 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ajay
Date: 2007-02-15 21:36
Admittedly the 'YOU' in the title of this thread is slightly misleading, but hey, you're here now so why not read on.
What I'm really asking is what opportunities there are for amateur players to perform to an audience. At the moment I can play in school concerts and stuff, but I'm starting to wonder where I will play when I leave school. Are there lots of places to play, or is it pretty hard going getting a gig?
More importantly, how good do you have to be to get chances to play in public? Currently I am not that good, but I practice a lot, and have already stumbled through grade 7 clarinet. If I were to be grade 8 clarinet and somewhere similar on sax would I be good enough to play in a jazz group? Or if I'm still worrying about grades am I inadequate?
I would be really grateful for anyone who could reply with their own experiences of performance, and any tips on how to get involved in performing.
Thanks for the help.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-02-15 21:45
Actually, I "turned professional" when I was 16. My uncle (a professional musician) asked me to accompany him to one of his gigs at a hotel in the Catskill mountains (New York). I brought my saxophone and clarinet, played a bunch of standards for an hour and was paid $20.
Even today, I still remember his words to me:
"I'll play the first set and then you play the second set - by yourself."
At the end of the night I thought it was unbelievable to do something which was so enjoyable AND get paid for it.
40 years later, I'm still doing it...GBK
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Author: C2thew
Date: 2007-02-15 22:13
wow. where on earth did you pick up all the repetoire to play those standards at the age of 16? i mean surely you had to have had music lessons or a huge library.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. they are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which was already but too easy to arrive as railroads lead to Boston to New York
-Walden; Henry Thoreau
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-02-15 22:20
Most local concert bands (UK) usually expect a standard of around Grade 6, but have a look around to see if there are many in your area, or any Jazz orchestras that will take you on as sax (and chances are you'll be doubling on clarinet as well).
Not only local bands, but there are several Armed Forces (Royal Navy, RAF, Army, Territorial Army) volunteer bands run on most areas for civillians and ex-service personnel, as well as Police bands that do regular concerts and even high profile concerts.
Incidentally, I never did any grades on sax, and got Grade 8 with distinction on clarinet when I was 18, though I've been playing in big bands (on bari sax) since I was 15, and clarinet is my second instrument.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2007-02-15 22:30)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-02-15 22:21
C2thew wrote:
> wow. where on earth did you pick up all the repetoire to play
> those standards at the age of 16? i mean surely you had to
> have had music lessons or a huge library.
I had private (classical) music lessons on clarinet and saxophone since the age of 11, but more importantly my parents, who were not musicians, played records of show tunes and easy listening music constantly at home.
I listened to everything. From Sinatra to Streisand to Lawrence Welk, etc...
I figured out the melodies and memorized them ...GBK
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2007-02-15 23:33
GBK,
I started much like you did but at the Port Clinton Eagles Club in OH the summer of 1953 at the tender age of 15 with the Four Kings of Swing (piano, bass, guitar, and me on tenor). I did learn quite a few standards with that group but I was blessed with a very good ear. I may not have played a number but if I have heard it once, I can pretty well play it.
But then, that whole S. Lake Erie shore was a great vacation area. Lots of bands playing in lots of clubs. Dance halls attracting big bands, lots of places to play, and a pretty good set of chops for a teenager (I slipped in 3 summer at Interlochen during that time) all figured into the mix.
Now I perform regularly with two very fine local collegiate concert bands (one on clarinet the other on sax), play occasionally with the local professional jazz orchestra and the symphony pops, do some gigs but no club work any more, and enjoy performing my own transcriptions of Bach, Vaughn Williams, and others composers' work with piano/organ church players. There are a lot of opportunities for good woodwind players in churches (I have performed in Lutheran, Baptist, and Episcopalian settings).
I enjoy it all but know that sometimes you have to, as always, make your own breaks. Or as Branch Rickey said "Luck is the residue of design."
HRL
Post Edited (2007-02-15 23:35)
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