not worth the money


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Posted by rather not say on April 23, 2002 at 09:21:44:

I got called two weeks ago from a local sessions contractor asking me to play at a local wedding over this past weekend. It paid $300...no rehearsals. I thought, "Yeah, baby!" With the guys who were going to be on the gig, location, etc. this was going to be a very easy $300.

or so I thought...

The groom, a well-known politician in town, had cashed in a lot of favors with his colleagues and had intended his wedding be as much of a sit down concert as it was a marital ceremony. Television news crews were their to cover such a high profile wedding and everything. There were over 30 musicians there to play and the instrumentation was perfect for a small orchestra! And this was exactly what he, the groom, had intended, a small orchestra. He programed over 45 minutes of pieces for us to play during the ceremony alone. Here's where the trouble comes in. We didn't have appropriate music. The brass section was expected to play off of brass quintet music, strings off of string quartet music, and the wind section just had random hand written parts. I don't need to explain to you guys why this wasn't actually going to work very well. After realizing this we, the musicians, all looked at each other dumb-founded. Remember, this was a "sight-reading" gig. Evidently the groom had told the contractor that he had been loaned all of the music that was to be performed by a local Church. As each piece came up during the ceremony, we all agreed on a key, and then we faked it. It was a disaster! I had never been so embarrassed in all my life.





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