IMPORTANT REMINDER: Next week (March 13) we’ll rehearse at 6:30 PM at WOODROFFE UNITED CHURCH. Make sure to BRING YOUR OWN MUSIC STAND, and a rag to collect any water from your instrument.
The church asks that we use the room as is and return anything brought in (percussion, chairs) back to their places. They ask that outside footwear be taken off and put near coat closet, more so if they’re wet. And any water leaking from instruments must be wiped from the floor afterwards, so please bring along a rag to use if this is an issue (for example, for brass players). You will also need to bring a music stand. The banquet hall is the large room off the kitchen and it’s marked.
Chorale No 7:
Please continue to practice this for warm-ups. Our goal is to use these simple, beautiful pieces to practice the sound quality, articulation, intonation, and ensemble playing we use in our performance pieces.
In Chorale No 7, we have added a fermata (hold) and breath at the end of measure 4; I will bring the group back in with what looks like two downbeats, both at the repeat and going into measure 5. For next week, we will keep the parts as follows:
- Flutes, oboe and trumpet – Soprano
- Clarinets, horn – Alto
- Alto saxes, tenor sax, some trombones – Tenor
- Bari sax, tuba, some trombones – Bass
- Percussion – choose whichever parts you like!
Allegretto from Symphony No. 7:
Great progress on this one tonight! I will conduct this in 2 (instead of 4) from now on. Please review your rhythms, especially those blessed with a triplet part.
Visions of Aranjuez:
There’s a general tendency to rush the three quarter notes in the second measure of the main melody. Resist this tendency! Coordinating and trading melodic lines will be much, much more effective if we’re all playing at the same tempo, and keeping it consistent.
Practice with a metronome if you can; doing this will show you what your habits are with respect to timing – slowing down, speeding up, skipping beats, etc. (But don’t do it too much, or you might find that life loses its meaning.)
Oye Como Va:
This one is cooking along nicely! The next refinement for us to make is to coordinate our note endings better, so that the rests stand out with conspicuous silence. Also, don’t forget to belt out the “UNH!!” at the end (if it’s in your part).
And I Love Her:
What can I say? This was a lovely way to end the evening.
Two excellent quotes that I keep posted where I can see them:
Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.
– Miles Davis
Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.
– Dizzy Gillespie
In case you’re interested, I’ve got two gigs coming up, one of which I mentioned at rehearsal:
Saturday, March 9 at The Black Sheep Inn with Slack Bridges – Doors at 8:30 PM
