Sarah's Final Chronicals!

WoodwindDoubler

WoodwindDoubler

March 21, 2009

It is three weeks and 2 days until my final recital at Humber College and I have soooooo much to do.

Organizing a big band is tough enough (I'm doing 3 tunes with a big band), but I decided to be ambitious and put together a large ensemble of some description for the last tune ... an arrangement/orchestration I did of music from John Williams' Catch Me If You Can. (I'm also doing 3 tunes with a quartet/quintet)

Catch Me If You Can is an Alto Feature that the score order is as follows:

Flute 1 / pic
Flute 2
Flute 3
Flute 4
Clarinet 1
Clarinet 2
Clarinet 3 / tenor saxophone
Bass Clarinet

Solo Alto Saxophone

Trumpet 1
Trumpet 2
Trumpet 3
Trumpet 4
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Trombone 3
Bass Trombone

Bass

Vibes/Chimes
Marimba
Glockenspiel

Not only that but the music itself is not friendly to beginning doublers what so ever! So finding players to fill the positions have been a little more difficult!

Getting mallet players has also been difficult - however being the thinking ahead type of person I am, I wrote them in such a way that if I don't have them ... I will be missing the colour (boo) but not notes from chords or parts ... everything is covered.

So far the majority of the instrumentation (except for the mallets) is good to go. But I can't seem to find a bass clarinet player that I can trust to pull it off. The range isn't bad ... it goes from it's low Eb to F top line of the staff (when transposed) ... but off the top it's the only bass voice and there's even spots where it's me (on alto) and only bass clarinet ... sooo I guess we'll see what's what when I have my first rehearsal on Monday!

The biggest time consuming thing is fixing the parts in Sibelius (intersections of stuff etc)!! I'm finished 3/4 charts with fixing parts. I have to do a slight change in my suite from The Incredibles and a big band arrangement of one of my originals.

And then print, tape and rehearse!

That's all for now. I'll be back.

This thread will be good to look back on when it's all said and done and I can say I did it! The other good thing is I'm having it multitracked so I will be able to edit it after the fact and hopefully present some good mixes later on.

Cheers!
 
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Thanks for the words of encouragement Ed!

I'm working with the one day at a time mandate.

I'll come back with updates after a couple of rehearsals :eek:)!
 
Monday March 23


I had my first rehearsal / sectional today!

It went pretty well!! ... If I am so lucky as to have players who rehearse their parts at home. It's going to sound really good.

I am so blessed to have Andy at the helm of the flute section!! It definitely puts me at ease LOL

Countdown: 3 weeks!
 
You know what's awesome? Trying to get 20+ people in the same place at the same time.

In my next life I'm going to be into trios instead of large ensembles LMAO
 
WoodwindDoubler said:
You know what's awesome? Trying to get 20+ people in the same place at the same time.

In my next life I'm going to be into trios instead of large ensembles LMAO
Click to expand...

Yep! Kind of like herding cats! :emoji_rolling_eyes: Hang in there!
 
Long ago and far away, I discovered that having a musical group involves (for me) very little to do with playing music, and a whole lot more to do with heavy lifting, sheet music minding, mother henning people through personnel issues, garment mending for female vocalists during breaks, platform erecting and repairing when setting up on "our excellent stage", electrical troubleshooting and sound system calibrating, financial auditing during tax season and first aid administration as needed or required.

Add to that the need to roust half of my trombone out of restrooms in time for the third set downbeat, and that pretty well sums the management side of things up.

How anyone can make a concert band of fifty or more work when all are volunteer (i.e., not being paid) is beyond me.
 
Slowly but surely :

  • I have waded through all the dates and who can come when and I got subs for people when they can't come
  • I almost have 4 trombones in place and good to go
  • I just need to confirm bass clarinet / vibes and marimba -- everything/one else is good to go
  • I need a piano playerrrrr ... but we'll see.
Now they need to show up and we need to rehearse and things will be finnnnee!!

:emoji_relaxed:

Yay!
 
I'm planning something similar right now, but it's a 40th Reunion show for my A cappella group. It's getting rather frustrating now as the rest of the guys that I currently sing with are rendered worthless. Oh well. Best of luck with all of this, it's exciting to read about.
 
GOOD NEWS EVERYONEEE!!!

My Catch Me If You Can chart is going to be played with the orchestration I intended!!!

I have a players on vibes/chimes, marimba, and glock!!!!

YAY!!!

I just have to secure a piano player .. which I hopeee can happen because assuming he can make the full rehearsals my vibes player is a wicked piano player!

Trumpets are set!
Trombones are shy still
Saxophones are good to go.

ANNNDD I filled out all 8 reed parts!

Although there's still hard work to come ... I feel some of the weight lifting!
 
p.s. for my one rehearsal ... I can't use the Percussion room where the Marimba lives ... and it can't go upstairs where I am rehearsing.

Does anyone know if a marimba part could be played on the vibes? --- obviously there will be totally different sounddd ... but notes wise does it work?
 
WoodwindDoubler said:
I have a players on vibes/chimes, marimba, and glock!!!!
Click to expand...
You have a line that asks for a Glock?
Oh, never mind, I just caught my mind lingering over some forensic novel. :emoji_rolling_eyes:
Anyhow - good job! So I cross my fingers that your efforts pay off.
SOTSDO said:
How anyone can make a concert band of fifty or more work when all are volunteer (i.e., not being paid) is beyond me.
Click to expand...
Hmm. I'd say it is a question of manners and delegation.
I'm in a 40-odd players' band, and each one has their role on and behind the stage. Empty-handed bystanders will promptly be apprehended, there's usually enough to do even for the uninitiated. The one doing the least amount of (dirty) work is the sole one who's paid for the job...go figure.
Maybe we're special, I don't know. It just sort of works here.
 
Well since my last post I've had two rehearsals and everything is going great.

I've had a few issues with 1 or 2 people, but overall everyone is really coming together.

Today was the first time I had Marimba and Vibes ... it was awesome!!!

Tomorrow is my final rehearsal before a quick run through and sound check before the date.

95% of the people will be there tomorrow and I'm VERY excited to hear the charts as they are intended!!

For 3 of the people, tomorrow will be the first rehearsal they will be at, so I am hoping to get some feedback from close friends with fresh ears!

I'll post a debriefing after tomorrow!
 
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