Grierson Days Recordings
Hi there folks. This page will only be here until our next rehearsal. Please give these recordings a listen. Some of it is pretty good… much of it shows big room for improvement. It is my hope that hearing it will help many of you fix some of what needs to be fixed. We have no rehearsal before our next concert on July 3, so it is up to you all as individuals to fix problems. Lets try not to duplicate some of the bigger, more glaring mistakes. It might be fun for everyone to leave your comments here on the site. Rose and I aren’t sure how they work, but we’ll do some experimenting to see if we can get them working well.
I hope you all are having a great summer, and I hope you enjoy giving a listen back to these recordings. Overall good job last week in Jacksonville… you all were great sports handling the crazy weather and last minute changes of plans. Thanks! See you all Friday!
-Todd
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Intonation. Ouch. “ff” sections seemed to have the worst problems.
Vertical alignment problems throughout. Getting the downbeat together was often rough.
Roadmap problems. Just sounded like someone was in the wrong place a couple times.
“Jenny Lind” – the first strain, the melody line is in whatever part the second or third cornet is playing, and hard to hear. Perhaps unfamiliar to some players and they don’t realize what the melody IS.
First Mary Polka, better balance than second sample. More right notes. Except when we left “B” the first time. Roadmap again?
Thanks for providing this feedback mechanism!
oops, there wasn’t supposed to be two “Mary Polkas.” The extra was a test. I went in and deleted it. Thanks for mentioning that, Dawn.
Dawn hit the nail on the head with intonation; from a trumpet section standpoint, balance is a huge issue. I believe we trumpets, instead of listening just in our own little world, can benefit most by listening down the line to the bass for intonation. It sounded like 4 trumpets, not a unified section. Now that we have gotten the ‘first performance’ bugs out, we can afford to get our ears out of the notes in front of us and listen to our Bass friends; they’re layin’ it down for us, all we have to do is ride on top.
As for the balance issue between the trumpets, again, we can afford to listen more down the line- the Eb trumpets do not always have the solo line, and neither do the Bb trumpets; hence why we are called a “Section.” In short, unless you have a solo line only with bass accompaniment, back off and play it lighter…that will help with endurance as well. Also, some of us are playing either clarinet or flute parts, which make the balance and intonation of the group…odd, at best. Lets all continue to listen to the bass voices and adjust to them!
I’m looking forward to playing with you all again!
I’ve been using the recordings to get a little extra “band” practice by playing along with them. For me, this is a great help, not having had as much previous experience with this period music that some of you have. I have noticed one thing though that I’d like to throw out there. We (myself included) were a little sloppy at times with our dotted eighth sixteenths. We must remember not to swing them. Also, I felt the tempo pick up a little at around M 62 of Leonora when we hit the triplets. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but if not, we really need to watch that.
More later… maybe…
I have one suggestion for Todd as well. Maybe you could give us another second or 2 before starting the prep beat on concerts. I had trouble with every entrance at the beginning of the concert. I felt like I wasn’t ready to start, mentally. Of course, the pre-concert nap may have had something to do with that, but I suspect there may have been some nerve issues combined with not being familiar enough with the music as well. You all are welcome to tell me I’m way off base if you don’t agree. I can take it!
For the percussion part only,
I found the missing 7 measures in the Woodman Medley.
Somehow measures 133 thru 147 precede the following 7 measures in the music. When I swap these lines, it works as written. Otherwise I’m playing some other piece of music after measure 125. The recordings help.