eb against the wall of the church at the end of Act I:
The sound from my chair when that beautiful Eb reverberated through the hall was simply invigorating.
And the second highlight of my evening was nailing a really cool piccolo trumpet lick for the first time in three nights:
All this accomplished while I was feeling sick and exhausted having set up the video and recording equipment. I think you can see it in my face.
So there really is a lot of different emotions going through me right now. Generally I’m happy with my final (and recorded performance). I’ll spare you the pain of listening to my rather pretty solo being ruined by a clam at the end. Otherwise, I had a rather nice night of playing.
There are a couple thoughts I want to hit upon for my own personal reflection. And yes, I will venture into what may be deemed as dangerous territory.
First of all is the concept I touched on about two weeks ago in my post about the human element. One of the things I was talking about is the fact that as a trumpet player – I bring a certain skill set to the table. Not to toot my own horn (puns!), but I bring a fairly solid commercial sound to a group. I’m extremely careful about my tuning and although I could certainly be better, I’m fairly grounded in the “semi-pro” arena.
Here’s the deal, there are other trumpet players who are certainly not near my level. I know personally a few people in this area that I would say are gladly equal and better than I am. I play with them, and I’m perfectly happy to play under them. But I will not play 2nd fiddle to someone who is not as good.
I’m not going on an ego trip here. I certainly can hear the flaws of the picc solo (although that first excerpt is frankly flawless 
). I’m just saying it’s foolish to think that I can be replaced with someone off the streets or who plays lead in high school. Unless that kid is a prodigy and in that case I’ll gladly play second.
I think this reaction is a response to an attitude that I think I’m seeing in this musical group and in a few others. It’s this cobbling together of players without really any idea of their playing ability. Does so-and-so play trumpet – okay, bring him/her in. I really don’t mind students sitting in to learn how these shows work, but seriously let the experienced ones do the heavy lifting.
Which brings me to another experience recently with this musical that I’d honestly would rather no experience again. There was from high school who came in a couple rehearsals ago that on very first impression (having only heard him warm up as I walked into the hall) seemed very enthusiastic. But then upon actually meeting him and hearing him talk, he became very annoying.
Very Very Annoying.
Like, why are you sitting in the 1st trumpet chair annoying.
Like, quit bitching about how your band sucks because you can’t play in tune to save your life. And quit blaming my 70+ year old trumpet player friend for all your bad notes you little punk.
The kid would not shut up during rehearsal, making smart alec remarks to the director the whole time (loud enough so the director would hear). He acted like he was everybody’s smart ass friend – absolutely no decorum. And frankly, no talent.
Just a punk ass kid with his head shoved up his ass.
I know that kind of narcissism is really a sign of massive insecurity. I’m sure it is. He’s got plenty to be insecure about. He sucks.
Coming off of some other crap, I wasn’t afraid to pull seniority and weight on him. I know I’m better by miles. So after the first rehearsal where he clawed his way to second, I sent him down to play third. The first reason was because having someone playing that poorly around me (missing partials and hitting notes that are WAY off) makes me worse. The second reason (which may be the most important one), I was afraid I was going to deck him if I didn’t get him far away from me.
And no – he’s not in that pic above, so there!
The final bit I wanted to touch on tonight is the subject of high notes. Trumpet players live for high notes. As you can see by my posting two excerpts above. There’s a reason why – they sound extremely cool. It’s a great feeling to nail a note that sits in just right. It’s sonic purity – getting all the wavelengths to line up like that. It’s high brass heaven.
Not everyone can play high notes.
Or more accurately, not everyone plays them right.
My poor friend Joe. To hear him painfully warm up trying to reach a high G. It’s pinched and nasally. There’s nothing exciting or sizzling about it. For one, it’s out of tune. And he’s argued with me that high notes don’t need to be in tune. Totally WRONG. High notes, because of their piercing quality, need to be “more in tune” than anything else.
If the high note sits right in tune, it peaks of the wavelength play pretty with all the other notes of the chord. Like I said, sonic purity! If a high not is out of tune, it clashes because with such a high frequency, it has many opportunities to mash against the other notes in the chord.
And this is what I think why a lot of musicians/teachers who don’t “get” what high notes are about get tangled up in. They deal with a lot of kids who think, “Gee, I fingered a F on the valves, that must mean I hit a high F” while realistically, they overshot by 30 cents.
High note playing is something that requires a lot of practice and a lot of ear training. You need to start hearing what the correct pitches are suppose to be. For me, it took a long time in front of a tuner but I was determined to get those pitches into my head. I had a really hard time with it this summer, but I’m a lot closer now than I was a year or two ago.
So I can understand why some just don’t “get it” – they listen to the wannabes and think that’s all there is.
Okay, long post… but I’ll touch on one last thing.
I think I’ve been trying too hard to push myself in the MSJC college band. I did too much above the ledger playing trying to get myself to a usable double C. I can hit that, though not terribly well, but right now it is beyond my grasp. High F and Gs are really my usable limit – I need to build that strength up more and keep things around that range and slowly work up.
And sometimes I need to remember that I am not a professional musician. I’ve chosen something else as my profession and passion. This is my second love.
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