The Rookie Blues

[Gandalfe]

So I'm sitting in with our community dance band, at a practice session with no drums or bass and darn it, I have to play bari again 'cuz two altos show up. We're sight reading an Oliver Nelson chart called Emancipation Blues. It's got four sharps, is presented on faded paper that is hard to read in the best of conditions. And its got triplets that the director is pushing at something just under a 160 meter. I guess they think that is a medium swing.

Our new director is a sax player with great creds, soloed with the Stan Kenton orchestra, played with the Seattle Rep, studied under Michael Brockman at UW. Now, with his PhD in Music he is trying to find a teaching gig in a tenure-based (vice talent-based) school district. (I think most of them are this way.) A pro basketball player who sits on the bench all season makes nearly $200,000 a year. A highly educated, phenominal musician and teacher probably (I'm guessing here) is struggling to make rent payments.

I find myself in a position where I realize I will have to resort to playing the first note of the triplets just to keep up and not blow the sax section's performance. To play this kind of thing well by sight, I would need to spend 5 to 6 hours a day for a couple of years. See, I'm back playing sax for the last two years after a 27 year break.

In a simple community band with a dance band group where half the people show up for practice and no gigs in sight, I'm struggling to participate at a level where I can respect myself in the morning. I try to make up for it by bringing in semi-pros to sit in with us on occasion. Hell, I'm the librarian for the sax section, tracking music and makin' copies just to make myself useful.

I've covered for people in another band last year, even playing a first tenor gig where I had five solos. But I'm not as good as I'd like to be. I'm lovin' the stuff I can cover. 'Cuz you see, I have a great sound. I just don't move my fingers fast enough and sight read well enough. I live for the times when I hit the piece straight-on and make people go wow. That doesn't happen very much (kinda like the same frequency of being dealt a killer hand in poker). But when it does... Well it kinda keeps you comin' back.

I read somewhere that American's don't want to do anything that they can't excell in. We hate being newbies even if we are headed the right way. I dunno. Maybe that's true. I just keep three saxes (a,t,b) so that if there's an available gig, I can play more.

This blues ballad is a trip down the emancipation road done in the key of D and to an 88 meter. :lol:

[Greyduster]

I really felt the need to post a response to you Gandalfe. I'm new to playing the sax but I've tinkered around music all my life. But I've tinkered around lots of other things as well.
Whatever I have chosen to learn I have always imagined myself, and I still do this at 52, being trhe best.

However the best takes time in the meantime we do the best we can and keep practising and some of us don't have as much time as others. Time in the day, or week or simply enough time left.

What I'm getting round to saying is that it sounds like your new band director is pitching it a bit high. The art of a good teacher, and in these circumstances a band leader has a kind of teaching role, is to appreciate just how far to stretch the students. Too far and they can't cope, too little and they get bored. That's the nub of the whole thing.
I really don't think is your problem. Your MD may have great musical credentials..as a musician...that doesn't necessarily make him a good MD.
How are the other members of the band coping? Are a good proportion of them coping OK?

I'll stop now but as a relative beginner to all this your post really struck a chord with me.

[jrvinson45]

Both of you guys strike a chord with me. Gandalfe, I really know the feeling. I have an awesome alto sound, and the slowest fingers in town, if not the country. Take heart in the fact that back in the sixties, Oliver Nelson did an album with a tune he entitled "Back Woods." Oliver was an alto player himself, and he wrote the composition intending to play the alto solo himself. Problem was the chorc changes were complex enough and came fast enough that he had to find someone else capable of improvising within the structure. As always, Phil Woods was called upon on was so fantastic Oliver Nelson renamed the tune after him. Greyduster is probably right, the bar is set pretty high, but people have been trying to jump over Oliver's bars for years, and not many can just sit in a sight read him. Keep the faith. :)

[Gandalfe]

I've been thinking about what Greyduster said about the new conductor's cred's and teaching style. I think the fellow is phenominal with more ways to learn than most of us even knew existed. The 1 and 2 saxes (alto and tenor) are excellent and they were gettin' bored with the same ol' songs. So this new instructor is keeping them interested.

I just like to grouse now and then. I should spend as much time practicing. My son sez that I don't practice, I just play the music I like, over and over. He is in music education so I'll give him his due. But I'm missing him being around 'cuz we were practicing buddies. When he finishes school he wants to move back to Seattle so that'll be cool.

Maybe I should get really serious and get another practice buddy. Thanks for listening all.

[steve]

Gandalfe.....First of all, your post was too upbeat to be in Dm..... I see some positives here....You will learn from your director if he pushes you....I'd view it as an opportunity to grow. After laying off for 30 years or so I was fortunate to find a blues band 5 years ago with experienced musicians to push me to get back to a level of proficiency where I'm not embarrased to "play out". The sight reading will come along....I am struggling with it too...and transpositon, but it keeps the grey matter alive.
As an aside....my wife and I are driving to Seattle in mid-June on vacation....neither of us has been to the northwest and are looking forward to it.

[Gandalfe]

Steve, are you bringin' your sax (es)? Do you wanna sit in on a dance band or concert band session?

[steve]

Thanks for the invite. I'll be hauling one of my horns...most likely the tenor. I've made a commitment to hook up with our old guitar player, Jim Cooke, one night and we will be spending most of our time on Orcas Island....But, depending on when you play, maybe I can at least come and listen. When do you rehearse? Steve

[Gandalfe]

Thursday nights at 6:30 for jazz band, 7:30 for concert band in Woodinville. If you're interested you have my e-mail in my profile.

[Troy]

Gandalfe,

I know this is an old thread, but I just had a thought about it. What about joining a church band? The music is more simple than what you describe, but probably enough fun to keep you practicing.

[Gandalfe]

My uncle plays and teaches in a church band. We talked about it when he visited. I have more gigs than I can handle right now. So I definately keep busy. I've moved from the utility player to the lead alto in the community concert band.

Concert band music is a lot easier than dance band music. And it exercises my intonation and listening skills as I try to balance the sax section when we play unison with the horns, then the clarinets and then the trumpets.

Thanks for the recommendation.

[Joe Linux]

So I'm sitting in with our community dance band, at a practice session with no drums or bass and darn it,

That's why I like the Abersold play alongs. They have a great rhythm section. I enjoy playng for my own self amusement.