There Is No Gesture

I have many discussions with my fellow band members at Atlantic Brass Band about the subject of musical gestures in brass band contest music, so I thought that there may be some people out there online who might also find my opinion interesting.  Whether you agree with my thoughts or not, hopefully reading this will get you to think about your own philosophy on the subject.
In my mind, there are a lot fewer musical gestures out there in brass band music than we might think, or want to admit.  To me, modern brass band contest literature seems composed so that the very best of the best (sometimes, I think theoretical) band can play it perfectly.  The rest of us fall somewhere in varying degrees short of that often theoretical perfection.
In these most incredibly difficult test pieces that are coming out for championship-level brass bands today, there are plenty of passages that seem simply "unplayable" after a glance or even a month's worth of work.  I think that many people label some of these passages as "gestures," or sections of the piece to get the gist of and move on.  However, when musicians label a difficult passage as a gesture, I see an important mental change happen in the preparation of that section of the piece.  That musician's work on that passage will stop when they get the general idea of the passage, instead of working to get as close as possible to the originally intended notes because it's been labeled a gesture.
I see parallels between test pieces and college admission standardized tests.  Only the very few smartest students and best studiers will get a perfect score on their ACT's or SAT's.  Many students, however, will study on their own or get tutors before they take the tests because even though there will be seemingly impossible questions on those tests, the most diligent students will still want to get the highest score possible.  Simply saying that parts of the test are impossible really isn't the best option for a good score.
In contesting, I try to look at these nearly impossible passages that occasionally appear as more of a "weeding out" passage.  The composer knows that these sections are nearly impossible and put them there to test the ability of the performer.  If everyone could play every note in the whole piece perfectly, it would be impossible for the judges to score.  In reality, the best bands will fall somewhere at the top of the continuum while the struggling bands will fall lower.  The important thing, to me, is to never give up on getting closer to that gold standard of perfection.  I understand that we'll never play every note how we wanted or even sometimes play all of them at all, but we should keep trying.  I also do understand that there are some genuine gestures in contest music, even if I don't think they're as common as we think.  In the end, the word doesn't really even matter.  If a musician can call a difficult passage of music a gesture and continue to work on it to get it as close as the composer intended, great.  But, if it's a mental game of looking at what many would call a musical gesture and refusing to see it as such in order to become a better player, then repeat after me: "There is no gesture."

Where's Your Audience?

I just stumbled upon a great blog that my trombone-playing friend from undergrad just posted.  I think most of us (at least musician folk) understand the usual deal when it comes to bands playing in clubs.  The band gets either a flat rate or a percentage of the door from the night.  There's almost always an added catch: the band has to bring a certain number of people in to the club for the night.  The author of the article, Dave Goldberg, brings up some great points.
First, he points out that the great bands are gigging pretty much every night, so it would be impossible for a band to get their friends and family out to the club every night.  In fact, he says that often it's the newer bands that don't play many gigs that can get their whole entourage to show up.
Second, he says that even if many people do show up, they're following the band, not the venue.  The smart business owner should fill his/her venue up with great acts night after night and build a venue following.  This way, people will keep coming back to the venue and trust that whenever they are there, a great band will be playing.
Lastly, he brings up a good point about the big double standard that musicians have to face.  Does the bartender need to bring his or her friends to the bar?  Does the chef need to have a certain number of people eat his or her meals?  Yet bands have to play for meager pay ($25 a night!?) so that they can get "exposure."
Please read Dave Goldberg's blog post "Why LA Club Owners are Totally Lost and Some Advice for them from a Professional Musician."

Cell Phone Stops New York Philharmonic Mid-Performance

I just read a blog that my friend reposted on Facebook.  To further the spread of the blog, I figured I would repost it on my blog as well.  The following blog post was taken from: Thousandfold Echo.  Please stop by and check out his blog for more good entries!

!@#&^%$!!!!!! (Cellphone halts Mahler’s Ninth mid-movement)

Posted on January 10, 2012 

For those who say that the concert hall needs to loosen up, who want tweet-seats and more technology, be careful what you wish for.

Until today I’ve never been to a concert where a cellphone stopped the orchestra in the middle of a piece, but now I can check that awful milestone off the list.  I’ll try to record it as accurately as I can, with my still-jangling nerves.

It was in the fourth movement.  (Funny how these disturbances never happen in fortissimo passages.)  After the last climax, as the movement begins to wind down, toward that sublime last page of the score where music and silence are almost indistinguishable.  In other words, just about the worst possible moment.  (After a quick check of my Dover score, I think it was about 13 bars before the last Adagissimo.)  [UPDATE: commenters have pointed out that the phone was ringing in louder passages earlier in the movement.]

When we reached that passage, as Alan Gilbert turned to the first violins and the sound grew ever more hushed and veiled, the unmistakable chimes of the iPhone Marimba ringtone resounded loud and clear throughout Avery Fisher Hall.  (Checked on my iPhone afterward to confirm which one it was.)  And it kept on ringing, and ringing.  Gilbert kept on conducting for a few bars, but unbelievably, the sound kept on going.  (Doesn’t this guy have voicemail?)

Of all places, the offender was sitting in the very front row, center section, on the aisle (stage right).  In other words, right in front of the concertmaster.

Finally, Gilbert dropped his hands and stopped the orchestra, turned to the offender, and looked at him.  To everyone’s disbelief, the sound just kept on going, and going.  Someone shouted, “Thousand dollar fine.”

Gilbert said something like, “Are you finished?”  The guy didn’t move a muscle.  Gilbert: “Fine.  We’ll wait.”  And he turned to the podium and lay down his baton.

As the marimba kept on clanging, someone shouted, “Kick him out!”  Another echoed.  Some started to clap.  But then others shushed the hall down, preventing pandemonium from erupting.

Finally, it stopped. Gilbert: “Did you turn it off?”  The guy nodded.  Gilbert: “It won’t go off again?” Another nod.  Gilbert turned to the audience, and said, “Ordinarily in disturbances like these, it’s better not to stop, since stopping is worse than the disturbance.  But this was so egregious, that . . .” (I lost his words here), and the audience burst into boisterous applause.

Gilbert turned to the orchestra, said “Number 118,” and started up again, at the point where the trombones enter fortissimo for the last big climax.  I wish I could say you could have heard a pin drop from then on, but there were a few coughers; this is New York, after all.  Still, there was a palpable sense of tension from orchestra and audience, as Mahler’s Ninth finally found its way home.

–Michael

[UPDATE: I want to clarify that aside from the three shouts I quoted above, the audience was relatively restrained in its reaction; you could sense that people were upset, but they kept themselves under control, and actually shushed the few shouters so that Gilbert could deal effectively with the situation.  This wasn't the concert-hall equivalent of road rage.  Another account at Superconductor corroborates what I saw and heard; see also WQXR's Naomi Lewin here, and two other eyewitness accounts here and here.  Go to Norman Lebrecht's indispensable Slipped Disc (see our blogroll) for some interesting comments on this episode.]

New Online Euphonium Store Just Opened

Last night, I was wondering through Facebook before I went to bed, when I remembered that I had received a notice about a new brass online store that was opening called Euphonic Melodies.  I figured I'd "like" it and check it out before I turned in for the night.  When I "liked" it, the owner, Nicholas Haffter Von Heide, sent me a personal thank you!  We began talking about the brand-new store that he just opened three days ago and his plans for it.

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Nick, the owner of Euphonic Melodies, is an Iraq War veteran who has has also spent some of his time in the military playing euphonium.  He has an undergrad degree in music education and is currently studying music industry and euphonium performance at Texas A&M at Corpus Christi.  Recently, he and his wife decided to make the jump from his previous business, instructing local low brassers, to his new bigger and better online retail business that will ship products anywhere. 

Nick is turning out to be a very hands-on business owner.  He told me about how he wants everyone's suggestions on what we want to see in his online store.  That's because he wants to sell what people want.  Well, there's a product that I've been looking for forever.  My gig bag tarnishes my horn.  I remember that when I got my Besson, it came in a bag that would protect it from things like that.  However, I just moved a few months ago, and in the move, the bag seemed to disappear.  Now, my silver euphonium looks like its 100 years old without its Besson bag!  I put that to the test by suggesting what I thought was an absolutely impossible product to find.   

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"You know those bags that Besson euphoniums come in?  I lost mine and apparently they're not for sale anywhere." I said.

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"Hmmm, maybe I will fabricate a bag then,"he said. It seems like there is a market for that."

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Nick and I are off on a project now.  He's actually going to sew a bag for me to replace the one that I lost.  We're currently talking about fabrics what would be good.  I'm sure I'll test it out on my own horn for awhile.  Maybe in a few months, you'll see a bag that will solve other people's gig bag tarnish issues up for sale on his website!

Nick is up against the odds with his new website.  Starting a new business in any economy is rough, but starting one in a recession is going to be hard.  Similar niche-market websites aren't doing well in this economy.  Solid Brass just went up for sale a few weeks ago.  I think, even though Nick is going against traffic, he does have an edge.  He's so personal with everyone who comes to his website that you can just tell him what you want and he'll get it.  In some ways, this is almost everyone else's opportunity to help him form his new store to what we want it to be.  

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Please stop by his website, Euphonic Melodies, and say "hi".  Even if you don't buy anything, shoot him an email giving him suggestions about what you'd like to see in the store.  I think it would be amazing to flood his inbox with suggestions from my blog readers!  If he's willing to make a custom bag for me, he's probably pretty likely to carry your favorite brand of valve oil!

How to Fall in Love with the Euphonium and Want to Play it Forever

It's been awhile since I have posted on my blog.  It's been a bit of an eventful month and I haven't just forgotten about posting.  Adam and I got married on August 13th and went on our honeymoon in Belize.  Then, we got back right in time for an earthquake and a hurricane.  Now that our basement is almost water-free, I have some time to work on a few more entries in my blog.
I was looking around the internet and happened to find a wonderful resource written by euphonium player Gail Robertson for the 2007 Midwest Band Clinic.  The incredibly cute title drew me in: How to Fall in Love with the Euphonium and Want to Play it Forever.  This cute and informative outline to a seminar that she led outlines reasons why some people may be attracted to playing the euphonium in school bands and why some people may become bored on the euphonium in school bands.  I would think that this would be a pretty good breakdown for band directors who would like to suggest an instrument that would fit each student best.  Then, she has a really pretty comprehensive repertoire list that begins at the sixth grade level and runs through early undergraduate level.  Its comprehensive enough that it would be of use to any private lesson studio teacher to at least take note of.  All in all, this is an outline worth a good look through.

How to Fall in Love with the Euphonium and Want to Play it Forever

Making the Most of Being an Independent Musician - Being Accessible, Personal and Creative

First, let me clarify who the independent musician is.  The definition doesn't involve eyeliner and black clothes and it doesn't include a specific genre.  An independent musician is simply a musician who isn't signed to a record label.  I think that mostly they're portrayed as the underdog.  The minority.  The ones who didn't succeed, and they are just scraping by.  The fact is that independent musicians make more money than any single record company (source: www.berkleemusic.com).  Independent musicians are actually the majority.

So now that you've (probably) identified yourself as an independent musician, how can you make the most of the cards you've been dealt?  I've learned a few things from the music marketing course that I took earlier on in the spring/summer.  While the course was more aimed at musicians in the popular music sphere, I think that they still apply to classical musicians.  I've taken the main points presented by the class and modified the specifics for a classical independent musician.

Be Accessible

Some of the best musicians I've met have locked themselves in the practice room all day.  I think we all know someone who thinks that the only part of being a successful professional musician is playing really well.  While practicing is important, locking yourself up alone in a room all the time doesn't help anyone know who you are and how to hire you for a gig.  If people don't know who you are, they can't hire you.

Also, when looking for musicians for my wedding (coming up in less than a week!) I found that I was much more confident hiring a musician who had a website or information about themselves online.  I ended up hiring the pianist who had clips of himself on Youtube.  I looked for a website, but none of the pianists had one.  Saying that you're a proficient musician only goes so far.  It seems to me that showing someone would be much more convincing.

Be Personal

Big-time musicians don't have time to connect with fans and people who hire them for gigs.  They spend money on advertising and hope that a potential consumer feels a connection to the band through that ad.  I don't know about you, but I don't have the money for a big ad campaign.  The way to getting around this, as I learned in my class, is being personal with the audience.  When my band, The Atlantic Brass Band, sold raffle tickets for the opportunity to conduct the band at the end of the concert, we made a good amount of money.  The concert goers feel connected to the ensemble after a personal experience like conducting a song.  People who have a personal connection are much more likely to come and see the band again.

Be Creative

In our course, we learned about one creative band that asked the club they were playing at if the bouncer could use the band's stamp that night instead of the usual "X." The stamp had the band's website on it.  The next morning, hundreds of people woke up with free advertising on their hand.  Independent musicians don't have the money to splurge on big ads, but they can creatively advertisements can come in many forms, and many are free.  In my class we learned to think about your audience, what makes them happy, and how you can reach them without spending money to put a paper ad in their face.  

These are just three of the benefits that independent musicians have over ensembles or musicians who use the traditional music business model.  If you have any ways that you or your band have put these to use, I'd love to hear about them in a comment!

The Auto-Pilot Warm Up

It's so familiar for me to stand in a band room of any sort and hear everyone warm up at the same time.  It seems like wherever I go, that sound always sounds the same.  The fact is that many people's individual warm up routine also sounds the same each time as well. 

I've started to get requests for me to cover certain topics in my blog now that I have a few regular readers.  One of those questions is about developing volume.  My thought is that the best way to develop more volume (or less volume) is through the warm up.  Many people warm up at mezzo something-or-other.  We are what we eat, er, play.  If you warm up every day in the mezzo range, you will become very comfortable and good at playing in the mezzo range.  If you push the dynamic level to a higher level during your warm up, you'll become better at playing all around in that higher volume level.  Disclaimer: monitor your intonation and support when you change dynamic levels in your warm up.  Practicing loud, out of tune splats will not make you better at playing loudly; it will make you better at producing loud, out of tune splats!

To elaborate more on this, here are some ideas on how to incorporate dynamics into the warm up:

During Long Tones
Disclaimer: Beware of playing long tones at loud dynamics for a long time, especially while playing high long tones.

• Crescendo and decrescendo during the long tones so that you reach either extreme on each note or every other note.
• Play loud long tones in the low range where its easy to feel the bagpipe feeling of emptying the lungs evenly.  Keep each tone steady as possible and use a tuner to make sure that it stays in tune.
• Play long tones as quietly as possible.  Work on eliminating the fuzzy sound that occurs at the lower limit of your own dynamic range.

During Clark Studies
Disclaimer: If you read the actual text in the Clark book, it tells the musician to play these studies as quietly as possible.  They're not kidding, you can hurt your lips if you play these too loudly for too long.

• Play them as quietly as possible and work on eliminating the ghost notes that happen when playing at the very lower limit of your own dynamic range.

During Lip Slurs

• Play the whole lip slur at either the upper or lower limit of your own dynamic range.

• Crescendo or decrescendo the whole lip slur, starting in one dynamic and moving to the other.

During Lyrical Warm Ups

• Play the whole melody at either the upper or lower limit to your own dynamic range.
• If the melody doesn't have dynamics, write them in.  Exaggerate them first and then settle into a normal dynamic range.

 I hope these ideas help with developing a comfort with playing in a louder or softer dynamic range.  If anyone else has any blog ideas or questions they would like answered in a blog, email me or comment on a post!