I left the band

tjontheroad

tjontheroad

Yesterday was my last show with my concert band. And I also agreed to an extended break from my piano duo. I made a not so easy decision to focus my playing efforts on practice time exclusively. I was very active with these two groups. Often playing and/or rehearsing two or three times a week. Not seeing the people I've hung out with so much will be missed.

Doing all that active playing over the last two years has helped me make vast improvements overall with me and my sax. Especially in my reading skills and improvisation. Lately though, I felt like I've been hitting a wall. No longer getting making strides as quickly as before. I need hit the woodshed and lock the door behind me ;) Hopefully emerge a stronger musician.

Wish me luck.
 
Interesting. You're the third musician I know to do this. I'm gonna find out soon if it worked for a friend of mine, a trumpet player. He'd played 3rd and 4th chair trumpet in a semi-pro band for about five years. He really wanted to move up, but it never happened. I'll let you know when I get a response from him how it went. And I will be keen to here your report back in a couple of months.
 
Gandalfe said:
Interesting. You're the third musician I know to do this. I'm gonna find out soon if it worked for a friend of mine, a trumpet player. He'd played 3rd and 4th chair trumpet in a semi-pro band for about five years. He really wanted to move up, but it never happened. I'll let you know when I get a response from him how it went. And I will be keen to here your report back in a couple of months.
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I don't guess I be the last you know to hit the shed. Some areas I want work on are intonation, rhythmic feel with better sense of time and swing, phrasing and solo construction. Put a dose of altissimo on the top that. I also need to listen more to myself via recordings and to others. I can't do all this when I'm always rushing to out the door with my sax. I figure I'll get an extra five hours a week in the shed just from staying home and not in my car. Heck, maybe I'll save enough gas money to buy a new sax :emoji_relaxed:
 
I need the pressure and teamwork of a band to maintain my playing level. No amount of woodshedding gets me to the same level as when I'm playing regularly with others. Oh, I will practice privately to learn a new tune and its harmonies, but for technique, I need to be playing all the time.

I wonder if there might be some underlying reason for you leaving the band. I suspect you're going to miss it. DAVE
 
Dave Dolson said:
I need the pressure and teamwork of a band to maintain my playing level. No amount of woodshedding gets me to the same level as when I'm playing regularly with others. Oh, I will practice privately to learn a new tune and its harmonies, but for technique, I need to be playing all the time.

I wonder if there might be some underlying reason for you leaving the band. I suspect you're going to miss it. DAVE
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I will miss playing out. No question. I'll find my way back over time.

No bigger underlying reason(s) than too little time to do everything I want. There are a couple smaller factors. I am moving next month about 30 -40 miles futher away from where the band reherses and local area they play in. It's already a 45 minute drive one way. It took over an hour and a half to get to last night's show in traffic. Second, I don't feel I'm getting the most out of my twice a month lesson work.

Mostly, I just want to go for broke and see how far I can take it.
 
Dave Dolson said:
I need the pressure and teamwork of a band to maintain my playing level. No amount of woodshedding gets me to the same level as when I'm playing regularly with others. Oh, I will practice privately to learn a new tune and its harmonies, but for technique, I need to be playing all the time.

I wonder if there might be some underlying reason for you leaving the band. I suspect you're going to miss it. DAVE
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I agree totally. The lack of a organized routine leaves me to be less disciplined about practicing .
For me, the biggest problem I have is finding a group of players that are skilled enough, friendly enough,
and have time enough to meet with. Leaving a group that fits these parameters is a tough choice as they
are few and far between. Good luck with your decision, I hope you possess more discipline then I do.
 
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Dave Dolson said:
I need the pressure and teamwork of a band to maintain my playing level. No amount of woodshedding gets me to the same level as when I'm playing regularly with others. Oh, I will practice privately to learn a new tune and its harmonies, but for technique, I need to be playing all the time.

I wonder if there might be some underlying reason for you leaving the band. I suspect you're going to miss it. DAVE
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So I'm not the only one. Plus there is the sense of urgency that comes from having a solo to cover the next week. Don't get me wrong, I'm taking an hour lesson a week too to do the kind of learning that I need outside of a band. But being in a band (or three in my case) drives me to work harder. Like I said, I think it will be interesting to talk to this trumpet guy and see if he did the thangs he wanted to after quitting the regular gigging.
 
tj, I have to agree with what Dave said on this one. I can understand the constraints on your time and energy that comes with all that driving, but I find that my best playing comes in the midst of wild and hectic activity.

There's an old saying in the music business that goes something like, "don't ever quit a band unless you have another band of equal or greater value to replace it with." So basically, don't leave unless you have somewhere better to go. I can understand the long commuting frustration hassle. I've been living in the Hotel Crown Victoria for most of the summer. That's my old raggedy 2000 Ford Crown victoria. But my playing and my sound are coming together with all this activity. As soon as I finish typing this, we're off to Brooklyn for a cheap door gig in a dilapidated theatre. I'm sure that I'll just break even, the bread I make will just cover my gas (the Hotel is pretty thirsty these days) and tolls. But I'll be playing my horn under pressure, and that's what I need to do today.

Man, see if you can find a way to cover both the shed time and the very valuable band experience.
 
You all offer good advise :)

To be clear, I left the band. I didn't quit the band. They'll be very glad to have me come back I know. Or, there's another smaller concert band closer to my new home I may check out soon.

Before I joined the band(s), I was hitting the shed almost everyday for 3-4 hours. I never would have survived playing these groups if I didn't have that discipline before getting out there. I feel good about doing keeping my goals in order going forward. As long as I keep that up, my confidence will be even better afterwards when I jump back into the mix. I have plenty of lesson material and books to go over intensely. In a way, I'm catching up on stuff I should have gotten down already.

This is an experiment for me. If I get bored before too long, I'll get back into the groove asap.
 
There's a band that I've found that's about 20 minutes away from my new home. I've only as of yet looked at their website. Err, they look more like a senior citizen group judging by the photos. I'll still check them out anyway.

Sitting.jpg
 
The more individuals that participate in a given activity (no matter what the activity), the less chance that the group mix is going to be perfectly aligned with a given individual's preferences. Groups, by their very nature, tend to be exclusive to one degree or another.

You have better chances of "harmony" within a small group, but every person that's added (if the group is one that allows more or less "open admission") bumps up the chances of discord not just arithmetically, but geometrically. Seems weird, but that's the way that it works.

A community music group is particularly prone to lower standards in terms of performance. There are those who practice like the devil once they get older, and others that only want the companionship that a such a group can offer. Others are there with their own musical agenda to fulfill, and their level of performance may be better or worse than yours, but odds are that they will be unhappy with you in one way or another. (For example, either you are too good, or not good enough.)

You have three options. You can give up on such groups and go without an outlet for your musical desires. You can join such a group, but silently grouse about how it's not what you want it to be. Or, you can fit in to such a group, dealing with the issues as they arise as being something normal in groups.

No matter what you do, you're not going to be 100% satisfied; nobody ever is.
 
Wow. I just checked out your link, tj, and Barrington is very close to my old stomping grounds. I'm in Somerset, NJ now and work the NYC scene, but I came up in the Hammonton, Atco, Berlin area of S Jersey. So Barrington was very close when I was working the Philly scene.

The Barrington band looks like something worth checking out. I spied a couple of younger looking types in the pictures, and some of the players might be able to connect you with things musical that might be very close to where you live now. When I was coming up, I worked with some very good veteran players that lived in that area, a tenor player named Joe Velardo from around Magnolia, and an altoist from Audibon named Georgie Shaw. These guys could really play!

You also might want to check out my friend Ron Bass who is the saxophone repair tech at Sam Ash in Cherry Hill. Ron is a good tenor player and does good repairs, just a good guy to know.
 
My experience with band is that it's done a tremendous amount for my playing; stuff I can't get by practicing alone. I'd reconsider at least the community band. You can work on the fundamentals and other stuff when you shed the other days.
 
sideC said:
Wow. I just checked out your link, tj, and Barrington is very close to my old stomping grounds. I'm in Somerset, NJ now and work the NYC scene, but I came up in the Hammonton, Atco, Berlin area of S Jersey. So Barrington was very close when I was working the Philly scene.

The Barrington band looks like something worth checking out. I spied a couple of younger looking types in the pictures, and some of the players might be able to connect you with things musical that might be very close to where you live now. When I was coming up, I worked with some very good veteran players that lived in that area, a tenor player named Joe Velardo from around Magnolia, and an altoist from Audibon named Georgie Shaw. These guys could really play!

You also might want to check out my friend Ron Bass who is the saxophone repair tech at Sam Ash in Cherry Hill. Ron is a good tenor player and does good repairs, just a good guy to know.
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I'm in Mt Laurel now. Barrington is also where my brother runs an open mic night in his coffee shop. I get over that way from time to time already. I'm in the Cherry Hill store too often ;) Everything is within easy distance at my new local. I will be checking out the Barrington Band linked above in a month or so. My band experience has been invaluable no question. Still, I've got this urge to shred out my weaknesses. I need work more than I need the work if you get my drift.

Frank, I'm posting less and less. It's making more and more sense.

Cheers,
TJ
 
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