Klarinet Archive - Posting 000269.txt from 2003/03

From: Karona Poindexter <poindka@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Studio Music Question
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 15:03:25 -0500

Good story. Actually I have played Rhapsody in Blue before. I played
it in college. It was terrifying! But I made it through and
everything went well. One thing I can say about that piece is make
sure you have a relatively soft read to bend the notes.

Thanks for sharing. And I'm sure you're going to be great at your gig.

Karona

On Thursday, March 6, 2003, at 02:39 PM, Jeremy A Schiffer wrote:

> On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, CBA wrote:
>
>> In closing, the studio industry is as corrupt as anything else
>> in getting a job. Most people hire subs by who they know. Meet
>> some studio people in your area by going to live Broadway type
>> shows and asking to take lessons on the instruments you play. If
>> they see how well you play, they might ask you to sub sometime
>> for them, and then you are in. NO ONE just looks in the music
>> union book for a studio musician, as there are TONS of
>> unemployed GREAT players already on waiting lists for the jobs.
>> It's all who you know.
>
>
> I know this thread's been dead a few days, but I wanted to add onto
> this
> now that I'm caught up a bit. First, all of Kelly's points, which I've
> removed here, are great advice. But I want to address this one
> specifically, because I just found myself in this situation.
>
> I have been taking lessons off-and-on with a klezmer clarinet player
> here
> in New York City (just because our schedules never match up). I think
> of
> myself as a decent player, but certainly not professional caliber, by
> any
> means. I'm currently the lead clarinet in the Columbia Klezmer
> Band and the concertmaster of the Columbia University Wind
> Ensemble; not bad groups, but not the big time by any means. However,
> this instructor was writing the music for and playing in an
> off-broadway
> (okay, it needs a few more offs in there to be realistic) show and
> asked
> me if I'd be interested in sitting in as a sub when they couldn't make
> it.
> I was astonished that I would be a top choice for playing an
> honest-to-god
> paying gig on a few sundays this spring, given my (complete
> lack of) experience in the field.
>
> Of course, there was one catch, which brings me to the main point:
>
> My old teacher, the late John Denman, told me that the most useful
> thing a
> clarinet player can know is the opening to Rhapsody in Blue. He said
> that
> he was hired on occassion to play the piece, when a community
> band/orchestra didn't have anyone who could do it well. Stupidly, I
> never
> took his advice. So:
>
> 1) Learn how to play the opening of Rhapsody in Blue, including the
> shmear
> from (fourth line) D to (second ledger) C. It can only help your
> career,
> and it's a great party trick.
>
> What does this have to do with the first story? Well, that's the catch.
> This play has a scene where the clarinet player must do the opening
> from
> Rhapsody in Blue. Can I play it? Nope. Is that a problem? Yup.
>
> But I have a few weeks to learn it before I'll be needed, so I'll have
> the
> time to do it. However, I nearly had to turn down my first real paying
> gig
> because I couldn't play the opening of RiB. What a shame that would
> have
> been.
>
> -jeremy
>
>
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> Jeremy A. Schiffer
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> Columbia University
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