Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-04-16 15:12
Wow, I didn't know they had camps. Cool. I'll have to check into that for next year; first I wanna learn how to play actual band music first, which I estimate will take about a year. ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
I sent away for the "Divine Comedy: Symphonic Band Works Of Robert W. Smith" CD, and got all the conductor's scores that goes with it, and then I'm using Finale Notepad to write out the oboe part. I chose this collection of works mainly because my daughter's high school band played "Africa" last year and it was way cool. So I thought I'd learn to play that.
And it's HARD. And it's only level 3.5 or something like that. And except for "Pavane" and "Tempest", all the other songs on there are hard, too. I'm working on "Gathering of the Yeomen" and "In the Bleak Midwinter", which is also way cool, and it's HARD. Reduced-to-tears hard. I know all the music stuff--what's got me flummoxed is being asked to "play fast". I hadn't realized how slow and deliberate all my Hal Leonard playalong-type stuff is; it's obviously geared towards the lowest-common-denominator amateur player, so it's all moderate tempos, and the few sixteenth notes that appear are thus quite easy to play.
And even the Festival Solos books with their playalong CDs take it at moderate tempos, I suppose because they're geared towards sixth and seventh graders who are getting a solo ready for District.
Anyway, my personal benchmark, when I'll feel like I can keep up with a Real Band, will be when I can play "Stars and Stripes Forever", you know those two bits with the eighth notes? The CD I've got, the conductor takes the tempo truly like a bat outta hell, so I figure if I can keep up with him, I can keep up with anybody.
I also wanna learn the Samson and Delilah "Bacchanale", which sounds way cool.
And then I'll feel ready to tackle Real Band Music. Sousa and Saint Saens, what a combo.
Playing chamber music would require that I call the music office of the liberal arts college and make humble inquiries. Which is something that Townies here just don't do. And if they did have the gall to push themselves forward as possible chamber music partners with such exalted beings, they'd better be damn good. Which I'm not.
And anyway, I wanna play in a BAND. I love all that Concert Band stuff that I've been listening to my daughter's band play for years now. That's the music that I wanna sit down with a bunch of people and play. I like Mozart and Telemann well enough, but when it comes to participating, it's band music that turns my crank.
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
