Posted by MF on April 25, 2001 at 12:45:07:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: tips from military band members? posted by DZ on April 23, 2001 at 21:12:05:
Hi Dave! Thanks for your comments. The gang says hello!
Believe it or not, one of my “Good-Samaritan” fellow tubists thought it would be humorous to print out my comments about military band auditions and copy them to be passed out to my Army Band colleagues. You can imagine the heat I took from the leadership.
Anyway, I still stand behind my blurb (I’m not sure of the spelling of blurb, and I’ve noticed that some people on this BBS take certain offense to spelling errors, but I’m still not opening my dictionary!), anyway, I feel some clarity about my blurb is perhaps in order.
1) The remarks made refer to my personal experience and are probably unique to my situation. I tend to be overzealous about musical gestures, and therefore go a bit over the top. I’m just encouraging others like me to be wary in military band auditions.
2) There is a difference (all be it slight) between “dumbing down” and playing conservatively. I’m simply preaching that one should perhaps consider bringing in the reigns a bit, so as to be both better in control and perceived as a team player instead of a hot-shot, trigger happy cowboy who is simply OVER THE TOP (that was me--and still is, in solo playing!).
3) I suppose that more than anything, I am preaching CONTROL. The player who may take a musical risk (i.e. really going for a hard attack on a printed FF accent on an G above the staff while playing CC tuba) may be somewhat unsuccessful with accuracy in that range with that kind of accent. Should you go for it? That is up to you and your technique. If the music warrants it in your opinion, then go for it! But if you flub it, the consequences could be detrimental--you are always remembered for your mistakes, unfortunately. So do you go in and play “concert-Bb-Boring?” Certainly not, just play the accent as best you can given your ability and technique. If, however, you really knock the crap out of it AND don’t flub it, the judges may also think, “...hmmm, could I imagine this guy next to me in the section?”
But alas, you can’t get into the business of second-guessing judges. You are quite right about that! I know that I personally would love to hear someone belt out that G with gusto! And if they missed, I’d still give them credit for trying! Now that’s me, and I’ve been on these kinds of committees before. But it’s been my experience that most other members of those committees did not think like I did along those terms.
So, the idea of “be yourself” and “screw ‘em” if they don’t want you” is indeed a good notion and I quite agree with it. It really is musical castration to NOT be yourself at an audition. But is it possible to be a slightly more conservative version of yourself? I don’t know. I don’t know how conservative people are already! I, personally need to play more conservatively...not only have I noticed this from recording my practice sessions, I’ve been told this by committees. Other’s may have quite different situations.
So you can’t 2nd guess committees, and if they don’t want you then who needs them anyway? Right! But somewhere down the line (235 auditions later, perhaps)--one DOES need a job. And if you polled 500 musicians from metropolitan orchestras, Broadway Shows, military bands, and recording studios, I think the numbers would show that not too many musicians are doing exactly what they enjoy doing. But! They are making music for a living and they certainly are not DISsatisfied with their careers--so why not get a little information about the institutions that you are auditioning for prior to the audition. Just like you’d listen to a specific orchestra before you audition for it, it’s a great idea to get an idea of how a military band sounds and how the members in it play. A well informed and educated auditionee always has a leg-up on the person who goes into an audition blind (or deaf, as it were).