Musical

musical_Kat · Post by **musical_Kat** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:15 pm

atoriphile wrote:
musical_Kat wrote: But for most flute players jumping from Bb to B suddenly is an oh sh*t moment. Especially since you don't typically get the music until you show up for the first full dress rehearsal. It's not like you've gone home with the music and had the time to look it all over to see what you're up against. The fun little sight reading nightmares!
Very true! Another thing I hate is when they don't write the key signature at the beginning of each line.

LOL....oh lord...I hate that too!!

Phineas · Post by **Phineas** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:54 pm

musical_Kat wrote:

But for most flute players jumping from Bb to B suddenly is an oh sh*t moment. Especially since you don't typically get the music until you show up for the first full dress rehearsal. It's not like you've gone home with the music and had the time to look it all over to see what you're up against. The fun little sight reading nightmares!

Very true! Another thing I hate is when they don't write the key signature at the beginning of each line.

LOL....oh lord...I hate that too!!

You folks are funny. On Jazz charts, the only thing that gives you a clue of the key are the chord changes. Half the time there is no key signature.

This is why memorization is as important as sight reading. Also after a while, accidentals will just become second nature.

As far as going from Bb to B natural, I rarely use thumb Bb, so it is an easy transition for me. The hardest transition for me is C, D, Eb, F
or even worse the dreaded F#...lol

I have done my share of playing for shows. Trust me, all of the stuff you thought was so hard will get boring before you know it....trust me!

Phineas

woof · Post by **woof** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:06 pm

[[/quote]

As far as going from Bb to B natural, I rarely use thumb Bb, so it is an easy transition for me. The hardest transition for me is C, D, Eb, F
or even worse the dreaded F#...lol

Phineas[/quote]

Just curious what is everyone's favorite fingering for F#? closed E or D/Db??

flutepicc06 · Post by **flutepicc06** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:48 pm

woof wrote:
phineas wrote:

As far as going from Bb to B natural, I rarely use thumb Bb, so it is an easy transition for me. The hardest transition for me is C, D, Eb, F
or even worse the dreaded F#...lol

Phineas
Just curious what is everyone's favorite fingering for F#? closed E or D/Db??

Well, I wouldn't recommend trying to close the Db key to sound F#, but it really depends on the specific circumstance which one I'll use. If I'm coming from or going straight to an E, and it's relatively fast, I'll probably use the middle finger (E key) of my right hand. Normally I try to use the ring finger (D key), as it offers better pitch and tone. Both options have their place, though. I find the middle finger F# particularly useful in Baroque and classical music, though it's not unusual to see a place you could use it in more modern music as well. There's an article on this topic here that you might find interesting:

http://www.larrykrantz.com/bbf.htm

atoriphile · Post by **atoriphile** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:02 pm

Phineas wrote:As far as going from Bb to B natural, I rarely use thumb Bb, so it is an easy transition for me. The hardest transition for me is C, D, Eb, F
or even worse the dreaded F#...lol

I thought that musical_Kat was referring to the KEY changing from Bb to B suddenly. It sorta messes with your mind going from two flats to all those sharps!

musical_Kat · Post by **musical_Kat** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:20 am

atoriphile wrote:
Phineas wrote:As far as going from Bb to B natural, I rarely use thumb Bb, so it is an easy transition for me. The hardest transition for me is C, D, Eb, F
or even worse the dreaded F#...lol
I thought that musical_Kat was referring to the KEY changing from Bb to B suddenly. It sorta messes with your mind going from two flats to all those sharps!

That's exactly what I was referring too. I've been playing for a long time. I'm fine with accidentals. I don't really need a lecture on scale work.

Another thing that's particularly hard in musical work is trying to work out the cues. The piano is vamping forever and trying to figure out when and where you start after resting for 45 measures is a wee bit tricky.

MeLizzard · Post by **MeLizzard** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:26 am

My husband and I just finished playing The King And I with a very visually confusing conductor!!! We gave up watching and started playing games, like trying to read his mind, and tried to listen to the on-stage performers for cues, because the "conductor" faked us into several wrong entrances. This worked out better than watching, for this show, but it always helps to pay attention to more than just the orchestra's notes. The flute part(s) were not difficult, but the clarinets were seriously bummin'! They had some challenging parts. As well, we were in A major a lot, and usually when we weren't in A, we were in B major!! Therefore, the clarinets played most of the show in B and C# major, which caused them much fingering grief. And these were two pretty accomplished players doing the grumbling.

Overall, it was enjoyable, and it's important to keep playing with other people, not just in a practice room.
P. S. I think my longest break was in 1776, when we had about a 45-minute break at one point! Many jokes were made about going next door for a short beer.

Phineas · Post by **Phineas** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:44 am

musical_Kat

I did not intend for my response to be an insult...lol Geez.

I really struggle hard to make sure that I can play in one key as good as I can in other keys. I even do a lot of practicing with sight transposing. I wind up playing behind a lot of vocalists that love to change keys of tunes at the last minute.

Sorry again for my mis-understanding.

Phineas

Serpentine · Post by **Serpentine** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:41 pm

I did 'Just So' stories and that was brilliant fun! but it was also bloody difficult as there were changes in key signatures at least 4 times per song, and the conductor (who was also filling in the missing bits on keyboard, didn't have a full conductors score, hence no cues.
Also the same conductor (my music teacher) is mad, he chooses on spur of the moment to do things like Haydn's creation mass, and gives you the music a week before the real event, and the orchestra don't meet until the morning of the real thing! That was difficult!
Anyway, back to the question. Try to get a recording of the music you are playing, it helps me.

woof · Post by **woof** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:46 pm

[/quote]

Well, I wouldn't recommend trying to close the Db key to sound F#, but it really depends on the specific circumstance which one I'll use. If I'm coming from or going straight to an E, and it's relatively fast, I'll probably use the middle finger (E key) of my right hand. Normally I try to use the ring finger (D key), as it offers better pitch and tone. Both options have their place, though. I find the middle finger F# particularly useful in Baroque and classical music, though it's not unusual to see a place you could use it in more modern music as well. There's an article on this topic here that you might find interesting:

http://www.larrykrantz.com/bbf.htm[/quote]

Good article and sorry for the typo on the Db key-my brain works slower than my hand....often.

musical_Kat · Post by **musical_Kat** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:25 pm

Well I finished the show last sunday and i'm just getting a chance to post about it. The days of rehearsal were terrible. I've never been hired for a show and brought in on a tech rehearsal that was so unorganized! They were still figuring out set peices and who was using what prop. They were even stopping to re-block the show in quite a few places. We ended up playing Marian the Librarian for about 3 hours because they just couldn't get it together and make it through the scene. It turned into a 12 hour rehearsal with us just sitting there for most of it! They actually never did a full runthrough of the show without stopping less than 5 or 6 times until opening night. I was really expecting the show to be a train wreck but opening night was fabulous. They went through it absolutely perfectly. They hadn't worked out the curtain call until about 10 minutes before they opened the house on opening night and that was without music so we sightread the curtain music in front of a live audiance which was actually kind of fun. The musical director decided to repeat from the beginning in the middle of the song so of course I got completely lost. But that was the fun part. I just adlibed on piccolo for the rest of the song. It was great fun and I was able to play much more interesting licks than what was originally in the music. She liked it so I did it for the rest of the run. Over all it was great. The show was reviewed and they actually mentioned the orchestra. He said "The live band was superb" which is fantastic because the orchestra doesn't usually garner a mention in a review since it's not really about us.

wsFltePicmb09 · Post by **wsFltePicmb09** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:00 pm

from me limited experience i have had with musicals/ theater everything is crazy and everyone expects the pit to get there, play wonderfully, make changes and play cuts that are made during rehearsal well while they run around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get everyone doing whatever it is they are doing... i hate rehearsals/ run-throughs but performances are always interesting...