TromboneChat

Two examples I come to think of but there are probably more Tell me yours!

I'm glad I had to learn every key and every scale when I studied as well as all the C-clefs. All the early training in different transposing of G-clefs AND to transpose a part at sight. All experience from conducting as well as analytic training as an engineer. Sometimes all those skills on the side is what saves the job, you could of course as well call those skills experience.

Transposing at sight is one of those skills you never know is needed until it saves your job
A method in the beginning to learn could be to rewrite parts or you pick up those skills as you learn to arrange and compose music or you work as a teacher and play parts with your flute-,clarinet--,saxophone-, french horn-, mellophone-- or whatever- students. I think the last experience was what saved my last gig.

A resent experience was at a cermony in a great cathedral this sunday. We came to the church with not much time to rehearse just to discover we had to cover not only our traditional trombone parts in bass clef but also had to read from a score and play parts in G-clef in both Bb and C within the same hymn. All hymns were like that and instruction how to play were on a separate sheet of paper like this:
- verse 1 play the parts
- verse 2 trombones play unison on the melody
- verse 3 only trumpets
...and so on

As we played we had to scan the score quickly to figure what parts in the score to read next to find the melody to transpose and then jump back to our own part in bass clef. All this had to be done at the same time. Not difficult parts but what made it difficult was the instructions were on a separete sheet of paper and the small size of the staffs in a score as well as the fact that first and second parts in a score often are on same staff. Also I need to do ALL this at once and add the obstacle that my eyesight isn't what it once was. In short to get the best result you need to know the melody and play it from memory and guess some chunks of the ongoing part at the same time as you scan the instructions as well as the score to figure out what to do and where to play next. It helps to have been at a few cermonies so you know ALL the hymns also by heart and your abilities to improvise also are tested. Some kind of odd requirements. Not your everyday-gig Just one example what you need to solve on a gig sometimes when skills in theory and a lot of experience is highly important. The actual music was the easy part. What adds to it is almost no time to rehearse. No point to complain. Just do it if you want to be called next time. From experience I have my own method to 'code' such information into "my part/s", so I was rather fast to transfer all the instructions with a pen. If I hadn't done that I would have been lost because you can not read sentences on another paper at the same time as you are reading and transposing notes from the score on the other paper.

Once at another occation I had to play a whole church gig in bassclef in Bb. That was a challange before I realized the part was in Bb. The organ player had done the arrangements and deliberately printed them in bass clef in Bb to help us because he thougt we preferred them that way and since we had no time to rehearse he wanted everything to be as easy as possible to avoid any wrong notes Bass clef if Bb isn't something you do very often.

/Tom

I had to play some Swiss band music. I had the tuba part. The part was written in transposed treble for a Bb instrument. But I had an F tuba. Talk about mental confusion! Would have been fine on a Bb tuba or with a bass clef part.

I think opera and broadway type shows fit into this category. The music may also be difficult, but the rest of it complicates things even more. Unpredictable actors/conductors, rubato everywhere, miscellaneous stage noise, improvised lines, dance steps that don't fit the music... I always feel like I ran 10 miles after a musical, and a series of performances is a huge test of endurance - not just chops, but mainly concentration.

BGuttman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2024 7:28 am I had to play some Swiss band music. I had the tuba part. The part was written in transposed treble for a Bb instrument. But I had an F tuba. Talk about mental confusion! Would have been fine on a Bb tuba or with a bass clef part.

Would that be like reading horn?

hyperbolica wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2024 8:09 am I think opera and broadway type shows fit into this category. The music may also be difficult, but the rest of it complicates things even more. Unpredictable actors/conductors, rubato everywhere, miscellaneous stage noise, improvised lines, dance steps that don't fit the music... I always feel like I ran 10 miles after a musical, and a series of performances is a huge test of endurance - not just chops, but mainly concentration.

Oh yes... I do feel kind of comfortable to sightread in a concert situation as long as it is not a demanding professional setting. But sightreading opera or musical? I would probably do it, if I was asked (very unlikely!), but I would be scared... Accompanying a choir or soloist in a concert situation also makes things more complicated. Largely because conductors often don't really concentrate on the orchestra. And those who mostly conduct choirs often don't have a good technique for an orchestra.

When I played for a while with a professional orchestra, the first few times playing an opera/operette/musical always were very stressful. On the other hand I have very very positive memories of e.g. playing La Boheme. The story building up to that dramatic ending always brought me close to tears.

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Playing in an orchestra where the conductor has decided the only way things will work is to make a downbeat every time the violins change notes because they are young Suzuki method players and may not understand beat patterns.

I stared at my shoe laces during rests and made sure I couldn't see past my stand when I played.

VJOFan wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2024 10:18 am Playing in an orchestra where the conductor has decided the only way things will work is to make a downbeat every time the violins change notes because they are young Suzuki method players and may not understand beat patterns.

I stared at my shoe laces during rests and made sure I couldn't see past my stand when I played.

Proves the old adage, "Look up, f**k up."

Freelancing in general was like this for me. I always felt like I didn't know the social customs or networking rules until it was too late (and one mistake was too late.) Just felt confused and like I was missing something most of the time.

musicofnote wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2024 9:35 am

BGuttman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2024 7:28 am I had to play some Swiss band music. I had the tuba part. The part was written in transposed treble for a Bb instrument. But I had an F tuba. Talk about mental confusion! Would have been fine on a Bb tuba or with a bass clef part.

While this may have been a Swiss tune, there is no only-specific-to-Switzerland Band instrumentation. There are a couple of continental band instrumentation styles, none of them exclusively found in Switzerland, originating for example in the Netherlands and Belgium. Here in Switzerland we have groups playing in literally all types of various instrumentations including US concert band instrumentation. The brass bands I conducted were all of British Style which also had tuba partsin transposed treble clef, not to mention 1st and 2nd trombone parts transposed in b-flat treble clef. The US concert bands I conducted were all of the US concert band style, BUT my tuba players all came from British style Brass bands, so I had to transpose the bass clef tuba parts for them on their BB-flat and E-flat tubas. PITA. Many of my trombone playing colleagues here grew up first playing trumpet or baritone horn in b-flat treble clef, then switched to treble clef trombone before going to conservatory and have to learn "real" trombone parts in bass clef.

The concert had a lot of Swiss music including some extensive playing of the Alphorn and Bugel by our director, who spent a fair amount of time in Switzerland. He also provided the band parts and probably didn't realize that American tuba players generally read untransposed bass clef. He was a horn player after all.