7 posts tagged “saxophone”
I stopped by church this morning to practice my upcoming solo with the accompnianist piano player. I don't play until the Sunday after next, but it's never to early to start practicing. Unlike training for a triathlon, which should be put off until the last minute. :-P
Anyway - The music is harder than I thought it would be, what with a few crazy key changes (5 SHARPS?!?! GAH!). I spent over an hour on it on Sunday so I have it partly under control.
Since I have a key to the church, I let myself in early and practiced a bit on my own. (I know, what the hell am *I* doing with a key to the chuch? ha!). The sanctuary has such wonderful acoustics. I think I'll do all my practicing there and not at home. It's much more fun.
Oh - and about my piano player. He's the church music director and announced last Sunday that he and his partner were married the week before in California. OMG. I cried. The congregation exploded in applause, cheers and tears. We may put on a 'blessing ceremony' for them as they had a civil ceremony. How wonderful is that? Super wonderful.
But back to me. So Jon reminds me that I have a recording of the tune and also a recording of just the accompiament piano part. I forgot about that. That's going to help bunches.
We played through it a few times, I need to work on a few finger-tangling spots, but I'm looking forward to playing in a couple weeks. Usually I'm petrified, but the song, "Morning Has Broken" is so pretty and I want to give it my best.
In case you are interested in hearing what I'm going to play, here's the recording that came with the music. I'm sure I'll sound JUST like this. As long as I don't sound like a goose with a headcold, it'll be great.
I need to add two more items to my to-do list for the week:
6. Practice Spanish - we learned numbers last night! I need to work up a cheat sheet to help me out.
7. Practice sax - I have my annual summer solo coming up at church in a few weeks. At least I think it's in a few weeks. It could be this Sunday. I had better check. O_O
I have the music and doesn't look to have too many thick concentrations of little black dots. That's how I can tell at quick glance how challenging a piece of music will be.
I rode the Bike of Death this morning to get used to it again. Good Buddy Dave gave it a tune-up and said while it was 'old school', it was high-end in its day. I told him it won a lot of races, then I bought it and now it's a washed-up has been.
He also said one of the shifter thingies was bent and asked if I had ever fallen over while on it. "Yes. Multiple times."
Anyway, it's a blast to ride. Light and fast. (Unlike me - har!) Getting on and off is always a challenge. So I went across the street to the high school and rode around in the empty parking for half an hour to get reaquainted with it. Good times!
We have one more rehearsal before our next concert. I'm so not prepared. The music our director picked is *&^%$# hard. I can play some pieces straight through, a few others have bumpy spots and more where I just try to hit the first note in each measure. It's a good thing our first chair alto sax guy, Wade, is massively talented and can carry the section when necessary.
Anyway, there's one movement in Four Scottish Dances* where the saxes are burdened with five flats in the key signature. Not to get too technical here, but we altos rarely see more than two flats, if any.
Me: "I have such a hard time thinking in flats. I'm much better with sharps."
Wade: "That's natural."
*rimshot*
Yeah, yeah, that might be a bit esoteric.
Anyway, we then switch abruptly into six sharps. There are only seven notes, so as long as I remember 'everything but B is sharp', I can do pretty well. Except it's fast. I had better get to practicing.
*The music has been transcribed for band - no strings.
Today was the public opening for the new Tempe Center for the Arts, a $66 million jewel of a performing arts facility. I am lucky enough to be in one of the resident groups so I was on hand for today's festivities. Our group, the Arizona Wind Symphony along with A Ludwig Dance, put on two performances for throngs of people eager to finally see what three years of construction and budget overruns was all about.
This morning as I was leaving my place to carpool with my friend Kay (bari sax), a little scorpion gave me a love sting on my right arm. It was taking a ride on my music bag. Bad words were said, bug was crushed instantly.
Great. I have a rehearsal and two performances on the docket. Kay freaked and being the mom that she is, made sure I had ice available to keep down the sting. I only hoped it wouldn't spread to my hand.
My buddies in the sax section at first showed concern, but when I told them I was more or less okay, I was accused of making an early excuse for sucking later on. Ha.
After our rehearsal with the dance troupe, we had an hour to kill before performing. Instead of hitting the free food outside first, I thought I would poke in on the Childsplay rehearsal in the main theater. The theater was pitch black and when I went to leave, I completely missed the step down to the landing. Head first down the steps. Splat. I landed on my left shoulder and banged up my leg. I stayed on the floor for a moment to take inventory on what may or may not be injured. Everything seemed to be in place.
I slowly made it to my feet and went into the lobby to find a place to sit and regain my composure. I began to wonder if I was going to make it through the day.
The performances were packed and the audiences enthusiastic. We played well and the dancers were fantastic. Out in the lobby and in the gardens, every resident of Tempe seemed to be enjoying the day. Other groups performed throughout the facility and I'm hearing from friends that they enjoyed seeing so much talent in one place. Yay!
I made it through the rest of the day (so far) unscathed and feeling pretty triumphant, if not a little bruised, battered and stingy. The pain never spread past its location - imagine a chemical burn under the skin - and now I'm just numb in that spot. I'm soooo lucky it wasn't worse. (The luck of actually having a scorpion sting can be debated).
Enough about me - the TCA was built as four separate buildings (Theater, Studio, Gallery, Lakeside) under one roof, ala Native American traditions. The building is soundproofed against the constaint roar of jet engines in the flight path of Sky Harbor Airport just a stone's throw down the river bank. It's a beautiful building intended to foster a feeling of intimacy with the arts. I think it lives up to all the hype and is worth the wait.
Thanks to all the peeps for your support! I not only made it through the solo this morning, but I hit all the right notes, too! All the right notes in the right order, I should say.
During the warm-up through this morning, I was all thumbs and broke out into a sweat. Oh, geez. Not starting out well. The few early birds clapped anyway.
I was up and down before service started, trying to calm my nerves. People told me they were looking forward to hearing me again and I said I would do my best. "Doesn't matter. This crowd will clap for anyone as long they try." We're a bunch of smart-asses. That's why it's like family.
Then the service was underway and I noticed the reed I was using acquired a crack sometime between practice and now. Do I risk using it and try not to squawk? Or do I run for the backup, which wasn't very well broken-in. Go for the back-up. So I ducked out to the back room, came back and hoped it would work.
Show time. I was concentrating so hard on making sure I was getting a decent sound that I was able to keep the nerves at bay for a while. As soon as I hit the 'home stretch', I noticed my legs starting to shake. Then I was finished just in time. My arms were starting to shake. What a relief to hear applause and be able to sit back down.
Afterward, I was indeed plied with punch and cookies and high compliments. Everyone commented on how calm and collected I looked. Someone asked how long I had been playing. Quick math comes out to 24 years. Yikes. Where has the time gone? With that much experience, I had no excuse to screw up.
Now I feel like taking a nap. Or drinking a Bloody Mary. Maybe I'll have a Bloody Mary and then take a nap.
Thanks again, everyone!
I'm playing a solo tomorrow at church. A little Vivaldi piece with piano accompahniemmment. Ever heard Vivaldi on the alto sax? No? Just about everything can be transcribed for different instrumentation these days.
I practiced with the piano for the first time on Thursday. Practicing at home, in a little backroom by yourself barely prepares you for what you sound like with the sanctuary acoustics and the the piano part. Took a few tries to not sound like I was a six-grader who didn't know which end to blow into.
So today I ran through the piece a zillion times, spending extra time on the parts that trip me up most often. It's extremely important to train over and over and over so when your brain freaks and screams "ACK! A hundred people are STARING AT ME!" your fingers can take over.
This happened to me last year when I happily volunteered to play during the choir's summer hiatus. The last time I had played a solo with piano accompniamenent was in high school for Solo & Ensemble competition and now I found myself sorely out of confidence.
There I was, standing up in front of the friendliest, most supportive crowd I could have ever hoped for. The nerves started a few measures into the piece when all of a sudden, I went cold and panic set in. All I could think was "I'm going to forget how to play. I can't remember how to play. ACKCKCKCK!"
Then it was all over. People were clapping and I was through. It was like driving home in deep thought and all of a sudden you realize you are in your driveway but can't remember any part of your journey.
I'm hoping my subconscious will take over in case it happens again. But *positive thoughts* it won't.
I can do it. It will be great. It will be fun. I will be relaxed and enjoy. *repeats*
Here I am safely ensconsed in my 80 degree A/C home and watching the National Independence Day festivities from DC on my local PBS station. I just finished a post about why I love Phoenix. But I realize one thing I miss.
Playing in a Fourth of July concert. Outside. Even though I've played more John Phillip Sousa tunes than I can recognize by name, I love the "Stars & Stripes Forever" with its dogfight section and piccolo feature.
However, I can only hope the TV broadcast was edited down. Way down. When the NSO played Tchaikovsy's 1812 Overture, I settled in for something fantastic. Instead, they only played the end. Not the entire heart wrenching piece, the tug of war between the French and Russian forces. It wasn't even anticlimatic, it was just the flash bang part.
I remembered back *crusty old crazy cat lady voice* back when I was in the band, we played the entire 1812 complete with Howitzers. Yeah. Howitzers. I'll never forget rehearshing under the baton of Dr. Rick Blatti (my favorite band director ever, now with Ohio State University), and being told "the part where the canon goes off, we are using Howitzers. Get ready for it."
So here we are, a summer band playing in a glorious band shell on a beautiful Midwestern summer day, playing Sousa tunes and full of exciting expectation for our grand finale.
Nearby, members of the Michigan National Guard were ready by radio for their part to play.
Then we dove into the 1812. During the last moments, when many 'indoor bands' play the part of the final defense with bass drums, we had real canon. I flew out of my chair from the blasts. Squirrels fell out of trees from shock. The moths fluttering around the band shell lights were stunned and dazed all over our music. When the smoke cleared, the audience, comprised of family, friends and almost everyone we knew - was out of their lawn chairs, off their blankets, cheering and clapping as if it was the most amazing concert they've experienced.
It so rocked. Even the NSO can't compare.
